Our true men! our true men!
We proudly sing them all,
In felon's chain, across the main,
Despite of tyrant thrall.
Our true men! our true men!
We do not fear to tell
How deep within our inmost souls
They and their treason dwell.
Those true men! those few men!
How truthfully they strove,
Unaided few, to rend in two
The chains around us wove.
Our true men! our true men!
Though coward tongues defame,
They'll bear through every grief and wrong
A pure, undying name.
The loved ones! the proved ones!
They only trod the way
Where Right, of yore, led some before,
And more will guide today.
Our true men! our true men!
Perchance like you to fail;
But others then will fill the van,
And still the struggle hail!
For masters! O masters!
There's not our isle within
A plant so green, and strong, I ween,
As disaffection's sin.
'Twill grow on, 'twill blow on,
Whatever you may do,
With nurture good, of tears and blood –
The food it ever knew.
Our true men! our true men!
Oh, proudly sing them all,
In traitor's chain, in wrong and pain,
Or lonely wanderers all.
Our true men! our true men!
We do not fear to tell
How deep within our inmost souls
They and their treason dwell.
Eva Mary O'Doherty, ca 1848