The Volunteer lyrics

[Verse 1]
The gunfire split the still night air
From my side the blood flowed red
Informer's work had been well done
An ambush had been lead

[Verse 2]
My comrades turned back to my head
I waved them on again
Escape for me was hopeless, why should they die in vain?

[Verse 3]
The soldiers soon around me stood
Their unit I could guess
Their blackened faces could not disguise
The hated SAS

[Verse 4]
"Finish him off!" I heard one say
As a gun moved towards my head
"Tomorrow they'll all sing about another Fenian dead!"

[Verse 5]
"Just drop those guns down gently!"
A voice called from the dark
They wailed and fired a (???)
But it seemed that they'd missed their mark
The stranger stood before them now
With eyes that seemed alight
The cowards turned and quickly fled
As he raised his armalite
[Verse 6]
His face - somewhere I'd seen before
Though I couldn't tell just where
But I knew from his green battledress -
He was a volunteer

[Verse 7]
He never said a word to me
As we moved off through the night
I was hoisted across his shoulders
A burden that seemed light

[Verse 8]
"You'll be save here at last" he said
As a cottage door drew near
"They're friends of mine
Though we haven't met
For many's a lonley year"

[Verse 9]
He let me gently down
Beside a wall of (???) and stone
I turned to thank my comrade brave
But I found I was alone

[Verse 10]
When next I woke I found myself with a family staunch and true
I told them of my comrade strange
But it seemed they already knew
[Verse 11]
I gazed upon that (???) wall
And things came clear at last
And I thought of songs and of storys
Heard often in the past
And I knew than that our struggle was a fight we could not lose!
For beneath his picture
There I read:
"In memory of Francis Hughes"