Crossmaglen
Fighting Men of Crossmaglen

Sniper On Hold
Source: Burns Moley Sinn Fein
Cumann South Armagh.

The song Crossmaglen was written in the early 1970's by Patrick Simpson and Patrick Stewart, from the Belfast based folk group The Freemen, as a tribute to the Fighting Men Of Crossmaglen.

The small border town Crossmaglen in County Armagh was, and still is, a stronghold of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA).
The South Armagh region is probably best known at the general public for its snipers. Less is known about the gunrunners and volunteers on the run who made good use of both the proximity of the Republic of Ireland as the dense forested mountains. Consequently the area of Crossmaglen was the stage of observation posts manned by soldiers of the Special Air Service (SAS), buzzing choppers and anxious British soldiers on foot patrol. The fortified police station, pseudo road sign and a huge monument, prominently situated in town square, in memory of the volunteers killed in service of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA) bear witness for this violent past.
Until today the villagers are suspicious of strangers and the town still exudes a threatening atmosphere, but even in this bulwark of Republicanism there is a silver lining: a road sign until recently warning the road user for snipers now assures you that the sniper is on hold.

[top of page]

Crossmaglen / The Fighting Men of Crossmaglen

Oh I'll sing a song,
Of the bravest men!
That famous fighting unit from Armagh
They are the men,
From Crossmaglen,
Amongst the bravest Irelands ever saw

In Crossmaglen,
The fire burns true.
The patriotic flame will never die.
And when you hear the battle cry
It will be the fighting men from Crossmaglen

At night you hear,
Bazookas roar,
Armalites are heard across the land.
The IRA,
Their spirits soar
They know the reckoning has come to hand

In Crossmaglen,
The fire burns true.
The patriotic flame will never die.
And when you hear the battle cry
It will be the fighting men from Crossmaglen

The British scum,
They do fear,
Never again they'll see their cursed shore.
Because they know
They'll pay dear,
And the RA will even Ireland's bloody score.

In Crossmaglen,
The fire burns true.
The patriotic flame will never die.
And when you hear the battle cry
It will be the fighting men from Crossmaglen

We'll not give up!
Oh Will we fuck!
Until we're free!
Until Ireland's out of British hands.
We'll never rest,
Until we see,
The tyrants rule driven from our land

[top of page]