A Stranger In Duhallow Poem by Francis Duggan

I had lived there for many years though time has left me gray
And a stranger in Duhallow is all I'd be today
I did have a few friends there but there I did not stay
The far off hills look greener as some are known to say.

A stranger in Duhallow in Cullen and Millstreet Town
Since I have done little in life to lay claim to renown
And though two decades of absence may not seem that long in time
I left that old green country-side when I was past my prime.

The country-side I once knew may not have undergone great change
But to feel like a stranger in Duhallow for me would feel quite strange
Some I knew there are getting old and some with the dead lay
And some have emigrated and time just ticks away.

From the fields of old Duhallow one might say I do live far
And perhaps I'd feel a stranger now in any Duhallow bar
And though I sometimes think of Claraghatlea and green old Lisnaboy
Absence makes the heart grow fonder to me no longer does apply.

Twenty years since I heard the skylark carolling above old Clara hill
Or the white breasted dipper singing in the babbling mountain rill
As by many a ditch and hedgerow it winds it's downhill way
And a stranger in Duhallow perhaps I'd feel today.