On The Border Run
The line that Craig the clever chap Carving Ulster in three, drew on a map The maximum area the minority could hold …
Suppers Swapped Of Peasent and King
Time in time wonder shall show A wonderous time the world will know The peasent and his humble fare Shall at the …
The Great Mcgonagall
William “Topaz” Mc Gonnagle was poet from Dundee, who discovered he could make a rhyme at the grand old age of 52 …
Celtic Tiger was Not By Poets Built
You cant build a house with words, you know – Chris McCormack Houses are not by words built They are by developers …
Blessed Are Those Whose Transgressions Are Pardoned
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. ~ Psalm 32:1 A boy in the army served Oath of …
Lady Fortune Smiles And Frowns on the Jessops of Moydow
The Jessops later married into the Bomfords, who themselves were married through the Dopping – Hempestal family. Descendants in both the Church …
Bee Conversations
By some believed, when one had died, the bees had to be told Or umbridge taken, they would leave, not liking being …
People Power Wins at 2015 Banagher Horse Fair and I Manage Not to Get Arrested – Drowned Boy Forgotten in Turkey
I managed not to get arrested at the Outlaw Horse Fair in the Wild West of Offaly… however it was a close …
Arvagh
Provinces three by waters banks By war and history defined Men with quill drawing maps Each side to each outlined. Breiffne split …
Double Dutch and Gaelic at Tin Jug Reading in Birr and Portrait of the Poet as a Not Young Man
It is not often you get to listen to verse in both Dutch and Gaelic, and the Fannings poetry night in The …
Flight of Mad Sweeney
He flies over where the Devil could not walk Singing his mournful song of despair The places he has been and all …
Dark Brown Turf
In solidarity with the turf cutters. The latest of the poems restored to the website, this one was written a few years …
Snakes Defense to the Charges About the Garden of Eden
My dad used to wind up preachers from the Jehovahs Witnesses by denying the Eden story, and using the last line of …
Ill Go Where Im Sent
Invitation received: all were excited Again their friends where they are twinned they would meet Its not a junket: this, this is …
Before We Forgot
Before we forgot Thanks to dogma preached We worried not If sacrament we had reached Before sharing each other Neath the skies …
What Truth Lies Behind Irelands Tales?
The telling of each story on the listener casts a spell, They silent open mouthed listen to the tales the old folks …
Fairy Fort at Lough Gowna
Did they look as I walked Where tradition states one never should, Inside the round ditches of the fort, Perched above Loch …
The Pope Rides to Longford, Raving to Leftfield, Becoming a Blacksmith at Body and Soul
Even by my standards, that’s quite a title, and takes some explanation of the Body and Soul experience this year… where I …
Banagher Horse Fair
I grew up in the town of Banagher, whose annual street horse fair is one of my favourite memories growing up. An …
Dahlia, Berber Warrior Queen
Background Story Known as “The Witch” (al-Kahinat) to the invading Arabs, she was a fierce and wise resistance fighter for the Berber …