Went to see a legend just the other night,
At the Yankee Stadium, underneath the light,
I heard a man speaking, he spent many years in jail,
His name was Nelson Mandela and he came to tell his tale.

Crowd they cheered him loudly, ah, but then the silence fell,
As he spoke about the hard years in a South African cell,
And though he was free, his heart was feeling the pain,
For his country and his people were still part of that shame.

He said he hoped that we would join him and walk down freedom's path,
These roads would be the hardest, ah, but they would be the last,
And to join our hands together so that we might be as one,
And to find ourselves the courage so this battle could be won.

I went home to bed that evening, fell asleep, I had a dream,
I was standing in the pouring rain, in an Irish field of green,
And all around the headstones were the martyrs of the past,
I stood there alone in silence, and they spoke to me at last.

"Kevin Barry is my name, and I died in a hangman's noose,
They wanted the names of my comrades, ah, but this I would not do",
"And I am Roger Casement, and I died in England's hands,
For bringing German rifles to the lonely Banna Strand."

"James Connolly is my name, the working people are my life,
When they shot me down in Kilmainham Jail sure it caused great bloody strife",
"And I am Pádraig Pearse, I was shot down by the foe,
I read the proclamation outside the GPO."

And the last voice that I heard says, "My name is Bobby Sands,
And it's good to hear Mandela's words ringing through the land,
I hope to hear them in Belfast, in Derry and Tyrone,
Maybe then those English soldiers will know it's time to go home."

I woke up in the morning, I remember them all,
And who would believe that they've knocked down the Berlin Wall?
And they've freed Nelson Mandela, ah, but could this really be?
Maybe then we will see Ireland reunited and free.
Maybe now we will see Ireland reunited and free.