By perjury and fraud
By slaves, who sold for place or gold,
Their country and their God ;
By all the savage acts that yet
Have followed England's track,
The pitchcap and the bayonet-
The gibbet and the rack ;
And thus was passed the Union
By Pitt and Castlereagh ;
Could Satan send for such an end
More worthy tools than they ? II. How thrive we by the Union ?
Look round our native land :
In ruined trade and wealth decayed
See slavery's surest brand ;
Our glory as a nation gone,
Our substance drained away-
A wretched province trampled on,
Is all we've left to-day.
Then curse with me the Union,
That juggle foul and base,
The baneful root that bore such fruit
Of ruin and disgrace. III. And shall it last, this Union,
To grind and waste us so !
O'er hill and lea, from sea to sea.
All Ireland thunders, No !
Eight million necks are stiff to bow
We know our might as men-
We conquered once before, and now
We'll conquer once again ;
And rend the cursed Union,
And fling it to he wind-
And Ireland's laws in Ireland's cause
Alone our hearts shall bind, I am, Gentlemen, Yours, &c,
OBSERVER. Notes From the South Australian Newspaper The South Australian Register 13 Dec 1930 p. 2. Another example of a song composed in Ireland during the terrible famine years, and published in an Australian newspaper.