A Duhallow Character Poem by Francis Duggan

Mick Punk orMichael Murphy which was his birth name
To be a well known Duhallow character his main claim to fame
An amiable fellow when i was a boy
As one inhis ways who spread laughter and joy

A sturdily built fellow though not very tall
A Duhallow chimney sweep his face black from sootfall
He had fought in and survived World War One from Duhallow far away
But few are left for to remember him today

From Laught in Rathcoole he grew old in Millstreet Town
But no monument there to honour his renown
Though he had survived where many in had died
Like all young Irishmen who fought in the great war one never honoured in his home countryside

Asquite a character of sorts he was known best
With tattooson his big arms and on his broad chest
To say he was a natty dresser would be telling a lie
I never did see himin a suit and a tie

A generous man in his own kindly way
He cleaned many people's chimneys for so little pay
Though with the long deceased he does forever lay
There is not one quite like he was in Duhallow today

He did not have children or a partner or wife
And in the Town of Millstreet he spent his last years of life
A good and a likeable fellow of him one can say
As a young man he fought in a war far away.