Page:A Tribute and a Claim.djvu/2

 And so they came, and forth they went, Those warrior sons of Eire, To battle for the right On land and sea and air They wrote their blazing scripts of gallantry That shall endure while men love noble deeds And tell the tales of rushing tides of battle. The full telling of their glory and their valour Is yet not done nor ever shall be         Since, for every tale that finds the fixed imperishability of print And the proud prominence of the living page There are countless deeds as brave Hidden away in secret shade Until they come to light again, On the great unfolding and revelation of Resurrection Day.

Oh ! hide your heads in shame, you Croaking sarpers of a narrow creed, Who would deny to Ireland The golden glory of those shining deeds That, by their brightness have done more To root out of human hearts The dark shadows of a darker age Than all the preachings of well-intending missioners of peace and love Twixt Sassenach and Gael, For the deed lives while the word is oft-time wasted on the wind: And the supernal splendour of their valour Is as the sunburst rising from the sea Scattering the shadows of a long and evil night.

Retire ye to your tents of shame You puny prattlers Who would debase the golden coinage of their heroism Of that wondrous loyalty and deep devotion That sanctified the Common clay of man And gave to life the privilege of dying That Truth and Liberty and Honour may survive.

We take pride in that From North and South they came From South and North came they And forth they went Went to where danger shone with dazzling brightness Flinging its challenge to their dauntless hearts. And answered Eugene Esmonde and the other gallant men of Eire Who, winging through the lightning shafts of war, Won a splendid immortality And, dying, left a deathless heritage To their race and motherland. Such hallowed glory ‘tis That make men bare their heads in pride and reverence For this magnificent redemption of a Nation’s honour.

Their earthly flame went out, but their spirits release Set new suns in the heavens to light the darkness of our days And to cement that finer feeling of brotherhood and understanding That sweetly and surely is growing Through the rotting roots of olden hates, Until its incense shall dispel The noxious fumes of cancerous spleens, And best forgotten ills.