Category Archives: Uncategorized

My Ancestral Home I went to see the old placeSlinaunruaThe Fahy’s lived thereOnce upon a timePat Fahy marriedMary LoftusA family of girlsAnd just one boy The girls went to AmericaFor everThe boy my granddadOver England wayA sister Mary followedWith old Pat WalshHad to leaveThey in the family way One sister KateStayed behind In SlinaunMarried aContinue reading “My Ancestral Home”

I don’t mindA short trip in a carFrom here to Bridge of AllanIs not too farBut a bus feels so much saferRattling along its caperWe’re always freeTo have ourselves a jar I drove the roads of ErrisIn my timeThey were quiet roadsHoliday timeBut the roads of EnglandThey are just a messCatastrophic highwaysMust confess Two thousandContinue reading “Road Deaths”

I sat down at the bus stop and fell into conversation with the man who was there before me. We found out quite a bit about one another in the few minutes that we had together. He suffers from arthritis and has to take tablets four times a day. I told him I was widowedContinue reading “Some share in the sufferings of Christ”

Jesus began to reproach the towns(Matthew 11:20-24) see also Isaiah 7:1-9 The 60s were called the time of sexual revolution. The 80s are called the time of the ‘me’ generation. Add the two together and you have a lethal mix of individualism and sexual exploitation. The only person worth bothering about is myself, and theContinue reading “Stand By Me”

‘Hiding these things from the learned and the clever.’(Matthew 11:25-27) My son, Michael, graduated last week from Glasgow University with a degree in Law. I attended the ceremony and it was a grand sight to see all these young people gathered to receive the recognition of the years of study. Walking around in his gownContinue reading “Bernadette”

John 16:29-33 Words spoken in the glenWritten in a letterSent to meAfter Margaret died‘Brian is very good with words’Inspired me to the penWrite for goodness sakeWrite again Words are living essencesComing from withinThey bear the person’s spiritIn their soundThey are not dead upon a pageThey bear the spirit in every ageTaking rootIn every holy groundContinue reading “Find Peace In Me”

True to God’s NameAs a very young child, my first hero was someone called Tom Mix. He was a cowboy in the comics that I read as a small boy. Growing up in the 1950s, the drama of ‘Cowboys and Indians’ was the first great story we heard, our first great struggle of good andContinue reading “True to God’s Name”

Small Talk Saves LivesI saw it on a vanRailway networkWanting you to knowTalk to the SamaritansDon’t disappear insideDon’t walk on the trackIts suicide Locked in inner conflictAnyone can beDownAnd wanting to be outThe battle waged withinIs one that we can’t winVital that we talkGive the shout Small talk every dayIs such a winning wayI haveContinue reading “Small Talk”

We came home through Edgworth, driving down off the high moor, through the crossroads, by the White Horse pub, and along by the cricket field. It was Saturday afternoon and a cricket match was in progress. The sun was shining, the day was warm, very warm for mid April, and the cricket field was aContinue reading “A Cricket Match”

He crossed the threshold of Ramsbottom Railway Station and found himself in the world of the 1950s. All around him were those maroon-coloured signs telling you where to find the Ladies and the Gentlemen and the Waiting Room and the Ticket Office. Two men were sitting inside that little office now, screened by the glassContinue reading “Last Train To Rawtenstall”

“Killarney, Killarney, the place that I love, with its lakes clear and bright as the blue sky above.” The 78 record turned on the radiogram in our dining room, and the lady’s voice sang out about that famous town in Kerry. The Mammy was listening to her Irish songs again. “Where we told love’s sweetContinue reading “The Wild Colondy Boo”

Ben VorlichProminent pyramidAgainst a western skyI saw you every dayWhen seventeenA noviceIn religious lifeThe outlook from Shea’s FortYour majestyDemanded you were seen Of life I then knew nothingA seminary boy was IThe walls of holy houses all I knewBut you have seenSo many thingsThe rising of the clansRob RoyA neighbourWordsworth a visitorToo An old militaryContinue reading “Ben Vorlich”

In the County of Mayo, in the constabulary district of Belmullet, in the sub-division of Bangor, in the Poor Law Union of Belmullet, in the District Electoral Division of Glenamoy, in the Parliamentary Division of Mayo North, in the Townland of Glencullen Lower, in the Barony of Erris, in the Parish of Kilcommon, my mother,Continue reading “Hinterland”

I remember the day my father brought him home. He was just a ‘wee thing’, a small bundle of furry energy, running after our toes. We had come down stairs that morning to find this little puppy scampering around after everything that moved. We, children, were frightened at first, and ran to climb up onContinue reading “Bruce”

“I’ve made that sandcastle, what will I do now?” The little boy was standing in front of his Mammy, his feet covered in the sand of Blackpool beach. He didn’t like this sand at all, and he had never been to the beach before. Sitting in this horrible grit was no fun for him, andContinue reading “Sand”