Francis Duggan Poems

Willie Neenan from Millstreet
What a marvellous athlete
Twenty years in time have gone
Since he won a world silver medal in San Juan.
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It's a long way from Australia more than twelve thousand miles away
From County Cork and Ireland and the fields of Claraghatlea
But Mick Kelleher made that air trip he returned on holiday
And though the journey proved quite tiring he enjoyed his three months stay.
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She had no chance of finding work in Bena so she left home when she had turned eighteen
The bigger world out there to her was calling and like they say the far off hills are green
She moved to Richmond close to busy Melbourne and she now works as a teller in a big City Bank
Only a year in her job and she has gained promotion and for her success she only has herself to thank.
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An occasion I won't forget
As long in me as there is living breath
And the memory with me will stay
Of Little Bella's Christening Day.
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He does not smoke pot or cigarettes or alcohol he doesn't drink
And he's the perfect role model or so some seem to think
He attends church on sundays with his wife and teenage daughter and son
And though not many ideal fathers he is seen as one.
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The spur winged plovers breed in depths of Winter
And in the night you often hear them cry
Perhaps they scream at fox who is out hunting
As in the darkness he goes prowling by?
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In the late forties and all through the fifties and that's going back in time
Toots Kelleher from Millstreet was in his glorious prime
In the game of Gaelic Football the great man knew great fame
And through the length and breadth of Ireland his was a well known name.
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For the past twenty of her fifty years she's lived in Port Adelaide
And every day in the old Town a new friend she has made
Her nickname is 'The Coorong Rose' from the coastal lands from where she came
And she is one who doesn't take offence to be called by her nickname.
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She doesn't use hair dyes or makeup to hide ageing signs away
The woman from Indonesia her hair is silver gray
A beautiful brown skinned woman of average build and height
And her smile is infectious she seems carefree and bright.
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The raindrops on the rooftop pitter patter
And the wind the leaves on the verandah scatter
On this wild and wet January sunday in the Summer
The type of day the Aussies call a 'bummer'
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