| Songs and Anthems | Legends and Supporters |
Lyrics
As we gather in the chapel here in old Kilmainham Jail
I think about these past few weeks, oh will they say we’ve failed
From our schooldays they have told us we must yearn for liberty
Yet all I want in this dark place is to have you here with me.
CHORUS
Oh Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They’ll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won’t be time to share our love for we must say goodbye.
Now I know it’s hard for you my love to ever understand
The love I bear for these brave men, my love for this dear land
But when the Padhraic called me to his side down in the GPO
I had to leave my own sick bed, to him I had to go CHORUS
Now as dawn is breaking, my heart is breaking too,
On this May morn as I walk out my thoughts well be of you
And I’ll write some words upon the wall so everyone will know
I love so much that I could see his blood upon the rose. CHORUS
Background
Popularised in 2016 by the Green Brigade, and came to prominence at the Celtic 3-3 match v Man City at home in Sep 2016.
Celtic fan and global celebrity Rod Stewart claimed the BBC barred him from singing the song on one Radio 2 show due to perceived anti-English sentiment in the song. The BBC though denied it.
Rod Stewart (2018): They won’t let me sing “Grace” because of its Irish, anti-English overtones in the song,” the 73-year-old told Billboard. Forget about it, it’s one of the greatest love songs ever written. The guy goes to his death 15 minutes the next morning after he’s been married and I can’t sing that one either.”
Who wrote the song Grace ?
It was written by Sean And Frank O’Meara in 1985.
Who Sang It ?
Jim McCann, who often played with The Dubliners had the most success with it,
It was also sang by The Wolfe Tones, John McDermott, Barleycorn, and Anthony Kearns to name but a few singers.
Who Is The Song About ?
It was written about Joseph Plunket and Grace Gifford who married hours before Joseph was executed for his part in the 1916 rising in Dublin
Grace
Tom Clarke was a source of inspiration in the Post Office.
There was Joseph Plunket, pale and weak having come directly from the hospital where he had just undergone an operation.Joseph was shot seated, as he was too ill to stand for the firing squad.
He struggled to be with his comrades on that eventful morning. Margaret Skinnider said he looked like death and he met his death a few days later, not a natural one but a murderous one by firing squad. Jo was married to Grace Gifford at midnight just a few hours before his execution in the little church beside Richmond Barracks.
She was Thomas MacDonagh’s sister-in-law.
The song tells the sad story of their wedding and has tobe one of the saddest songs of all time. Joseph Mary Plunkett had tuberculosis and was hospitalised for that prior to Easter, the phrase, “the blood upon the rose” comes from one of Joseph’s poems — he was a Catholic mystic and poet. Grace Gifford was protestant and her parents did not much approve of the relationship.