They came from quiet places
People of the bog
Down a quiet boreen
Beside the door a dog
Cottages of whitewash
Curling wispy smoke
A welcome warm inside
Tea to warm the throat
Out they went and far away
Over to New York
And lived their days with energy
Good nature and fine talk
And home they came on holiday
When parents were alive
Back along that quiet road
Where first they learned to thrive
The busy streets of Boston
The sidewalks of New York
The streets of Philadelphia
Manhattan and the Bronx
All these crowded places
Far from the western shore
And laid to rest in USA
Gra mo croi astor
Brian Fahy
22 February 2023
+ I read the obituaries everyday in the Midwest Radio website and always feel haunted when I read of someone who has died in New York but whose life began in a quiet home in Belmullet or Ballycroy.
My mammy had the best of it as an exile. After sixty years in England she came home to Mayo and had sixteen years back in the land of her birth.
Erris Poetry 