Come out Ye Black & Tans - The Davitts

I was born on a Dublin street where the Royal drums did beat,

And the loving English feet walked all over us;

And every single night, when me Da would come home tight,

He’d invite the neighbours outside with this;

Come out you Black and Tans;

Come out and fight me like a man;

Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders;

Tell her how the I.R.A.

made you run like hell away

From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.

Come, let us hear you tell

How you slandered great Parnell,

When you thought him well and truly persecuted,

Where are the sneers and jeers

That you lovely let us hear,

When our heroes of sixteen were executed.

Oh, come out you Black and Tans;

Come out and fight me like a man;

Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders;

Tell her how the I.R.A.

made you run like hell away

From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.

Come, tell us how you slew

Them ol' Arabs two by two;

Like the Zulus, they had spears and bows and arrows;

How you bravely faced each one,

With your sixteen pounder gun,

And you frightened them poor natives to their marrow.

Oh, come out you Black and Tans;

Come out and fight me like a man;

Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders;

Tell her how the I.R.A.

made you run like hell away

From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.

Ah, the time is coming fast

And I think those days are here,

When those English johnnies heels will run before us;

And, if there be a need,

Then our kids will say «Godspeed!»,

With a verse or two of singing this fine.

Oh, come out you Black and Tans;

Come out and fight me like a man;

Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders;

Oh and how the I.R.A.

made you run like hell away

From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.

Oh, come out you Black and Tans;

Come out and fight me like a man;

Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders;

Oh and how the I.R.A.

made you run like hell away

From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.