This is one of my favorite Irish Rebel songs, full of insults and curses. It was a coded message, the Drake being a reference to Robert Emmet (1778-1803). Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers recorded it once, but here’s a decent version.
If you can’t read it proper, here’s the transcription, with explanatory footnotes compiled with help on the Irish slang from Mr. Eoin Shalloo, Curator of Rare Books, National Library of Scotland, after the break.
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