Ronnie McGinn's Poetry Page

In the hustle bustle of every day life it's easy to forget the past. Our poem this week from Dennis F. Sheehan of the Mallow Poetry Group reawakens us to the memory of the man who gave our country ballads like "A Nation Once Again" and "The West's Awake."

He also wrote the "Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill" amongst many others.

Alongside poetry and song writing he established "The Nation" newspaper with Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon.

We refer of course to Mallow native Thomas Davis, who was born in 1814.

Davis was to the fore of Irish nationalist thinking and it was noted by later nationalist heroes, such as Patrick Pearse, that while Wolfe Tone laid out the basic premise that Ireland as a nation must be free, Davis was the one who built the idea of uniting catholic and protestant and promoting the Irish identity.

Thank you Dennis for reminding us of ourselves.

Lament for Thomas Davis

Patriotism he inspired in times of power and imperial glory
When monarchs held sway with pomp and military display
A candle of freedom he lit to uplift the downtrodden in the mode of his day
With script and song he inspired hope that freedom's flag would yet hold sway

He and a few, deftly untied shackles in the recesses of the mind
Unleashing a dream amongst the daily grind subjugating his kind.
Scion of a tradition to span the orange and green was his eternal theme
Mallow born, into the flux at a suppressed humanity reaching for dignity.

With stirring words in song and story he roused the spirit of a nation
Now oft quoted where ever Irishman aspire to concepts of freedom
A golden thread was woven into the fabric of the green flag flying,
With rousing words rekindling the love of country to a new awakening.
Nurturing the desire that right would fly free to assert its rightful dignity

© Dennis F. Sheehan