The Ribbon Blade

Source: The Stone Fiddle by Paddy Tunney

Location: New Edition, page 143 / 144

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I am a Roman Catholic, Mick Sheridan is my name.

From the chapel in Kallala on a Sunday as I came,

Whom should I spy to my surprise, but Yeomen on parade.

Said the one unto the other: “Yonder comes a Ribbon Blade.”

They all then gathered round me and ordered me to stand.

I didn’t know the reason why they gave such struct command.

At length bold Colston up he spoke and this to them he said:

“Mick Sheridan from Killala he commands the Ribbon Blades.”

They marched me off to Ballina and laid me in a jail,

Where I lay cold and hungry my sad fate to bewail.

And all that time I only saw but one true Irish maid;

O that goodness may reward her for she loved a Ribbon Blade.

They offered me high wages to make discovery,

Or else that they would banish me to my sad destiny.

The answer that I gave to them was this I’m sure I said:

“I’ll be true unto certainty to any Ribbon Blade.”

My sisters are at home, and they sorrow after me.

My mother she is blind and not one styme can see.

My father cries: “My darling boy do not the name degrade,

For discovery you never make on any Ribbon Blade.”

There’s one request I’ll ask of you going up yon gallows high:

I hope my loyal comrades will revenge for me.

That they will have revenge for me when in felon clay I’m laid,

And we’ll let them know before we go, we are true Ribbon Blades.

The dead who died for Ireland,

let not their memory die,

But solemn and bright like the stars of night,

may they be enthroned on high.

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