Such Good Memories I Feel Happy To Recall Poem by Francis Duggan

I often sat upon the dunce's stool
In the class room in Millstreet Town Primary school
My parents they could not feel proud of me
I was not the type of boy they wished me for to be.

But that is in the long gone yesterday
And Millstreet Town from me seems far away
The role models of my younger years by Cashman's hill now lay
And the years have left me looking rather gray.

Still my boyhood years with fondness I recall
And those days for me my happiest days of all
And Nature was a friend I got to know
Where old Finnow to the Blackwater flow.

In Winter old Clara hill he wore his hat of snow
And the weather glass for weeks on end was low
And the frostbound fields were gray by the hedgerow
And no wildflowers and grass refused to grow.

But late March brought the first signs of the Spring
And deciduous trees were sprouting leaves and birds did chirp and sing
And they built their nests on bush, hedgerow and tree
And Nature's greenery everywhere to see.

The fields were full of beautiful wild flowers
And grass grew lush and greener in the mild Spring showers
And the dipper he was singing in the rill
That babbles down from the field by the hill.

Though that was far away and years ago
To that old country side so much I owe
I had my first lessons from Nature there
Long before the first gray came to my brown hair.

On warm Summer evenings in Finnow river pool
We splashed about young fellows free of school
Those happy times I visualize again
But the good memories now all that with me remain.

Of my happy boyhood days far north of here
But nothing last or so it would appear
And though time will take care of me as it will take care of us all
Such good memories I feel happy to recall.