COME GATHER ROUND MY COMRADES ON THIS FIRST OF JULY MORN.
I was on the Progressive Unionist Party website this morning and discovered that they have posted the incorrect version of the above song, now widely known as England’s Treachery.
The reason I bring this to light, is because, this incorrect version contains inaccuracies which Republicans have used in recent years, in their attempts to belittle the sincerity of the sacrifice, described within the song.
The actual wording of the song, which was in fact written by a Loyalist Prisoner in 1973, is as follows.
Come gather round my comrades, on this first of July Morn.
When Ulstermen are rightly proud, of the Land where they were born.
I’ll tell you of our Volunteers, of how it came to pass.
Of how they rushed to England’s aid, so far from old Belfast.
It was in the dark uncertain days, of early World War 1,
When England’s shores where threatened, by the jackboot of the hun.
When England’s cry for help was heard, we bade them have no fears.
We sent across to Flanders fields, The Ulster Volunteers.
It was at the Somme that summer morn, the first day of July.
That twenty thousand Ulster Men, prepared to fight and die.
They proudly charged over no man’s land, the Red Hand flying high.
Their cries were No Surrender Boys, Old Ulster’s Battle Cry.
The Germans in their trench’s deep, could scarce believe their eyes.
When they saw those Ulster Men emerge, When they heard their Battle cries.
What kind of men are these they said, who would leave their Native Land.
To die upon a foreign soil, and what is that strange Red Hand.
So on and on they charged alone, where no one else could tread.
On the wire and in the mud, they left behind their dead.
The only Flag to fly that day, behind the German lines.
Was the old Red Hand of Ulster, with its shamrocks, IT HAD NINE.
Now those who lived, came home again, but what a change to find.
SOON the counties that made Ulster up, no longer numbered nine.
Three Counties they were sold away, by those they had fought to save.
Yes, this was England’s gratitude, for the sacrifice they made.
So gather round my comrades, on this first of July Morn.
When Ulster Men are rightly proud, of the Land where they were born.
Never more be led away, to fight in foreign lands.
Nor to die, for someone else’s cause, at an English mans command.
NOR TO DIE, FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S CAUSE, AT AN ENGLISH MANS COMMAND.
How do I know the correct wording? I was that Prisoner. Charlie Freel.
