Jackets Green Cifras

     G               D
When I was a maiden fair and young,
        C                 Am
On the pleasant banks of Lee,
    G                Em
No bird that in the greenwood sung,
     Am       C         Em
Was half so blithe and free.
 
 
     G                    D
My heart ne'er beat with flying feet,
    C                Am
No love sang me his queen,
      G                  Em
Till down the glen rode Sarsfield's men,
          Am       C       Em
And they wore the jackets green.
 
 
      G                D
Young Donal sat on his gallant grey
        C                Am
Like a king on a royal seat,
        G                       Em
And my heart leaped out on his regal way
     Am     C      Em
To worship at his feet.
 
 
    G                          D
O Love, had you come in those colours dressed,
       C                   Am
And wooed with a soldier's mein
          G                      Em
I'd have laid my head on your throbbing breast
         Am            C      Em
For the sake of your jacket green.
 
 
    G                 D
No hoarded wealth did my love own,
          C                 Am
Save the good sword that he bore;
       G             Em
But I loved him for himself alone
         Am      C        Em
And the colour bright he wore.
 
     G              D
For had he come in England's red
    C                 Am
To make me England's queen,
     G                   Em
I'd rove the high green hills instead
         Am          C     Em
For the sake of the Irish green.
 
 
      G                    D
When William stormed with shot and shell
        C             Am
At the walls of Garryowen,
        G                  Em
In the breach of death my Donal fell,
        Am              C       Em
And he sleeps near the Treaty Stone.
 
 
      G                  D
That breach the foeman never crossed
           C                   Am
While he swung his broadsword keen;
      G                Em
But I do not weep my darling lost,
        Am          C      Em
For he fell in his jacket green.
 
       G               D
When Sarsfield sailed away I wept
       C               Am
As I heard the wild ochone.
   G                     Em
I felt, then dead as the men who slept
            Am        C     Em
'Neath the fields of Garryowen.
 
        G              D
White Ireland held my Donal blessed,
    C                 Am
No wild sea rolled between,
     G                 Em
Till I would fold him to my breast
     Am           C     Em
All robed in his Irish green.
 
 
    G                     D
My soul has sobbed like waves of woe,
      C                   Am
That sad o'er tombstones break,
       G                     Em
For I buried my heart in his grave below,
    Am           C         Em
For his and for Ireland's sake.
 
 
       G                       D
And I cry. "Make way for the soldier's bride
         C                  Am
In your halls of death, sad queen
       G                  Em
For I long to rest by my true love's side
     Am             C        Em
And wrapped in the folds of green."
 
 
   G                 D
I saw the Shannon's purple tide
     C             Am
Roll by the Irish town,
       G                     Em
As I stood in the breach by Donal's side
      Am        C         Em
When England's flag went down.
 
 
    G                     D
And now it lowers when I seek the skies,
        C                Am
Like a blood red curse between.
   G                  Em
I weep, but 'tis not women's sighs
      Am        C      Em
Will raise our Irish green.
 
 
     G                    D
Oh, Ireland, said is thy lonely soul,
      C                    Am
And loud beats the winter sea,
     G                    Em
But sadder and higher the wild waves roll
         Am           C         Em
O'er the hearts that break for thee.
 
 
     G                       D
Yet grief shall come to our heartless foes,
           C                     Am
And their thrones in the dust be seen,
     G                 Em
So, Irish Maids, love none but those
     Am       C       Em
Who wear the jackets green.
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