Ben Heeran Poem by Francis Duggan

Nobody drowned their grief in beer
On the day Ben Heeran died,
Nobody even shed a tear,
For him nobody cried.

The warden unlocked his prison cell
And found him stiff in bed,
Even at first glance he could easily tell
That Ben Heeran was dead.

Ben Heeran was a reckless man
Who lived a troubled life
He once even tried to kill his wife Jo Ann
With a pointy carving knife.

He was the perverse convict kind
Tough as an iron nail,
A man with a satan like mind
Well used to life in jail.

He paid the bitter price for crime
And brought on himself ill fame
But there was a time one glorious time
When others praised his name.

Ben put his courage on display
At the fire in Mooney's house,
He saved the life of Mooney's child that day
And the life of Mooney's spouse.

That day he put courage on show
All the courage that he'd had,
That day he let his neighbours know
That he was not all bad.

Nobody even gave a damn
On the day Ben Heeran died,
Nobody loved the convict man
And for him nobody cried.