I went to see a legend just the other night,
Down in the Yankee Stadium, underneath the lights,
I heard an man speaking there, after years and years in jail,
His name it was Mandela and he came to tell his tale.

Well the crowd they cheered him loudly, ah, but then the silence fell,
When he spoke of the hard years in a South African cell,
And although he was free now, his heart was still in pain,
Because his country and his people still wore apartheid's chains.

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

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

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

"James Connolly is my name, the working people are my life,
When they shot me in Kilmainham Jail it brought great civil strife",
"And I am Pádraig Pearse, I was murdered down by the foe,
For I read the proclamation from the steps of the GPO."

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

I awoke in the morning, nothing made sense at all,
But who would have believed that they'd knock down the Berlin Wall?
Or that they'd free Nelson Mandela, could this really be
Maybe now we will see Ireland reunited and free,
Maybe now we will see Ireland reunited and free.