On The Last Time I Saw Knocknagree Poem by Francis Duggan

The Spring had brought flowers to the old fields the robin sang on the leafy birch tree
And hawthorns wore their white flowers of the Maytime on the last time I saw Knocknagree
And on the mossy ditch by the bohreen the bluebells were blowing in the breeze
On a bright and pleasant May evening in temperatures of nineteen or twenty degrees.

Children were playing games in the Village the happy games children do play
A memory that I did take with me and a memory I still have today
The distinctive song of the chaffinch a voice then familiar to me
I still recall Wildlife I once knew and the beautiful things I did see.

Such beauty that inspired Ned Buckley old Knocknagree's last man of rhyme
The literary pride of Sliabh Luachra when he was in his glorious prime
He is with the dearly departed and though to the reaper he has long gone
His poems they are often recited and his legend is still living on.

On the last time I was in Knocknagree the sun did shine in the bright sky
And above the old fields by the Village the swallows chirped as they did fly
And Spring had brought green to Duhallow and songbirds sang on the hedgerow
And the memories with me fresh as ever though that now seems ages ago.