Francis Duggan Poems

We had good times when we were young we had now didn't we?
And we had no worries in those days and we lived life carefree
And I loved you then as I still do but you did not love me
And I hoped you'd stay with me for life but it wasn't meant to be.
...

I never was in any army for I never was that sort of a man
Though as a boy I listened to old men by the fire grate talk of their wars with the Black and Tan
They talked of the gunfight at Headford and of the ambush at Tureengarriffe glen
Back in the young days of Sean Moylan who led Duhallow's rebel men.
...

If you support a political party and from politics you don't gain
Then you must be one great idiot 'Tom Fool' should have been your name
As most politicians are deceitful they are a crooked sort of breed
And I've little love for tricksters or twisted men of greed.
...

I am a journey man from Ireland who has written reams of doggerel
But the poets go to the poets heaven and I'm bound for the poetasters hell
For if there is a life hereafter as many believe there may
be
...

Life is like a game of rugger
Don't give an inch or he'll take a yard
Don't give way to the other bugger
To keep on top you must play hard.
...

In Gaelic football he reached a height of which some can only dream
And he played at centrefield with Jack O Shea in Kerry's greatest team
And with pride and distinction the green and gold he wore
Ambrose from Gneeveguilla in Sliabh Luachra near Rathmore.
...

They live in the shabbiest suburb the Children of the lesser Gods
And from the moment they are born they battle against all of the odds
Like Patrick MacGill's 'Children Of The Dead End' for them it's uphill all of the way
If they have a God he doesn't listen when to him for favours they pray.
...

C J he is a worrier he is in a mental mess
He worries over little things his life is ruled by stress,
He is only in his early thirties and his hair is silver gray
And that he looks twenty years older it would be fair to say.
...

Where are the children of Ireland from Cork to County Down?
They are scattered all around the World from London to Auckland Town
You will find them in Australia and Germany and France
They leave to seek their fortune and in life to take their chance.
...

In the darkness of the morning just before the dawn of day
The kookaburra calling in the wood across the way
In his loud and raucous laughter he proclaims his territory
'Do not venture near my border keep away from my gum tree'.
...