Hamar’s Lament

By Patrick Tunney

Air: “Seán O’Farrell”

In 1920, Hamar Greenwood became the last Chief Secretary for Ireland, the principal minister responsible for Irish affairs. He introduced the infamous Black and Tans to Ireland. In this poem, Patrick Tunney pokes fun at both Hamar Greenwood and Captain John Taylor (Assistant Under-Secretary in Dublin Castle) over the embarrassment that “the prisoners are escaping from the Curragh Camp.”

“Oh, come tell me now” says Greenwood, of the latest news you’ve got,
How the prisoners are escaping from the Curragh Camp at Rath.
“It is” says Captain Taylor, “Through a tunnel, I declare,
For we cannot keep the rebels, in the Curragh of Kildare.
In the Curragh of Kildare, in the Curragh of Kildare,
Faith we cannot keep the rebels, in the Curragh of Kildare.
They will be passed controlling soon, those lawless rebels clans,
By the way they knocked our barracks down and killed our Black and Tans.
We have many deadly weapons and barbed wire everywhere,
And still they are escaping from the Curragh of Kildare.
Oh, they burned our Dublin Custom House and wrecked our courts of law,
Then before we are all slaughtered, says Hamar “we’ll withdraw.”
They went underground like rabbits, when captured in a snare,
And still they are escaping from the Curragh of Kildare.
Then they mobilised great ruffian gangs, as you can plainly see,
To kill our darling bards and our gorgeous R.I.C.
King George may protect us, we are driven to despair,
For we cannot keep the rebels, in the Curragh of Kildare.