Lough Conn

I saw a photo of Lough Conn

And remembered mum and dad

They honeymooned around its shores

First holiday they had

Wed before the war had finished

Just before D-Day

They met and married then said goodbye

Dad had to go away

 

What a journey my father had

To find his way back home

First stop was Normandy

Crossing that bloodied foam

Then to Caen in smithereens

And onward then through France

Into Belgium Holland

And then the Bulge by chance

 

Ended up in Germany

Out then on patrol

Arrested a German soldier

And not just any fool

His journey through that conflict

Brought him face to face

With a certain Heinrich Himmler

Humanity’s disgrace

 

And then to 1946

Demobbed and home at last

He and mum to Ireland

They ridded of that past

Except for midnight nightmares

But they declined with time

And the sun shone down on dear Lough Conn

In that happy summertime

 

Brian Fahy

29 January 2023