A Man From Far Away Poem by Francis Duggan

In this great Land I've met many nice people and in this great Land I am growing old and gray
But whereever I live here I won't be a local I'll always be a man from far away
Some Aussies ask me mate where do you come from? when I tell them Millstreet in Duhallow they do say
We've never heard of Millstreet in Duhallow but you learn something don't you every day.

'Tis obvious to us that you must be Irish the accent you were born into you retain
You live a long way south of your old Hometown and will you ever go back there again?
I answer in some Spring in the not distant future I'd like to go back home for a long stay
When nesting birds are singing in the leafy woodlands and the fields are in their wildflowers of the May.

In this great Land I've done a little travelling and I've been to places far more brown than green
Like it is said it is a big old Country and all of it by me will not be seen
A drier climate than the one I was raised in the weather at the most of times warm and dry
El Nino from the ground sucks all of the moisture when the Summer sun is blazing in the sky.

In Claraghatlea in Millstreet in Duhallow from life's beginnings I grew to a man
But far south of where Finnow flows to Blackwater perhaps I well may live out my life span
I have not yet become a Naturalized Australian that would hardly make an Aussie out of me
A migrant from the distant Boggeragh Ranges is all that I can only hope to be.