Ballad Of The Sinn Feiner's Daughter Poem by Francis Duggan

'Twas old John Mginn that told me of the tragic story of Ann
Daughter of the bold Sinn Feiner Irish freedom fighter Dan
Who led the local I.R.A. in the days of Black and Tan
And was posted by the British as a dangerous hostile man.

She was a pretty girlie the Sinn Feiner's only child
And she grew to be a lovely maid with manner sweet and mild
With hair as brown as ripe chestnut and eyes blue as the sky
On a sunny day in Summer a cloudless day in July.

The Sinn Feiner was a widower sickness took from him his wife
When their only child was still quite young in her tenth year of life
But Sinn Feiner was a good man and a good father was he
He took good care of his daughter and he raised her properly.

'Twas in the year of nineteen twenty and for Ireland a sad year
Of the Black and Tans the Crown Forces Irish people lived in fear
Those Black and Tans were murderers with deadly high powered guns
And Irish mothers eyes rained tears for their poor murdered sons.

Sinn Feiner trained his new recruits under moon lamp at night
He briefed his brave young rebels for Ireland's freedom fight
He taught them how to use a gun and shoot the proper way
And he taught them how to self defend and and showed them how to slay.

He was posted by the British his name was on their wanted list
Their presence in his Country he had chosen to resist
They were plotting the destruction of the local Sinn Fein head
They did not want this man alive they wanted this man dead.

'Twas on a moonlit night in August that the British came around
And the white washed cot of Sinn Fein Dan these killers did surround
They set fire to the cottage thatch for to smoke Sinn Feiner out
Men shoot to kill for England's sake their commander did shout.

But Sinn Feiner did not flee his cot as Sinn Feiner was not in
He was in the field that skirts the wood drilling his rebel men
His thatched cottage was burned down the walls were all that stood
Whilst he drilled his I.R.A. recruits in the field beside the wood.

But his daughter Ann died in the fire from suffocation as she slept
And bitter were the bitter tears her grieving father wept
He lamented his tragic loss and cursed the Black and Tan
And vowed that he'd avenge the death of his fair daughter Ann.

Since that night more than eighty years in time has passed and gone
But thanks to grey haired John Mginn the memory still lives on
That night of arson tragedy Mginn has not forgot
The night Sinn Feiner's daughter died in her dad's burning cot.