The curlew stood silent and unseen
In the long damp grass
And he looked down on the road below him
That wound its way through Beal Na mBlath
And he heard the young men shouting and cursing
Running backwards and forwards
Dodging and weaving and ducking the bullets
That rained down on them
From the hillside opposite.

Just as quickly as it started the firing stopped
And a terrible silence hung over the valley
A lone figure lay on the roadside
In the drizzling August rain
Dressed in green cape coat, leggings, 
And brown hobnail boots
That would never again 
Set the sparks flying from the kitchen flagstones
As he danced his way through a half-set

A hurried whispered act of contrition
And the firing breaks out again
The curlew takes to flight
And as he flies out over the empty sad fields of West 
Cork
With his lonesome call
He must tell the world
That the big fellow has fallen
And that Michael is gone




On[G] a far off August day,cold young[C] men in 
ambush[G] lay,
On a roadside on a hill where flowers[D] grow,
So much[G] hate for one so young,who was[C] right and 
who was[G] wrong,
Though a thousand years may[D] pass we'll never[G] 
know.
[Chorus]
Candles[G] drippig blood,they placed beside your 
[C]shoulders,
Rosary[D] beeds like teardrops on your[C] fin[G]gers,
Friends and comrades standin by,in their[C] grief they 
wonder[G] why,
Michael [D]in their hour of need you had to[G] go.
[2]
And when evening twlight came,gentle fell the August 
rain,
Oh but you lay still and silent on the ground,
As we hung our heads in prayer,in our sorrow and 
dispare,
We wondered was it friend or foe who shot you down,
[Chorus]
[3]
Now the flame that you held high,when you called out to 
the sky,
To end this senselell killing and this shame,
Has now passed to other hands and is carried through 
the land
By some not fit to even speak your name. 

A fine song by Johnny Mc Evoy 
The Easter Rising was a launching pad for Michael 
Collins
At 16 he worked in England and joined the I.R.B. 
There he became convinced that independence could
only be achieved by force.
He returned to Dublin Jan.1916 and durung Easter week 
served as Joseph Plunkett's aide in the G.P.O.
He was discribed as the most effective officer there.

After the rising he was interned in Wales and while
there he set up a branch of the I.R.B. and after his
release in Dec.1916 rose to prominence in the 
orgnisation
and became a dominant figure in the Irish Volunteers.
He went on to co-ordinate the republican campagne
in the war of independence.