With due observance to prudence, justice, and charity*…
Of course
we all stand together
whenever our nation
is threatened.
“Tiocfaidh ár lá!”
And we all stand together
whenever our pockets
are threatened.
“Is fearr an tsláinte ná na táinte!”
We all know the chorus
of the fields of Athenry
where the free birds fly,
and whiskey in the jar
whack for my daddy-o.
We know
the first words
of the national anthem
“Sinne Fianna Fáil”
Those words
and how many years
of winks and nods,
got us by,
they didn’t cost us much.
We’re all aware
that the British are all pigs
but we never thought
that the orange men would
have a place on our flag
or that rugby
would be played in Croke Park
without a revival of the act of union,
but the winks and nods…
the winks and nods,
and the sweaty red faced bastards
in suits, stained with gravy.
Isn’t it time
to let them go the way
of the countryside
that would be
“joyous with the romping
of sturdy children,
the contest of athletic youths
and the laughter of happy maidens…”
to quote De Valera.
But no the winks and nods remain,
they’re in the anthem,
and you saw Michael Collins,
and The Wind that Shakes the Barley
and Eamon de Valera
is infallible,
despite being American.
*Preamble; Bunreacht na hEireann
Liam Duffy is a student of Public and Social Policy at the National University of Ireland, Galway, where he was the editor of their Writers Society’s magazine the Sharp Review. He recently took a break from Ireland to check out the poetry scene in Finland and study at the University of Helsinki. He has most recently been published in A Hudson view, The Rain town review, the anthology Emergency verse- poetry in defence of the welfare state. and read at the West Cork Literary Festival in Ireland as part of a reading dubbed: Irish Poets: A New Generation.
Latest posts by Liam Duffy (see all)
- Fáilte Romhat - July 2, 2012
- A Pork Belly’s Fence Back Fires - January 31, 2011
- With due observance to prudence, justice, and charity… - January 27, 2011
January 27, 2011 5:28 pm
Good man Liam.