You'll Never Beat The Irish (History of Ireland pt 1)
You'll Never Beat The Irish Part 1
In 1167 they came to Ireland on the make they were followed by invasions and by conquests in their wake the kings and queens of England made our land a battle ground they took our land, by fraud defeat, by poison murder and deceit
Murder plunder faugh a balla clear the way cheating stealing diddle idle de ducking diving faugh a bala clear the way diddlily i dle de di diddly idle do
By the 15th century they held precariously to The Pale the invaders were more Irish than the Irish that's the tale, a fat greedy king called Henry his dick was bigger than his brain imposed on us his Reformation confiscations and usurpation
You'll never beat the Irish no matter what you do you can put us down and keep us out but we'll come back again you know we are the fighting Irish and we'll fight until the end you should have known you'll never beat the Irish
Then the virgin Queen Elizabeth brought war and turmoil to our land she decimated Munster scorched the earth and all at hand, then James 1st and Charles the mad brought out other greedy bands they took the land of Ulster killed the chieftains poisoned plundered
Murder plunder faugh a balla clear the way cheating stealing diddle idle de ducking diving faugh a bala clear the way diddlily i dle de di diddly idle do
By fraud and defective titles they cheated Connaught and the west across the seventeenth century from war we had no rest for the curse of Cromwell plagued the land till our towns were red with blood then the Battle of the Boyne was fought by William, James and foreign hoards
You'll never beat the Irish no matter what you do you can kill us off and put us down but we'll come back again and exterminate us too we are the fighting Irish we'll fight untill the end you should've known You'd never beat the Irish
INFORMATION:
We need 150+ pages to tell the story of Ireland, while Brian Warfield manage to cram eight centuries of Irish history in one song (split over three parts though).
If the verse starting with "You'll never beat the Irish / no matter what you do" sounds very familiar you are probably a sports fan. Since the 2002 World Cup this verse occasionally pops up during international football and soccer matches (except those organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association, GAA, of course).
The expression "faugh a balla" is the Anglicised form of Fág an Bealach. This yell, usually translated as clear the way, was used by the Royal Irish Fusiliers and the Irish Brigades, among which the Fighting 69th.