A Long Way From Here To Duhallow Poem by Francis Duggan

A long way from here to Duhallow from Millstreet, Kanturk and Banteer
And a long way from Cullen and Kiskeam and Newmarket is distant from here,
Knocknagree on the Cork-Kerry border on the high roadway up from Rathmore
And Ballydaly, Dromtarriffe and Rathcoole are far north of this far southern shore,
A long way from here to Rockchapel thousands of miles north as the crow fly
And thousands of long leagues of ocean and thousands of long miles of sky
Back there it is so very different A different World it would seem
When the flood roars bank high in the old fields the dipper he sings in the stream,
A long way from here to Glenlara, Meelin, Kilcorney and Boherbue,
Where the great and ageless Blackwater river winds it's way by quiet Derrinagree
On through the old fields on through Mallow by Youghal it flows to the sea
From the foothills near old Ballydesmond it babbles in my memory,
To here such a different landscape a different World one might say
Far north even as the crow does fly in distance a very long way.