I Went To See The Film Michael Collins Poem by Francis Duggan

I went to see the film Michael Collins
And I must admit it reduced me to tears
The tragedy of Ireland's tragic history
The civil war and the blood letting years.

The film did not portray Collins as an angel
He did some very bad things in his day
He planned the deaths of some unworthy people
And in the end with his own life did pay.

You notice how I used the word unworthy
On describing those whom Collins men had put to death
The cunning and the callous British agents
But human life is sacred 'lest we should forget'.

Some people may say they got their come uppance
But they too were entitled to their life
I found one scene quite callous and disturbing
The agent shot in presence of his wife.

The film showed the evil of the British forces
The innocent civilians who were gunned down in Croke Park
There is great shame in the murder of civilians
And in British history one more blackened mark.

The murder of Collins former best mate Harry Boland
Gunned down as he struggled in a flooded drain
By his own fellow countryman an act of cowardice
The sadness of it all with me remain.

And what about the famous De Valera
His once glowing star no longer looking bright
For long years Ireland's shining knight in armour
But the film showed him in a different light.

And at the end the death of Michael Collins
Gunned down by a coward in his own countryside
Perhaps he well might have done good for Ireland
But at least it was in cause of peace he died.

I left that film sad and disillusioned
About the troubled times in old Ireland
How come the Irish cannot pull together?
That's something I could never understand.

I went to see the film Michael Collins
And at the end I was reduced to tears
The tragedy of Ireland's tragic history
The civil war and the blood letting years.