The Ballad of D. D. Sheehan
- THE BALLAD OF D. D. SHEEHAN
by D. D. Sheehan BL MP
An election broadsheet composed to promote Sheehan as candidate on the occasion of both
the January 1910 and the December 1910 general elections in Ireland. It was published in the Cork Accent newspaper 28 January 1910.
Men of mid-Cork prepare yourself before it is too late
And prove to Josie Devlin that you will not tolerate
To be represented by a henchman of his choice
But send him back from where he came in no uncertain voice.
Say who is Billy Fallon or who heard of him before
From the village of Kilmichael to the cross at Donaghmore
Or far famed Ballingeary all over dell and glen
By the River Lee to Inniscarra where brave Mackey drilled his men.
When the sheriff and his agent and the burly peelers came
To hunt you from your homesteads in the King of England's name
Who was foremost in the struggle to stop that hellish work
But the gallant D. D. Sheehan ever member for mid-Cork.
Who negotiated purchase and secured you in your land
Free forever from the bailiff or the cruel eviction band
And brought joy and consolation to your children and your wives
Which they ever will remember to the finish of their lives.
Who obtained commodious dwellings for the hardy sons of toil
Not alone in this division but throughout the Holy Isle
For that very Act of Parliament would never see the loom
But for Mr. D. D. Sheehan and O'Brien at Macroom.
And will you now abandon him and let yourself be fooled
By that milk and water turncoat whose known as Dr. Goold
Or that sanctimonious auctioneer, that hypocrite squireen
The likes of which our county Cork had better never seen.
Shout it back to Josie Devlin and his standing committee
To the laity and the clergy of every degree
That no power can damp your gratitude that burns in your souls
When you boldly vote for Sheehan and elect him at the poles.
Epilogue:
Mid-Cork sent its answer right back to the mob
With that young fellow Fallon who was seeking the job
That they wanted no Mollie to be their MP
They had what they wanted, and that was D. D.
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