[Verse]
Children's laughter, children's tears, childish joys of childhood years,
All these memories of a once happy home,
It's not death that brings the pain, I would face it all again,
But it grieves me so to leave you all alone.

[Chorus]
Do the wee ones still sigh, when they hear their daddy's name?
Do they sadly ask you why I won't be home again?
How hard it is to know I'll never see them grow,
Let my dying bring for them a better land.

[Verse]
May they never know the fears that blighted my young years,
That the shackles that have bound my native land,
May thеy see the joys of life and not cruel civil strife,
Foreign laws imposed by brutal stranger's hands.

[Chorus]
Do the wee ones still sigh, when they hear their daddy's name?
Do they sadly ask you why I won't be home again?
How hard it is to know I'll never see them grow,
Let my dying bring for them a better land.

[Verse]
Let them grow in love and truth, may they blossom into youth,
Guided by their mother's loving hand,
Let them cherish Ireland's pride for this Joe McDonnell died,
Let them know their father loved them and his land.

[Chorus]
Do the wee ones still sigh, when they hear their daddy's name?
Do they sadly ask you why I won't be home again?
How hard it is to know I'll never see them grow,
Let my dying bring for them a better land,
Let my dying bring for them a better land.