Family - My Irish Family Roots Poem by Paul Warren

My ancestors in Ireland had to change their name
When conquered by the British in their Empire game
Ireland became the first colony in the Britannia way
Where the Irish people in their country did not have a say

When they blasted the Irish as a stronger force
And the English did not practice equity in their course
So the Irish were oppressed in the green country
Ruled over by the Anglos and their transplanted nobility

To gain work and to put food on the table for their family
In a country with subsistence farming as their homily
My family changed their name from O'Murnain from Cork
So they could be seen as Anglo-Irish when they looked for work

With the Celtic form being Iwarrynane it was Anglicised and employable
As it was changed to Warren and meant they were instantly malleable
And so that is how our Irish name was changed to a Norman extraction
With the French name originally derived from 'de la Varenne' in that notion.

© Paul Warren Poetry