Page:A Tribute and a Claim.djvu/1



They came from North and South From all the Land they came: And they went forth Yes, forth they went, Not from a partitioned Territory Or dismembered State. But from an integral isle that Down the ages Held staunchly to ancient standards Of primordial right and kingly rule.

Theirs the brave, high spirit of a warrior race That no shallow spites or poisonous hates Or gaunting jibes Could curb or leash, When right and freedom were in jeopardy.

No narrow creed was theirs, no paltering thoughts of self. They offered all that man can give, The white sacrifice of their lives That Liberty and Right and Freedom May shower their mystic mercies over all the lands And men and women walk the earth In meekness and in righteousness.

They came from North and South, From South and North they came, The proud heirs of Eire’s tested valour. Though helmeted in all the panoply of modern armour Their breast-plates still the flowering Chivalry of the Red Branch And their pinions those that winged the Wild Geese On their glorious ways of honour and renown. So forth they went To fight the world’s fight ‘Gainst the dread Dragon Beast of tyranny and terror: That its monstrous shape should ne’er again Affright the innocent, the weak and unoffending of the human race.

They came from Bantry and from Donegal, From all the scattered plains and lowly hamlets in between, From beauteous Wicklow Vales and lovely Antrim Glens, Some trudged with broken boots and blistered feet, Obedient to the fiercely-burning inward urge, To fulfil themselves unto themselves And yielding all gain all That it is given men to win In fulfilment of the Divine Law of Greater Love.