The Patriot

Be Jases, before ye inter me
    I’ll show ye all up!
I’ve everything stored in me memory,
    Facts, figures enough
Since I first swore an oath of allegiance
    As a patriot boy
To avenge me maternal grandfather
    They hanged at Fermoy.

Ye slink away when ye see me—
    Ye know that I know!
That I’ve everything sifted and sorted,
    Your motives so low,
Every detail of cowardly behaviour,
    From Healy that ran for his life
The night they murdered the peeler
    To Leahy that married his wife.

Some think when the sod is laid on them
    They’re finished with me,
But little they know me, the traitors,
    I’ll drag them, you'll see,
To my own private General Judgment,
    I’ll sit on my throne—
The Almighty may choose to give mercy,
    But I will give none.

Ye think ye'll escape me?
    ’Tis true that my sight’s a bit shook,
I was never no hand with a pen;
    But I'll write one terrible book
Before, with gun-carriage and pipers—
    Ye dastardly crew !—
Ye bring to his grave in Glasnevin
    The one man that was true.



Source: O'Connor, Frank; Three Old Brothers and Other Poems; 1936;
London; Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd.; p.16