Grehan Sisters The Wexford Massacre Lyrics

They knelt around the cross divine The matron and the maid They bowed before redemption's sign And fervently they prayed Three hundred fair and helpless ones Whose crime was this alone Their valiant husbands, sires and sons Had battled for their own

Had battled bravely but in vain The Saxon won the fight The Irish corpses strewed the plain Where valour slept with right And now that man of demon guilt To fated Wexford flew The red blood reeking on his hilt Of hearts to Erin true

He found them there, the young, the old The maiden and the wife Their guardians brave in death were called Who dead fought them the strife They prayed for mercy, God on high, Before Thy cross they prayed But ruthless Cromwell bade them die To glut the Saxon blade
Three hundred fell, the stifled prayer Was quenched in women's blood Nor youth nor age could move to spare From slaughter's crimson flood But nations keep a stern account Of deeds that tyrants do And guiltless blood to Heaven will mount And Heaven avenge it too.