DESCRIPTION:
Tommy Byrne Wolfe Tones singing Bodenstown Churchyard. from their 1974 album Till Ireland A Nation.

In Bodenstown churchyard there is a green grave,
And wildly around it the winter winds rave;
Small shelter I ween are the ruined walls there
When the storm sweeps down on the plains of Kildare.

Once I stood on that spot it lies over Wolfe Tone
And thought how he perished in prison alone,
His friends unavenged and his country unfree
"Oh, bitter," I said, "is the patriots meed.

"For in him the heart of a woman combined
With heroic spirit and a governing mind
A martyr for Ireland, his grave has no stone
His name seldom named, and his virtues unknown."

I was woke from my dream by the voices and tread
Of a band who came into the home of the dead;
They carried no cross, and they carried no stone,
And they stopped when they came to the grave of Wolfe Tone.

My heart overflowed, and I clasped his old hand,
And I blessed him, and blessed every one of his band:
"Sweet, sweet tis to find that such faith can remain
To the cause and the man so long vanquished and slain."

In Bodenstown churchyard there is a green grave,
And freely around it let winter winds rave
Far better they suit him the ruin and gloom
Till Ireland, a nation, can build him a tomb.