Attend you gallant Irishmen and listen for a while   I'll sing to you the praises of the sons of Erin's Isle   It's of those gallant heroes who voluntarily ran   To release two Irish shamrocks from an English prison van      Hurrah! My lads for freedom, let's all join heart and hand   May the Lord have mercy on the boys that helped to smash the van      On the eighteenth of September, it was a dreadful year   When sorrow and excitement ran throughout all Lancashire   At a gathering of the Irish boys they volunteered each man   To release those Irish prisoners out of the prison van      Hurrah! My lads for freedom, let's all join heart and hand   May the Lord have mercy on the boys that helped to smash the van      In Manchester one morning those heroes did agree   Their leaders, Kelly and Deasy, should have their liberty   They drank a health to Ireland and soon made up the plan   To meet the prisoners on the road and take and smash the van      Hurrah! My lads for freedom, let's all join heart and hand   May the Lord have mercy on the boys that helped to smash the van      With courage bold those heroes went and soon the van did stop   They cleared the guards from back and front and then smashed in the top   But in blowing open of the lock, they chanced to kill a man   So three men must die on the scaffold high for smashing of the van      Hurrah! My lads for freedom, let's all join heart and hand   May the Lord have mercy on the boys that helped to smash the van      So now kind friends I will conclude, I think it would be right   That all true-hearted Irishmen together should unite   Together should sympathize, my friends, and do the best we can   To keep the memories ever green of the boys that smashed the van       Hurrah! My lads for freedom, let’s all join heart and hand   May the Lord have mercy on the boys that helped to smash the van      Hurrah!