To Michael Collins Poem by Francis Duggan

Oh noble Michael Collins you were Cork and Ireland's pride
And the day you died at Beal na Mblaith a part of Ireland died
You died under sniper gunfire whilst still in your life's bloom
At Beal Na Mblaith 'The Gap Of Flowers' between Bandon and Macroom.

Who was the man who murdered you the one with satan mind
Was he a fellow Irishman one of your fellow kind
Or was he a hired killer working for the British Crown
And sent across to Ireland with a gun to gun you down?

What matter now who murdered you in such a cowardly way
Who gunned you down at Beal Na Mblaith at twilight of the day?
It took a chicken hearted man to fire that fatal shot
His killing you was craven act and cowards are best forgot.

But what matter most brave Irishman your death was not in vain
Your death brought an end to bitterness to suffering and pain,
Your death brought an end to bloodshed and healed the bleeding scar
That was brought about in Ireland by a bloody civil war.

Yet there are those in Ireland who still scorn your very name
Who blame you for the civil war who put on you the blame
Yet lest those people should forget that there's wrong and there is right
And that there is more than one side to the story of a fight.

And those who hated you the most rose to the heights of fame
And those who hated you the most by knocking you did gain
But those who knock a dead man must be classified as weak
As a dead man cannot answer back a dead man cannot speak.

Oh noble Michael Collins others used you as a tool
By sending you to sign the treaty that ended British rule
It was you who signed the treaty that started civil strife
A civil war that ended with the taking of your life.