Grace

Joseph Plunkett was a poet, nationalist, journalist and leader of the Irish movement for independence in 1916, known as "The Easter Rising." He played a key role in the planning of the Rising, which was put down quickly by British forces in Dublin. He struggled all of his young life with health issues, as he was stricken with tuberculosis as a child. Just before the Easter Rising, he had surgery to remove the glands in his neck, and it was only with great effort and struggle that he was able to bring himself to be present for the Rising.

While the Easter Rising was a colossal military failure, it is recognized as the starting point of Irish Independence, and the executions that followed brought outrage throughout Ireland, Britain, and even the United States.

Plunkett was engaged to marry Grace Gifford. While imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol in western Dublin, Plunkett and Gifford were allowed to wed in the prison chapel. Hours later, Plunkett was taken to the courtyard outside and executed by firing squad.



Grace
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 school days 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'll 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 Padraig 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.