Follow Me Up To Carlow

Patrick Joseph McCall

Lift MacCahir ogue your face
Brooding o’er the old disgrace
That black FitzWilliam stormed your place
Drove you to the Fern
Grey said victory was sure
Soon the Firebrand he’d secure
Until he met at Glenmalure
With Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne

Curse and swear Lord Kildare
Feagh will do what Feagh will dare
Now FitzWilliam, have a care
Fallen is your star, low
Up with halbert out with sword
On we’ll go for by the Lord
Feagh MacHugh has given the word
Follow me up to Carlow

See the swords of Glen Imayle
Flashing o’er the English Pale
See all the children of the Gael
Beneath O’Byrne’s banners
Rooster of the fighting stock
Would you let a Saxon cock
Crow out upon an Irish rock
Fly up and teach him manners

From Tassagart to Clonmore
There flows a stream of Saxon gore
Och, great is Rory Oge O’More
At sending the loons to Hades
White is sick and Lane is fled
Now for black FitzWilliam’s head
We’ll send it over, dripping red
To Queen Liza and the ladies

In 1580, at the pass of Glenmalure in Co. Wicklow, Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne overcame the forces of the Crown under Lord Grey de Wilton. The victory is commemorated in this song.