Jim Cashman's Love Of Place Poem by Francis Duggan

Love of place in most people transcends love of Country by their old memories some are moved to tears
The old nostalgia does remain with them for where they lived in their younger years
Jim Cashman is one i remember he did have a strong sense of place
Though in Claraghatlea the Townland he was raised in his had become a stranger's face

From his home in Cappagh County Waterford he drove often just to walk in the old fields again
Of the beloved Claraghatlea of his boyhood the good memories in old age did remain
He loved them old fields more than i did fond memories live on as some say
And at heart he remained a Claraghatlea fellow though from there he did live far away

In the home where he played with his siblings i see him with tears in his eyes
For where he would not see his last sunset but where he saw his first sunrise
I have come to know of nostalgia it does seem an incurable thing
Jim Cashman's best memories were of the place where he had lived his first Spring

His father Pat married one of the Claraghtalea Looneys where Neily Duggan lives today
The time on all of our lives keeps on ticking and ticking and ticking away
Where Jim Cashman lived as a youngster when his hair was curly and brown
He worked in the fields in view of Clara just over a mile from Millstreet Town

Claraghatlea did mean so much to him but there he did not grow old and gray
Jim Cashman at rest far from Millstreet in Cappagh his last remains lay
I do recall him as an old man but that was a long time ago
The passing of time then on him telling and time becomes everyone's foe.