Do you want to know?
About English industry
I can tell you
I grew up in a town
That knew it well
Coalmines and cotton mills
A factory down the road
Breathing coal dust
Foggy morning swell
Do you want to know?
About Irish peasantry
I can tell you
I lived there every year
Back in my mother’s place
The wildest, wildest west
The land of Erris
The land she left
That time and shed a tear
These places are my heritage
My story
Full of people
Characters galore
I have the best of both worlds
Anglo-Irish boy
The old resistance
Finds a peace and more
The Irish came to England
In their thousands
Worked here, here they also dwell
Immersed in English culture
And traditions
They know the English very, very well
The opposite sadly is not true
English don’t know Ireland at all
You can see it in the way
That politicians
Have failed and failed again
At Ireland’s call
The tragedy of Ulster
Needs a wisdom
Needs patience
And good diplomacy
But ignorance
On the part of politicians
Has only served
To bring more misery
It is time to bring
The countries more together
Too long we’ve been
At loggerheads apart
We need more understanding
More mutual give and take
I’m a walking living proof
A prime example of the art
Brian Fahy
17 June 2021
Erris Poetry 