Mick Kelleher Lives Far Poem by Francis Duggan

From his old Homeplace Claraghatlea Mick Kelleher lives far
If a road to there twenty thousand kilometres by car
And even far north of here as the crow chooses to fly
From Victoria to Duhallow many miles of sky.

And though he may never live in Duhallow again
In his heart a Millstreet man he does remain
His wife and adult childrren are Aussies they love their own Homeland
Their love of Home Country not hard to understand.

Forty one years in Australia he has workeed in many a town
And many the highway and byway he has driven up and down
Still he talks of Millstreet Town and old Clara Hill
And Claraghatlea and Inchaleigh and the old Glasheen Rill

And the Finnow that in the damp rushy fields flow
By many a ditch and many a hedgerow
And by many a bush and by many a tree
On to the Blackwater en route to the sea.

He still talks of his old home by Mary O's bog
Where he often did hunt with his black white faced dog
Reliving old memories a thing he enjoy
In the heart of the man there is still a young boy.

Of his old Homeplace he has many a good memory
And a Claraghatlea man at heart he will always be
By Mary O's bog from here far away
Mick Kelleher first looked on the lamp of day.