The Green Fields of France - Ronan Tynan

Ronan Tynan singing The Green Fields of France. Written By Eric Bogle. in concert in Ellis Island.

Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride,
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
And rest for awhile neath the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you our only 19
When you joined the great fallen in 1916,
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the 'death march' as they lowered you down?
did band play The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some fateful heart is your memory enshrined?
And, though you died back in 1916,
in that fatal heart are you forever 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Enclosed in forever behind a glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the pipe lowly?
Did they sound the 'death march' as they lowered you down?
Did band play The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

The sun now it shines on the green fields of France;
there's warm summers breeze, it makes red poppies dance.
And look how the sun comes from under the clouds;
there's No gas no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land
the countless white crosses lie mute in the sand
to man's blind indifference to his fellow man.
To a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the 'death march' as they lowered you down?
Did band play The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

Young Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why,
Do all those who lie here why they died?
Did you really believe when they told you "The Cause?"
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the sorrow, the suffering the glory, the pain
The killing, and dying, was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
again, and again, and again, and again.

Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the 'death march' as they lowered you down?
Did band play The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?