I'Ve Never Said Poem by Francis Duggan

I've never said that I was a great person
And I've never said that I climbed the Paps of Shrone
And I've never said that I am one without sin
So I won't be the one to cast the stone.

I hail from Millstreet a place in Duhallow
Far north of here even as the crow does fly
And though I am a migrant in this Southern Country
Do not think that makes you better than I.

You are lucky to be born in this great Nation
But that doesn't give you the right to look down
On any man as well as any woman
Who came to live here from a foreign town.

You boast your eldest son is a brave soldier
He fights for his Country in a war waged far away
But many they would look on that quite differently
And they would not agree with what you say.

You tell me that on Anzac day you always
At the war memorial salute your Nation's flag
But this does not tell me of your patriotism
Seems to me far more like an idle brag.

A true patriot loves all creeds and races
And a true patriot will not tell you war is good,
True patriots love and only defend their own Country
The word patriot is often used but seldom understood.

I've never said that I was a great person
I am just a doggerel writer nothing more
Yet it does not give you the right to look on me as inferior
Because I arrived here from a foreign shore