Come Out, Ye Black and Tans
Irish Rebel Song
Come Out, Ye Black and Tans is an Irish rebel song referring to the Black and Tans, who were "special reserve constables" (mainly former World War I army soldiers), recruited in Great Britain and sent to Ireland from 1920, to reinforce the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during the Irish War of Independence. The song was written by Dominic Behan as a tribute to his Irish Republican Army (IRA) father Stephen, who had fought in the War of Independence, and is concerned with political divisions in working-class Dublin of the 1920s. The song uses the term "Black and Tans" in the pejorative sense against people living in Dublin, both Catholic and Protestant, who were pro-British.
The melody of the song was adapted by Behan from an old air, Rosc Catha na Mumhan (Irish for "Battlecry of Munster"), by Piaras Mac Gearailt (Pierce FitzGerald, c. 1709 – c. 1792), which is also ironically used by the loyalist song, The Boyne Water.
I was born on a Dublin street where the Royal drums the beat
And the loving English feet they went all over us
And every single night when me da' would came home tight
He'd invite the neighbors out with this chorus
Come out ye 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 IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra
Come tell us how you slew them old Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears, bows and arrows
How brave you faced one with your 16-pounder gun
And you frightened them natives to their marrow
Come out ye 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 IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra
Come let us hear you tell how you slandered great Parnell
When you fought them well and truly persecuted
Where are the sneers and jeers that you loudly let us hear
When our leaders of sixteen were executed?
Come out ye 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 IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra
Come out ye 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 IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra