Sung lustily and heartily by rebels the length and breath of this island, the Wolfe Tones rebel rouser ‘Come out Ye Black and Tans’ has climbed to the top of both the Irish and UK iTunes charts afterv plans for a controversial commemoration of the Royal Irish Constabulary were shelved by the Government following widespread condemnation from far and wide.
Several Independent ministers swiftly said that would not attend the event, while Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the event was an “error in judgement” by the Government.
The under-fire Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan in the end gave in to calls for the commemoration to be called off, despite fervantly denying that it amounted to a celebration of the infamous Black and Tans, loathed by generations of Irish for a century.
Come Out Ye Black n Tans No. 1 in Ireland, No. 3 in Britain … Fine Gael got their answer …. https://t.co/3rOa8XiyEN
— The Wolfe Tones 🇮🇪 (@wolfetones) January 9, 2020
The band supported calls for the event to be cancelled and shared a link to a petition against the commemoration on Twitter.
They murdered and terrorised our country 100 years ago as they tried to oppress Irish independence … now our government want to commemorate the RIC/Black n Tans … https://t.co/PQOj2bEUih
— The Wolfe Tones 🇮🇪 (@wolfetones) January 7, 2020
‘Come out Ye Black and Tans’ is credited to musician Dominic Behan as a tribute to his father Stephen, and was released by the band in 1972.
The lyrics include references to Irish nationalism and refers to the Black and Tans of the War of Independence era. It links the Irish experience with other peoples’ struggles against the torture of the hated British Empire.
And those loving English feet they tramped all over us,
And each and every night when me father came home tight
He’d invite the neighbors outside with this chorus:
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders,
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra.
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows,
How you bravely faced each one with your 16-pounder gun,
And you frightened them poor natives to their marrow.
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders,
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra.
When you thought him well and truly persecuted,
Where are the sneers and jeers that you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of ’16 were executed?
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders,
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra.
When each yeoman will be cut aside before us,
And if there be a need, sure me kids would sing, “Godspeed, “
With a verse or two of Stephen Behan’s chorus:
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders,
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra.
