Who Fears to Speak of '98 Songtext
von Declan Hunt

Who fear to speak of ′98, who blushes at the name
When cowards mock the patriot's fate, who hangs his head for shame
He′s all in name half a slave who slights his country thus
But true men like you men will fill your glass with us

We drink the memory of the brave the fateful and the few
Some lie far off beyond the waves some sleep in Ireland too
All are gone but still lives on the fame of those who died
All true men like you men remember them with pride


Some on the shores of distant lands their weary hearts of late
And by the stranger's heedless hands their lonely graves were made
But though their clay be far away beyond the Atlantic foam
In true men like you men their spirit's still at home

The dust on some is Irish earth among their own they rest
And the same dear land that gave them birth has cut them to her breast
And we will pray that from their clay whole many a race may start
Of true men like you men to act as brave a part

They rose in dark and evil days to right their native land
And they kindled here a living blaze that nothing shall withstand
Alas that might can vanquish right they fell and passed away
But true men like you men are plenty here today


Then here′s to their memory may it be for us a guiding light
To cheer our strike for liberty and teach us to unite
Through good and ill be Ireland still though sad as theirs your fate
And true men like you men like those of ′98