There was only unemploymet there the day that I left school,
Were many words and promises and talk of home rule
So I joined the british army and I sold away my soul
And went off to foreign lands to fight an enemy unknown

Well, me and twenty other lads all from the cul-de-sac,
We ended up together in the same old muddy trench
Ah, young doyler lost his marbles and the others tried to cope
As they sent the boys out one by one into the barb and smoke

Far away far away...
Ah, they're dying on the battlefields for nothing
Far away far away...
But I promised that I'd come back home to mother

The first week went so slowly, we lost many of our men
I couldn't sleep at all beneath the earth of no man's land
And I tried to help my comrades
who'd lived horror through the night
All the youth and laughter disappeared,
replaced by fear and spite

Deevy from the cul-de-sac got hit between the eyes
He didn't see it coming and he fell beneath the skies
Well, I'd known him since the age of ten and sat with him in school
Ah, what the hell are we doing here? no hope for me or you!

Then winter came and battered us, an enemy of new
Brought many fears and tragedies to last a whole life through
I was promised an adventure, but this is a living hell
The reality of war is nothing like the posters sell