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BROAD BLACK BRIMMER - Traditional

There's a uniform still hanging in what's known as father's room
A uniform so simple in its style
It has no braid of gold, no silk, no hat with feathered plume
But me mother has preserved it all the while
One day she made me try it on, a wish of mine for years
Just the memory of your father Sean she said
And when I put the sam brown on, she was smiling through her tears
As she placed the broad black brimmer on me head

Chorus:
It's just a broad black brimmer
with ribbons frayed and torn
by the careless whisk of many a mountain breeze
An old trench coat that's so battle-stained and worn
And breeches almost threadbare at the knees
A sam brown belt with a buckle big and strong
And a holster that's been empty many's a day
But when Ireland's freedom
The one should choose to lead them
Will wear the broad black brimmer of the IRA

It was the uniform worn by me father year's ago
When he reached me mother's homestead on the run
It was the uniform he wore in that little church below
When oul Fat