Matthew 5:20-26
A hundred years ago those houses burned
A civil war aflame
Downhill House by Ballina
Moore Hall the same
Torched destroyed and ruined
Retaliation’s name
For lives destroyed in Dublin
The execution game
Downhill now a fine hotel
You would not know what’s been
But Moore Hall holds the evidence
A gutted beauty seen
It saddened me to see it so
Stately Georgian pile
A testament to anger
And the worst of human bile
But civil war is frightening
Ferocity at play
We hold these things so dearly
How dare you throw away
Come to terms the good Lord says
While you are on the way
Don’t let anger conquer you
Don’t let it win the day
Brian Fahy
3 March 2023
+ Once blood has been shed in a cause, it is very hard to stop it. Ireland knows this so well. Jesus counsels us that not only should we not kill, but we must not let the vice of anger get the better of us. Our virtue must be deep.
Today I read about John Garvey, crown solicitor for Mayo, whose home at Downhill, Ballina was torched in retaliation for executions being carried out against IRA anti-treaty forces. I remember, too, a visit to Moore Hall, a shell of what was once a beautiful Georgian country house. The destruction of beauty always saddens us, but it is as nothing compared to the taking of human life.
Erris Poetry 