Henry's Songbook

Chorus:
And we're all off to Dublin in the green, in the green
Where the helmets glisten in the sun
Where the bayonets flash and the rifles crash
To the rattle of a Thompson gun

Oh I am a merry ploughboy and I ploughed the fields all day
Till a sudden thought came to my head that I should roam away
For I'm sick and tired of slavery since the day that I was born
And I'm off to join the IRA, and I'm off tomorrow morn

I'll leave aside my pick and spade, I'll leave aside my plough
I'll leave aside my horse and yoke, I no longer need them now
And I'll leave aside my Mary, she's the girl that I adore
And I wonder if she'll think of me when she hears the rifles roar

And when the war is over and dear old Ireland is free
I'll take her to the church to wed, and a rebel's wife she'll be
Well, some men fight for silver and some men fight for gold
But the IRA are fighting for the land that the Saxons stole

(as sung by The Dubliners)

Tune: The Jolly Ploughboy

[1965:] This song is modelled on the English version that sings the glory of the British Tommy. The tune is The Jolly Ploughboy of course. (Paddy Tunney, notes Dominic Behan, 'Easter Week and After')

[1973:] (Original: The Merry Ploughboy
   Hurrah for the scarlet and the blue, and the blue
   Helmets glittering in the sun
   And the horses gallop like lightning
   With a 15-pounder gun
   And no more will I go harvesting
   Or gathering the golden corn
   For I've been and took the shilling
   And I'm off tomorrow morn

Oh I once was a merry ploughboy I was a-ploughing of the fields all day
Till a very funny thought came to me that I should roam away
For I'm sick and tired of country life since the day that I was born
So I've been and joined the RHA and I'm off tomorrow morn

I've laid aside my pick and spade and I've laid aside my plough
And I've laid aside my two-tined fork, I shall not want it now
For there's little sport in England up in the Yorkshire dales so high
And beneath the king's own standard, aye, we'll conquer or we'll die

But there's one thing I must tell you of the girl I leave behind
And I hope she will prove true to me and I'll prove true in kind
And when I do return again a sergeant's wife she'll be
With three gold stripes across my arm in the Royal Horse Artillery)

These days the parody, supposedly written by Dominic Behan when he was but twelve years old, is better known than this untypically patriotic song of the joys of military life. It is easy to see how RHA became IRA in the Irish rebel version. The song is believed to have been composed originally by John J. Blockley in the 1870ies [...]. (Dallas, Wars 18)

[1977:] The Irish parody, Off to Dublin in the Green, dates from 1916. (Palmer, Soldier 60)

[1994:] [In autumn 1971,] The Dubliners cancelled a concert in Lancashire rather than submit to a request to drop two songs which were old favourites but considered unacceptable in the new climate [two years into the latest Irish 'troubles']: The Wearing of the Green and The Merry Ploughboy, with its rollicking line about the rattle of a Thompson gun. (Geraghty, Luke Kelly 120)