A National Anthem (for Ireland)

Timothy Daniel Sullivan
Penny Readings for the Irish People
1879
Volume II

God save our Native Land!

May His strong sustaining hand

Be for aye her sure protection and her stay;

May He bid her strength increase,

Give her comfort, joy, and peace,

And banish feud and faction far away!

God Save Ireland, pray we loudly,

May Heaven’s choicest blessings on her fall!

From every harm and woe

That may lay a nation low,

May God Save Ireland, say we all!

From evil-hearted foes,

And from traitors worse than those,

From schemings of the slavish and the vile,

From the blighting civil strife

That makes dark a nation’s life,

Oh, may God protect our own beloved isle!

God Save Ireland, pray we loudly,

May Heaven’s choicest blessings on her fall!

From every harm and woe

That may lay a nation low,

May God Save Ireland, say we all!

May a grace from God above

Fill her people’s hearts with love,

May foolish hates and fears from thence be hurled,

And her sons for ever stand

Gallant guardians of a land

The brightest and the bravest in the world!

God Save Ireland, pray we loudly,

May Heaven’s choicest blessings on her fall!

From every harm and woe

That may lay a nation low,

May God Save Ireland, say we all!

May the years, as on they roll,

Never touch her heart or soul

With a stain to dim her old and honoured name

But may Ireland dear be still

As a light upon a hill,

In the pure and holy splendour of her fame!

God Save Ireland, pray we loudly,

May Heaven’s choicest blessings on her fall!

From every harm and woe

That may law a nation low,

May God Save Ireland, say we all!