Francis Duggan Patriotism Poems

The Citizens band play the National Anthem at the front of the parade
And the returned soldiers march behind them in war their mark they had made
In a north eastern Country they had done their Nation proud
The National flags are waving and the cheering for them loud
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'Tis true to the dead that respect we should show
But they still honour men who died ninety years ago
For a dubious cause in Lands far away
But the war that was supposed to end all wars is re-lived today.
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What is patriotism you are asking me
Though with the answer I give you perhaps you may not agree
With what on patriotism I do have to say
You win some and lose some life can be that way,
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When your Country's sport stars take the field you wave the National flag
And of your Country's greatness you never cease to brag
And the praises of your Nation's heroes you never fail to sing
Though too much patriotism can be a dangerous thing.
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Patriotism, Nationalism and Religion so much we hear of them and read
To war terrorism, death and suffering they often do lead
From them far too often something ugly does begin
Without them the Human World would be better to live in
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Not everyone loves their Homecountry Byron the English poet loved Greece
And in the Islands in the Atlantic he died and found his lasting peace
To the people of Greece a true hero in their history his legend has grown
He may have been born and raised in England but they claimed him as one of their own
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That our Nation's sports women and men should be the best Worldwide
Has got nothing to do with our love of sport only false Nationalistic pride
'Tis not for their love of Country that individual sports people compete
But for their own self glory and for their own self conceit.
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Quite different to patriotism 'the stay at home' would not understand
The nostalgia that's felt by the migrant when thinking about the Homeland
The nostalgia that gives rise to sadness for what was and cannot be never more
She fancy she hears the gulls calling above the cliffs of the Homeshore.
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