Old River Blackwater Poem by Francis Duggan

Flowing through Duhallow on towards Mallow Town
Old River Blackwater in flood waters of brown
Swollen by streams and rivers from the higher ground
The countryside flooded for kilometers around

The river that was old when Fionn was in his prime
Old Blackwater has flowed through rcenturies of time
On through the flat countryside to the Atlantic shore
One of Munster's great rivers will flow forever more

Long before the first people to Hibernia came
The river now known as the Blackwater did not have a name
It flowed towards the ocean from the far away hill
With a babbling tongue that is never still

Far noisier than any big football crowd
The Blackwater in flood it's babble is loud
After heavy rain it often does overflow
And into a huge inland waterway grow

From the high ground in Sliabh Luachra it flows night and day
The river known as the Blackwater a great waterway
The river that inspires story and song
To post literary history it does belong.