"The Lurgan Volunteer"

This poem was composed by J. McAlinden with the help of fusiliers Creaney, Brady, Toland and ONeill:

We are the local heroes
Who come from Lurgan Town;
We don't forget our comrades
Who come from Portadown.
And God bless our gallant heroes,
That they may never fail,
And when the letters they arrive
They shout, 'Here's the Lurgan Mail'.

Now here's to Sir Edward Carson,
And likewise John Redmond too,
Sure they have joined hand in hand
To make the Germans rue;
Sure we are the 1st Battalion
Of the Royal Irish Fusiliers.
Joined hand in hand to crush the foe
With the Ulster Volunteers.

And when we get to the German trenches
You should hear the Gentians shout;
"My goodness there's the Irishmen,
Now you sentries keep a sharp look out;"
And when we mount the parapet
The German shows fair heels.
 "My goodness straf the Irishmen,
And their fondness for cold steel."

Here's to our hero soldiers,
I tell you one and all
The Lurgan boys turned out in hundreds
When they heard the bugle call;
The bugle sounds the rally,
Our bayonets we fix.
And Hugh Creaney from Arthur Street,
He was ever at his tricks

Also James McAlinden who made the Boches run,
And Jemmy Smyth, the devil,
Sure he's always up to fun;
And when Mac dashes forward
I may tell you, it is true
Sure he is out run by Neil, Brady and Toland,
Who comes from Lurgan too.

And here's to all the Lurgan boys sure
It's them we like to see,
And when we meet in Lurgan town
May we have a jolly spree;
And when we walk down North Street
Right down to the Distillery Hill
Sure we'll shout God strafe the Kaiser
And his nosy son called Bill.

Now here's to the "Lurgan Mail"
That leads the paper band,
So we think when in the trenches
When we get it from friends in Ireland
And when it comes to us we shout
With might and main
Good Luck to all the Lurgan men from Blough
To the Long Plain.