Sheet music notes and tab to play Grace on a tin whistle (penny whistle). The notation below is provided so it can be played on a tin whistle in the key of D. The first version is in D major, and there’s also a second version in G major, which can be achieved with alternative fingering.
About the song Grace
Back in 1985, brothers Frank and Seán O’Meara penned a haunting ballad about Grace Gifford, an Irish artist whose love story became deeply entwined with the events of the 1916 Easter Rising. The song tells of her marriage to Joseph Mary Plunkett, one of the Rising’s key leaders, which took place inside Kilmainham Gaol mere hours before his execution by firing squad.
Grace Gifford would go on to become a symbol of both personal loss and national resilience. A committed nationalist herself, she was active in the political life of post-Rising Ireland and continued to support the cause of independence. Her story, captured in song, remains one of the most poignant reminders of the human side of revolution.
Lyrics
As we gather in the chapel here in old Kilmainham Gaol
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 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 Pádhraic called me to his side down in the G.P.O.
I had to leave my own sick bed, to him I had to go
Now as the dawn is breaking, my heart is breaking too
On this May morn, as I walk out, my thoughts will be of you
And I’ll write some words upon the wall so everyone will know
I love so much that all I could see his blood upon the Rose.
NOTE: The original version (as played in the video below) is written in B major, which requires either a whistle in the key of B or F#, depending on the fingering version you prefer. Also, the last verse introduces a modulation of one semitone up, which means it requires either a C or G whistle.
