From cobbled streets and pavements
From coal dust in the air
From the sound of looms in the local mill
From schoolyard noises there
From trolley buses rattling
From floods down Shakerley Road
From a game of bowls at Paddy’s Hump
From sink slutch by the load
From black faced miners coming home
From pigeons in a loft
From allotments and from whippets
From birds that coughed a lot
From Tyldesley’s heavy industry
From factory mill and mine
From Tyldesley railway station
In the summertime
To Ireland over the rolling sea
Dun Laoghaire harbour walls
To Westland Row and boarding train
Driver’s whistle calls
To Mullingar Roscommon
To Manulla in the west
To Ballina and Bangor
And places I know best
To Carrowmore the Big Turn
And to the river side
The glory of my mother’s home
And to Glencullen side
The transformation total
Lancashire industry
Mayo in the morning mist
Irish peasantry
Farm and field and mountainside
River running wide
All my summers in my mind
And in my heart abide
Brian Fahy
20 May 2022
Erris Poetry 