I was born on a Dublin street where the Royal drums the beat
And the loving English feet they went all over us
And every single night when me da' would came home tight
He'd invite the neighbors out with this chorus

Come out ye black and tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra

Come tell us how you slew them old Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears, bows and arrows
How brave you faced one with your 16-pounder gun
And you frightened them natives to their marrow

Come out ye black and tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra

Come let us hear you tell how you slandered great Parnell
When you fought them well and truly persecuted
Where are the sneers and jeers that you loudly let us hear
When our leaders of sixteen were executed?

Come out ye black and tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra

Now the time is coming fast
And I think them days are here
When each English seánín, he'll run before us
And if there'll be a need
Then our kids will say "Godspeed"
With a verse or two of singing this fine chorus

Come out ye black and tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra