Let the People Sing – Song

Songs and Anthems | Legends and Supporters | This Land is Your Land

Fans’ popular versionCeltic v Morton 1969

#Let the people sing their stories and their songs
And the music of their native land
Their lullabies and battlecries and songs of hope and joy
So join us hand in hand
All across this ancient land
Throughout the test of time
It was music that kept their spirits free
Those songs of yours and of mine

This land is your land, this land is my land
From the northern highlands to the western islands
From the hills of Kerry to the streets of (Free) Derry
This land was made for you and me

As I went walking, by the Shannon waters
Hand in hand with, my little daughter
With the church bell ringing,
And the children singing,
This land was made for you and me….#

Actual Original

#For those who are in love
There’s a song that’s warm and tender.
For those who are oppressed
In song you can protest.
So liberate your minds
And give your soul expression.
Open up your hearts,
I’ll sing for you this song.

Let the people sing their stories and their songs
And the music of their native land
Their lullabies and battlecries and songs of hope and joy
So join us hand in hand
All across this ancient land
Throughout the test of time
It was music that kept their spirits free
Those songs of yours and of mine

It was back in ancient times,
The bard would tell his stories
Of the heroes, of the villain,
Of the chieftains in the glen.
Through Elizabethian time
And Cromwellian war and fury
Put our pipers to the sword,
Killed our harpers and our bards.

Let the people sing their stories and their songs
And the music of their native land
Their lullabies and battlecries and songs of hope and joy
So join us hand in hand
All across this ancient land
Throughout the test of time
It was music that kept their spirits free
Those songs of yours and of mine

Ireland, land of song,
Your music lives forever
In its valleys, in its mountains,
In its hills and in its glens.
Our music did survive
Through famine and oppression.
To the generations gone,
I’ll sing for you this song.#

 

Background

Brian Warfield (lead songwriter of the celtic music group “The Wolfe Tones”) wrote Let The People Sing, an Irish rebel song celebrating the power of music in a people’s struggle for freedom. It has been performed by many celtic music bands including the most famous being done by The Malleys.

It has been very popular, and the version performed by The Malleys, omitting the second verse, has been played at Celtic Park on match days regularly since the early 2000s.

However, on the terraces it is usually sung as just the chorus from the original song and then adding the chorus & a verse from the Irish version of “This Land Is Your Land“.