Farewell my friends, in Dublin Town, I'll bid you all adieu,
I cannot yet appoint the day that I'll return to you,
I write these lines aboard a ship where stormy billows roar,
May the heavens bless our Fenian men, till I return on shore.

I joined the Fenian Brotherhood in the year of '64,
Resolved to free my native land or perish on the shore,
My friends and me we did agree no more to live as slaves,
But to raise the flag of freedom, o'er the head of Emmet's grave.

My curse attend the English spies, who did our cause betray,
I would tie a rope round their necks and drown them in the sea,
There was Nagle, Massy and Curry Dunn and Talbot to make four,
Like demons in their thirst for gold, their curst forever more.

I made my plans and I drilled my men up in dear old Skibbereen,
I thought to see fly proud and free my own loved flag of green,
I killed no man, I spilled no blood, but they sent me off to jail,
Because I was O'Donovan Rossa, a son of Gráinne Bhaol.