Sean South of Garryowen --- Sean Costello
Historical note: On New Year’s Day of 1957, a group of IRA Volunteers led by Sean South attempted to storm the RUC barracks at Brookeborough in County Fermanagh. The attack failed and Sean South and Fergal O’Hanlon were killed in action. This song tells Sean’s story and The Patriot Game tells the same story from Fergal’s point of view. I don’t know of any song that tells the story from the British side.
Spoken:
Sad are the homes
‘round Garryowen since lost their giants’ pride.
And the Bean-sidhe
cry links every vale around the Shannon side.
That city of the
ancient walls, the broken Treaty Stone,
Undying fame
surrounds your name --- Sean South of Garryowen.
‘Twas [D]on
a dreary New Year’s Eve as the [G]shades
of night came [D]down.
A lorry load of [G]Volun-[D]teers
approached the border [A7]town.
There were [D]men
from Dublin [G]and from [D]Cork,
Fermanagh [G]and Ty-[A7]rone,
But the [D]leader
was a Limerick man, Sean [G]South of
Garry-[D]owen.
And [D]as
they moved along the street, up [G]to the
barracks [D]door,
They scorned the danger [G]they
they might [D]meet, the fate that lay in
[A7]store.
They were [D]fighting
for old [G]Ireland’s [D]cause.
To claim their [G]very [A7]own,
And the [D]foremost
of that gallant band was Sean [G]South of
Garry-[D]owen.
But the [D]sergeant
foiled their daring plan; he [G]spied
them through the [D]door.
From the Sten guns and the
[G]ri-[D]fles
a hail of death did [A7]pour,
And [D]when
that awful [G]night was [D]past,
two men lay as [G]cold as [A7]stone.
There was [D]one
from near the border and [G]one from
Garry-[D]owen.
No [D]more
he’ll hear the seagull’s cry o’er the [G]murmering
Shannon [D]tide,
For he fell beneath a [G]northern
[D]sky, O’Hanlon by his [A7]side.
They have [D]gone
to join that [G]gallant [D]band
of Plunkett, [G]Pearse and [A7]Tone.
A [D]martyr
for old Ireland was Sean [G]South of
Garry-[D]owen.