[Verse]
They were born by the warm side, when I was a boy,
Grew up when their country was raped and destroyed,
By a cruel foreign army, who showed no remorse,
When they murdered young Irishmen with true British force.

[Chorus]
And they died for their people so their people can see,
That they gave their young lives to be sovereign and free.

[Verse]
As they grew they were told of the wrongs and the rights,
Why so many before them had chosen to fight,
Why the soldiers in prison and their brothers and friends,
Just because they stood up in their peoples defence.

[Chorus]
And they died for their people so their people can see,
That they gave their young lives to be sovereign and free.

[Verse]
Then when their turn came they were ready to go,
Went out with their weapons gainst the strong ruthless foe,
Who waited in an ambush till the break of the day,
And machine gunned those young men till their lives flowed away.

[Chorus]
And they died for their people so their people can see,
That they gave their young lives to be sovereign and free.

[Verse]
Young Davy and Michael and Charlie were named,
As the three volunteers who that morning were slain,
By the merciless bastards, who filled them with led,
And then finished them off with a shot in the head.

[Chorus]
And they died for their people so their people can see,
That they gave their young lives to be sovereign and free.

[Verse]
Now the grass is grown over the spot were they fell,
But their memory still with us and the story we'll tell,
Of two brothers who went out with their comrades to fight,
And they died in Strabane by the dawns early light.

[Chorus]
And they died for their people but their people can see,
That they gave their young lives to be sovereign and free.