Old Jim From Mayo Poem by Francis Duggan

Old Jim from Mayo looks up at the moon
Back home right now it must be close to noon
And rain is falling clouds are dark to gray
Above the brown hills half a World away.

He's been in Australia for over forty years
And he's seen his grand children into men and women grow
And it's been thirty years since he's last seen Ireland's shore
And many changes since in west Mayo.

He left Ireland in nineteen fifty six
In his prime of life when he was twenty two
And he worked in London for up to ten years
Till someone said Australia might suit you.

He arrived in Sydney in nineteen sixty six
With his four young children and his English wife
Australia was a prospering country then
And offered them a better style of life.

He live at Emerald close to Melbourne now
And his beloved Ann passed on six years ago
But he has a wish to keep before he die
To see again the fields of west Mayo

And hear the dipper singing in the stream
And dunnock piping on the green hedgerow
And watch the swallows winging to and fro
Above the quiet fields of west Mayo.

Old Jim from Mayo looks up at the moon
Back home right now it must be close to noon
And rain is falling clouds are dark to gray
Above the brown hills half a World away.