Compared To Him Poem by Francis Duggan

I still recall 'The Children Of The Dead End' the autobiographical story of Patrick MacGill
I read it in the seventies I remember and the memory of his memoirs with me still
The man from Glenties had an awful childhood hired out to farmers when he was a boy
Compared to him I'm such a lucky fellow I count my blessings how lucky am I.

He worked in Scotland with Navvy gangs as a teenager doing a man's work though still a boy in years
The children of the dead end were the children who must have been raised in the vale of tears
Compared to his my childhood years were great years and the memories of my young years bring me joy
When larks were carolling above the old fields far north of here in summer in July.

Unlike Patrick MacGill I was not hired out to a farmer to leave my bed before the break of day
To work hard outdoors in the depths of Winter when the wet fields were frozen frosty gray
Back in his time some children knew great hardship as children still do in some Countries today
The children of the dead end are still with us in third World countries from here far away.

Patrick MacGill died the day President Kennedy was assassinated more than forty years ago in sixty three
And Kennedy's passing made big World headlines But was Kennedy a greater man than he?
J.F.K. was never hired out to a farmer a privileged childhood he seemed to enjoy
And compared to MacGill he had it quite easy one well might say he was a lucky boy