[Verse]
The grey dawn had crept o'er the stillness of morning,
The dew drops they glisten like icicle breath,
The notes of the bugle had sounded their warning,
A young Connaught Ranger lay sentenced to death.

No cold blooded murder had stained his pure conscience,
He called as a witness his maker on high,
He'd simply been fighting for Ireland's loved freedom,
Arrested and tried he was sentenced to die.

[Chorus]
Lay him away o'er the hillside,
Along with the brave and the bold,
Inscribe his name on the scroll of fame,
In letters of purest gold.

"My conscience will never convict me,"
He said with his dying breath,
"May God bless the cause of freedom,
For which I am sentenced to death."

[Verse]
He thought of the love of his feeble old mother,
He though of the colleen so dear to his heart,
The sobs of affection, he scarcely could smother,
Well knowing how soon from them both he must part.

He feared not to die though his heart was near broken,
Twas simply remembrance for those he loved well,
His rosary he pressed to his heart as a token,
The prayer cheered his soul in the felon's lone cell.

[Chorus]
Lay him away o'er the hillside,
Along with the brave and the bold,
Inscribe his name on the scroll of fame,
In letters of purest gold.

"My conscience will never convict me,"
He said with his dying breath,
"May God bless the cause of freedom,
For which I am sentenced to death."

[Verse]
To the dim barrack square, the doomed hero was hurried,
In the grey of the dawn ere the sun rose on high,
With head held erect, undaunted, unworried,
The gallant young soldier went proudly to die.

I blame not my comrades for doing their duty,
Aim straight for my heart, were the last words he said,
Exposing his breast to the point of the rifles,
The smoke cleared away, the young soldier lay dead.

[Chorus]
Lay him away o'er the hillside,
Along with the brave and the bold,
Inscribe his name on the scroll of fame,
In letters of purest gold.

"My conscience will never convict me,"
He said with his dying breath,
"May God bless the cause of freedom,
For which I am sentenced to death.".