The St. Patrick Battalion - David Rovics

My name is John Riley

I’ll have your ear only a while

I left my dear home in Ireland

It was death, starvation or exile

And when I got to America

It was my duty to go

Enter the Army and slog across Texas

To join in the war against Mexico

It was there in the pueblos and hillsides

That I saw the mistake I had made

Part of a conquering army

With the morals of a bayonet blade

So in the midst of these poor, dying Catholics

Screaming children, the burning stench of it all

Myself and two hundred Irishmen

Decided to rise to the call

From Dublin City to San Diego

We witnessed freedom denied

So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion

And we fought on the Mexican side

We marched 'neath the green flag of Saint Patrick

Emblazoned with «Erin Go Bragh»

Bright with the harp and the shamrock

And «Libertad para la República»

Just fifty years after Wolftone

Five thousand miles away

The Yanks called us a Legion of Strangers

And they can talk as they may

From Dublin City to San Diego

We witnessed freedom denied

So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion

And we fought on the Mexican side

We fought them in Matamoros

Where their volunteers were raping the nuns

In Monterey and Cerro Gordo

We fought on as Ireland’s sons

We were the red-headed fighters for freedom

Amidst these brown-skinned women and men

Side by side we fought against tyranny

And I daresay we’d do it again

From Dublin City to San Diego

We witnessed freedom denied

So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion

And we fought on the Mexican side

We fought them in five major battles

Churubusco was the last

Overwhelmed by the cannons from Boston

We fell after each mortar blast

Most of us died on that hillside

In the service of the Mexican state

So far from our occupied homeland

We were heroes and victims of fate

From Dublin City to San Diego

We witnessed freedom denied

So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion

And we fought on the Mexican side