Memories Of The Millstreet To Rathmore Road Poem by Francis Duggan

The night was cold the air it did feel frosty a high perhaps of two or three or four
And in the pale full moon Clara was quite visible from the roadway from Millstreet to Rathmore
In a field by the Finnow a hunting fox was barking his voice was echoing to the starry sky
A creature that is renowned for his cunning with a distinctive wildness in his cry.

The roadway as it was then i can remember though few things in time do ever stay the same
The old road that links North Cork to East Kerry the Killarney Road for it a given name
It has been twenty years since i last walked on it and in human life twenty years a lengthy span
And in twenty years there are forty eight Seasons and the babe back then is now a full grown man.

My lust for wander took me from the old road but memories of the past with me remain
And in my flights of fancy i walk in the moonlight and hear the wild cry of the fox again
And under the bridge by the Town hill of Millstreet the Finnow waters to the Blackwater flow
Down through the years the memories seem to follow my past goes with me to everywhere i go.

The night was cold as i can well remember in the fields the cattle were visible in the moonlight
And except for a few cars passing to and from the Town of Millstreet the roadway to Rathmore was rather quiet
The last night i walked from Millstreet on that roadway the stars were in the frosty moonlit sky
And that was twenty years back i remember and in retrospect the years just seem to fly.