Donal Brady Poem by Francis Duggan

It was April and the days were growing long
And every bird that could sing was in song
But Donal Brady's eyes were full of tears
As he sat by the lonely moorland mere.

His thoughts returned again to days gone by
When like the birds his heart felt full of joy
The cause of his erstwhile joy his sweet wife Rose
In the graveyard lay in eternal repose.

She was a woman lovely to behold
With large brown eyes and hair of honey gold
To him she remained faithful to the end
His loving wife and greatest ever friend.

She stood by him through times of guilt and shame
When he had stained his character and family's name
When society it proclaimed him as bad
She was the only true friend that he had..

His attempt to rob the local bank did fail
And for the wrong doing he was sent to jail
For attempted robbery six years he served
And his neighbours said 'twas less than he deserved.

Each day he spent in jail seemed like a year
And in his mind there grew a secret fear
That he could never lead a normal life
And that lovely Rose would not become his wife.

But Donal Brady's thoughts had proved him wrong
His absence made her love for him more strong
Her visits to the jail dispelled his fear
She travelled two hundred miles to see him six times a year.

Her letters to him eased the misery
And made him look forward to being set free
Despite his crime he still lived in her heart
And prison walls did not make her from him depart.

But when released and back in his Hometown
All his former friends saw fit to look him down
Save for one the banker's eldest daughter Rose
Whose remains lay in eternal repose.

It was then he felt the impact of disgrace
His father slammed the door shut on his face
He did not forgive him for the shame
That he had brought upon the family name.

She stood by him in his days of greatest need
When all others frowned on him as jailbird breed
Without her he would definitely fail
And end his life a broken man in jail.

She could have married the district's richest squire
But for riches lovely Rose had no desire
She achieved her ambition in life
On the day she became Donal Brady's wife.

For Donal these are times of pain and woe
Last year his only child was forced to go
And travel over eleven thousand miles
To seek his fortune on a foreign soil.

It was want of work that forced his son away
From his Homeland in the month of May
For Australia's vast and sunny Land
Where opportunity await man to expand.

But for Donal suffering will soon be o'er
And unhappiness will not touch him anymore
Because malignant cancer is eating his life away
And he is fast approaching his death day.

He listened to the singing birds of cheer
As he walked from the lonely moorland mere
Towards his home in the outskirts of town
About a mile from where he had sat down.