"Patriot Game" was written by Dominic Behan, younger brother of playwright and author Brendan Behan. The song concerns an incident during the Border Campaign launched by the Irish Republican Army during the 1950s. It was written by Dominic Behan to the tune of an earlier folksong, "The Merry Month of May". It tells the story of Fergal O'Hanlon, an IRA Volunteer from Ballybay, County Monaghan who was killed at the age of 20 in an attack on Brookeborough Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in County Fermanagh on 1 January 1957. It has been recorded by The Kingston Trio, The Dubliners, The Wolfe Tones, The Clancy Brothers and Judy Collins. I learned it from The Clancy Brothers recording.