Paddy Reilly - The Green Island Lyrics

The island lies like a leaf upon the sea
Green island like a leaf new fallen from
The tree
Green turns to gold as morning breezes
Gently shake the barley
Bending the yellow corn
Green turns to gold, there's purple
Shadows on the distant mountains
And the sun in the yellow corn

They came in their longships from lands
Beyond the sea
They came in their longships, they saw the land was green
Wind in the barley, trout and salmon
Leaping in the rivers
Sun in the yellow corn
Leaping ashore they slaughtered those
Who laboured in the barley
Scything them down like corn

The longships sailed away and new
Invaders came
With long bow and lance bringing death
In England's name
With sword and with mace they went
Reaping through the fields of barley
They plundered the yellow corn
Crop followed crop and prospered in the
Killing fields of barley
In the harvest of new young corn

Marching down the years the men of war
They came
With bombs, assassin's bullets,c.s gas
And guns
Ghosts from the past are chasing shadows
Through the fields of barley
Hiding in the yellow corn
900 years they've tried to trap the wind
That shakes the barley
And the sun in the
Yellow corn

The island lies like a leaf upon the sea
Green island like a leaf new fallen from
The tree
Green turns to gold as morning breezes
Gently shake the barley
Bending the yellow corn
No force on earth can ever trap the wind
That shakes the barley
Or the sun in the yellow corn