Black and Tan

Black and Tan

I was born on a Dublin street where the Royal drums do beat
And the loving English feet they tramped all over us,
And every single night that me father'd came home tight
He'd invite the neighbors outside with this chorus:

Come out you black and tans,

Come out and fight me like a man

Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders

Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away,

From the green and lovely lanes in Killashandra.

Come let me hear you tell
How you slammed the great Pernell,
When you fought them well and truly persecuted,
Where are the smears and jeers
That you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of sixteen were executed.

Come out you black and tans,

Come out and fight me like a man

Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders

Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away,

From the green and lovely lanes in Killashandra.

The day is coming fast
And the time is nearly past,
When each yeoman will be cast aside before us,
And if there be a need
Sure my kids wil sing, "Godspeed!"
With a verse or two of Steven Beehan's chorus.

Come out you black and tans,

Come out and fight me like a man

Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders

Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away,

From the green and lovely lanes in Killashandra.

An extra verse in some versions
Come tell us how you slew
Those brave Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows,
How you bravely slew each one
With your sixteen pounder gun
And you frightened them poor natives to their marrow.