Sean South of Garryowen
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Sean South of Garryowen is a song about Seán South, a member of the Pearse Column, who was fatally wounded during the attack on Brookeborough barracks in 1957. It is sung to the same tune as Roddy McCorley
Contrary to popular belief, South was not actually from the area of Garryowen, this being poetic licence on the part of the writer. The song was written almost directly following the incident by Seamas O' Dufaigh, of Aghamor, Co. Mayo. Seamus was interviewed on the TG4 Gaelic language program "Comhra," on 13 February 2008.
[edit] Lyrics
The song is usually sung with a poem, which goes
- Sad are the homes 'round Garryowen
- Since lost their joy and pride.
- And the banshee cry links every vale
- around the Shannon side.
- That city of the ancient walls
- unbroken Treaty Stone,
- undying fame surrounds your name
- Sean South of Garryowen.
Song
- 'Twas on a dreary New Year's Eve.
- As the shades of night came down.
- A lorry load of volunteers approached a border town.
- There were men from Dublin and from Cork
- Fermanagh and Tyrone
- and the leader was a Limerick man,
- Sean South from Garryowen.
- And as they moved along the street
- up to the barracks door
- They scorned the danger they might meet
- their fate that lay in store.
- They were fighting for old Ireland's cause
- to claim their very own,
- And the foremost of that gallant band
- was South from Garryowen.
- But the sergeant foiled their daring plan,
- he spied them through the door.
- The Sten guns and the rifles
- hail of death did pour/roar.
- And when that awful night was passed
- Two men lay cold as stone
- There was one from near the border/County Monaghan,
- and one from Garryowen
- No more he will hear the seagull's cry,
- or the murmuring Shannon tide.
- For he fell beneath a northern sky
- brave O'Hanlon by his side.
- They have gone to join that gallant band
- Of Plunkett, Pearse, and Tone.
- Another martyr for old Ireland,
- Sean South from Garryowen.
There is an additional verse to the sung which, if used, is inserted as the penultimate verse, or sometimes used instead of the spoken poem/verse at the beginning:
- May God shine on those gallant men,
- may Heaven be their home.
- Was in Brookeborough Town where they were shot down,
- in a cabin they laid cold.
- May they never fear the R.U.C.,
- or B-Men on patrol.
- O'Hanlon from the Border,
- Sean South from Garryowen.
