Sam Jenkins - Damien Dempsey

My name it is Sam Jenkins

I come from old Whittington Hill

My people bow their heads down

To the lord of the manor still

I grew up mean and hungry

Dirty and poor and sick

I tried my for not to steal

To afraid of the VAn Diemon ships

Well, the only road to money

It was the road to the army gates

I took that road in '45

With a gang of my Staffordshire mates

We were shipped across to Ireland

Some rebellions for to quell

Stationed north of Galway

In a landscape that mirrored hell

When we sailed into Galway

Before my hair got dry

I will never forget the skeletons

With a crazed look in their eyes

And their little children wailing

As hunger ate them alive

When I realized what I was doing there

With the shame I nearly died

The food removal regiments

We were there to guard the food

Being shipped each day to England

While the starving they were subdued

They said we needed the food more

For our hungry boys abroad

And the Irish apes who farmed it

They weren’t men in the eyes of the Lord

My dear friend Billy Cooper

He couldn’t console himself

From a cherry tree in the backfield

He was hanging by his belt

In the 41st foot regiment

Just north of Galway town

I felt myself the servant

Of a devil in a crown

I disobeyed an order

I refused to shoot a man

Now stripped of my gun and uniform

I am bound for Van Diemons land

You rogues who rule Britannia

May you burn in hell for good

Us poor we do your dirty work

Then you dine on our flesh and blood

All the lies, all of our lives

All the pain, abuse and shame

Tell the truth to the youth

And forgive, but never forget

Forgive, but never forget

All the lies, all of our lives

All the pain, tears like rain

Tell the truth to the youth

And forgive, but never forget

Forgive, but never forget