James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
October 12The Wexford Massacre
By Michael Joseph Barry (18171889)
T
The matron and the maid;
They bowed before redemption’s sign,
And fervently they prayed:
Three hundred fair and helpless ones,
Whose crime was this alone—
Their valiant husbands, sires, and sons,
Had battled for their own.
The Saxon won the fight,
And Irish corses strewed the plain
Where Valour slept with Right.
And now that man of demon guilt
To fated Wexford flew—
The red blood reeking on his hilt,
Of hearts to Erin true!
The maiden and the wife:
Their guardians brave in death were cold,
Who dared for them the strife.
They prayed for mercy—God on high!
Before Thy cross they prayed,
And ruthless Cromwell bade them die
To glut the Saxon blade!
Was quenched in woman’s blood;
Nor youth nor age could move to spare
From slaughter’s crimson flood.
But nations keep a stern account
Of deeds that tyrants do;
And guiltless blood to Heaven will mount,
And Heaven avenge it, too!