Attend you gallant Irishmen
And listen for a while
I'll sing to you the praises of
The sons of Erin's Isle
It's of those gallant heroes
Who voluntarily ran
To release two Irish shamrocks
From an English prison van
Hurrah My lads for freedom
Let's all join heart and hand
May the Lord have mercy on the boys
That helped to smash the van
On the eighteenth of September
It was in that dreadful year
When sorrow and excitement ran
Throughout all Lancashire
At a gathering of the Irish boys
They volunteered each man
To release those Irish prisoners
Out of the prison van
Hurrah My lads for freedom
Let's all join heart and hand
May the Lord have mercy on the boys
That helped to smash the van
In Manchester one morning
Those heroes did agree
Their leaders Kelly and Deasy
Should have their liberty
They drank a health to Ireland
And soon made up a plan
To meet the prisoners on the road
And take and smash the van
Hurrah My lads for freedom
Let's all join heart and hand
May the Lord have mercy on the boys
That helped to smash the van
With courage bold those heroes
Went and soon the van did stop
They cleared the guards from back
And front and then smashed in the top
But in blowing open of the lock
They chanced to kill a man
So three men must die on
The scaffold high for smashing of the van
Hurrah My lads for freedom
Let's all join heart and hand
May the Lord have mercy on the boys
That helped to smash the van
So now kind friends I will conclude
I think it would be right
That all true hearted Irish men
Together should unite
Together should sympathise my friends
And do the best we can
To keep the memories evergreen of
The boys that smashed the van
Hurrah My lads for freedom
Let's all join heart and hand
May the Lord have mercy on the boys
That helped to smash the van
Hurrah
