Wearing Of The Green

Oh! Paddy dear and did you hear the news that's going round?

 

The shamrock is forbid by law to grow on Irish ground.

 

Saint Patrick's day no more we'll keep, his color can't be seen,

 

For there's a cruel law agin' the wearing of the green.

 

I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand,

 

And he said how's poor ould Ireland, and how does she stand?

 

She's the most distressful country that ever you have seen;

 

They're hanging men and women there for wearin' of the green.

 

Then if the color we must wear is England's cruel red,

Sure, Ireland's sons shall ne'er forget the blood that they have shed.

You may take the shamrock from your hat and cast it on the sod,

But 'twill take root and flourish there, though underfoot 'tis trod.

 

When laws can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow,

And when the leaves in summertime, their verdure dare not show,

Then I will change the color that I wear in my caubeen

But till that day, please God, I'll stick to wearin' of the green.

* “The Wearing of the Green" is an anonymously-penned Irish street ballad dating to 1798. The context of the

song is the repression around the time of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Wearing a shamrock in the "caubeen"

(hat) was a sign of rebellion and green was the colour of the Society of the United Irishmen, a republican

revolutionary organisation. During the period, displaying revolutionary insignia was made punishable by

hanging. – en.wikipedia.org