They trained us all in tinpot barracks,

In due preparation for the fight,

The Protestants stationed on the left,

Catholics stuck out on the right.

On all our lives they would legislate,

Who to love and who to hate,

What to say and when to pray,

When to answer in the affirmative

And, definitely, when to say nay!

 

 They marched us off to the battle of life,

Shabby, shambolic infantry,

Going over-the-top for country and king,

Parade ground cannon fodder,

Who hadn’t learnt a single thing.

 

We peered, blindly, through the fog of life,

 About to feel the first pain of her sting.