The Green Fields Of France -- Dropkick Murphys

Well, how do you do, Private William McBride, Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside? And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun, I've been walking all day,
and I'm nearly done.  And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916,  Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you
died clean  Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fir o'er you as they lowered you down? Did the bugles sound The Last Post
in chorus?  Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind  In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?  And, though you died back in 1916,  To that loyal heart are you forever 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name, Forever enshrined behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

The sun's shining down on these green fields of France; The warm wind blows gently,
and the red poppies dance. The trenches have vanished long under the plow;
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now. But here in this graveyard that's still No Man's Land  The countless white crosses in mute witness stand  To man's blind indifference to his fellow man.  And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

And I can't help but wonder, no Willie McBride,  Do all those who lie here know why they died?  Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?"
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?  Well the suffering, the sorrow, 
the glory, the shame  The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,   and again, and again.              (sing365)  

This song is about the horrors of the first world war. It focuses on one person (Willie McBride) of many who died before their time.                                       (songfacts)  

         

  World War I (WWI), was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Allianceof Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised , and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of great technological advances in firepower without corresponding advances in mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.                (wikipedia)