THE FOGGY DEW

LISTEN! Midi
(Undoubtedly the most poignant of all 1916 songs
about the Easter rising. Words by Canon Charles O'Neill.
The tune is from an old love song.
Suvla was a Middle Eastern battlefield.)

1.Twas down by the glen one early morn to a city fair rode I.
When Ireland's lines of marching men in squadrons passed me by.
No pipe did hum nor battle drum did sound its dread tattoo,
But the Angelus bell o're the Liffey's swell rang out through the Foggy Dew.
2.Right proudly high over Dublin town they flung out a flag of war;
Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky than at Suvla or Sud El Bar.
And from the plains of Royal Meath strong men came hurrying through
While Brittania's huns, with their long range guns, sailed in from the Foggy Dew.
3.Twas England bade our Wild Geese go that small nations might be free;
But their lonely graves are by Suvla's waves on the fringe of the great North Sea.
But had they died by Pearse's side or fought with Valera true,
Their graves we would keep where Fenians sleep 'neath the shroud of the Foggy Dew.
4.Ah, back through the glen I rode again, and my heart with grief was sore.
For I parted then with valiant men whom I never shall see more.
But to and fro in my dreams I go, and I'd kneel and pray for you,
For slavery fled, O glorious dead, when you fell in the Foggy Dew.

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