Lyrics The Butchers Apron - The Wolfe Tones

The Butchers Apron

Where is the flag of England?
Go North, South, East or West
Wherever’s there’s wealth to plunder
Or land to be possessed!
Wherever there’s feeble races
To frighten, coerce or scare
Oh, you’ll find a butcher’s apron
The English flag is there
It waves above blazing hovels
Where Africa’s victims die
To be shot by explosive bullets
Or wretchedly starve and fly
And where the pirate harries
In the isles of sovereign seas
At the peak of the hellish vessel
The English flag is free
The Maori often cursed it
With its bitterest dying breath
And the Arab hath hissed his hatred
As he spat in its fold in death
And the helpless Hindu feared it
And the Kenyan did the same
And the Irish blood has stained it
With a deep and indelible stain
Where is the flag of England?
Go North, South, East or West
Wherever’s there’s wealth to plunder
Or land to be possessed!
Wherever there’s feeble races
To frighten, coerce or scare
Oh, you’ll find a butcher’s apron
The English flag is there
It has floated o’er scenes of pillage
It is flaunted o’er deeds of shame
It has waved above foul marauders
As they ravished with sword and flame
It has looked upon ruthless slaughter
And massacre dire and grim
And it’s heard the shriek of victims
Drowned in the Jingo hymn
Where is the flag of England?
Seek lands where natives rot
Where decay and assured extinction
Must soon be a people’s lot
Go search for once-glad islands
Where death and disease are rife
And the greed of callous commerce
Now battens on human life
Where is the flag of England?
Go North, South, East or West
Wherever’s there’s wealth to plunder
Or land to be possessed!
Wherever there’s feeble races
To frighten, coerce or scare
Oh, you’ll find a butcher’s apron
The English flag is there
Where is the flag of England?
Go sail where rich boats come
With shoddy and loaded cottons
And beer and Bibles and guns
Go where brute force has triumped
And hypocrisy makes its lair
In your question you’ll find the answer
It was or still is there
Where is the flag of England?
Go North, South, East or West
Wherever’s there’s wealth to plunder
Or land to be possessed!
Wherever there’s feeble races
To frighten, coerce or scare
Oh, you’ll find a butcher’s apron
The English flag is there