AGAIN WE’RE ONE
Suggested on reading Mr Donohoe’s verses in the Ballymena Observer.

Oh! brother, stay your arm I pray,
And let contention cease;
Sectarian strife has long been rife,
And long has throttled peace.
Though firm we stand for Motherland,
First gem on earth I ween,
We well may own old England’s throne,
And England’s greatest Queen.

That Orange end with Green may blend
Should be our highest aim,
Yet in the fray we justly say
That both have shared the blame
From Southern mast to North Belfast,
The agitator’s sheen
Has been the chart to keep apart
The Orange and the Green.

Oh! would they stay and scan to-day
A leaf from Dewey’s fame,
Or meet the first still rising higher
Round Hero Hobson’s name.
Where patriots be on land or sea,
What power has ever been,
Can block the goal when throbs the soul
For country and for Queen.

The Saxon race in every place
Whose interests are the same,
Should now unite their foes to fight,
And tyrants bring to shame.
Red, White and Blue, with Stars so true,
If both together spun,
May tell the world when insults hurled,
Hands off! we’re one, we’re one!

T. Given
Cullybackey 24th June 1898