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Sean South of Garryowen is an old rebel song written by Sean Costelloe in 1957. South was an IRA member and was killed during a raid on an RUC barracks in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh. The song was written to the tune of an earlier folk song called Roddy McCorley from the late 1700s. Lyrics: 'Twas on a dreary New Year's Eve As the shades of night came down A lorry load of volunteers approached the border town There were men from Dublin and from Cork, Fermanagh and Tyrone And their leader was a Limerick man Sean South from Garryowen And as they moved along the street up to the barracks door They scorned the danger they might face; Their fate that lay in store They were fighting for old Ireland To claim their very own And the foremost of that gallant band Was South from Garryowen But the sergeant spied their daring plan He spied them through the door The Sten guns and the rifles a hail of death did pour And when that awful night was past Two men lay as cold as stone There was one from near the border And one from Garryowen No more he will hear the seagull's cry O'er the murmuring Shannon tide For he fell beneath a northern sky, brave Hanlon by his side They have gone to join that gallant band Of Plunkett, Pearse and Tone A martyr for old Ireland Sean South from Garryowen.
