Ireland

"IRELAND"

We gazed upon the Cliffs of Moher
And walked upon the Rock
Then drove the road toward Dublin
And down to Glendalough.
We prayed our prayers at Clonmacnois
With ancient ghosts of kings
And by the Granard's grassy graves
Unmarked, where memory clings.

From deep within the Burren's cave
And chamber of Newgrange
Came voices of the ancient past
Familiar, yet strange.
The echoes faint of roaring bears
Reverberate through stone,
And spirits from the sacred sidhe
All prove we're not alone.

From Galway, Clare and Limerick
Roscommon, Offlay, Meath
From Dublin, Louth and Longford,
To the county of Westmeath,
From Kildare, Wicklow, Waterford,
To Kerry's silver lakes
We drank in beauty every day
The gift the traveler takes!

And from the Shannon River edge
In Ballina we see
The view Boru was drawn home to
While Ireland's great Ard Rí.
But from three thousand miles away
Our mind's eye still will see
Those strong deep roots that nourish
Our ancestral family tree.

More to see than we have seen,
More to know than known,
More to love than we yet love,
Our minds and hearts have grown.
The striking beauty of this land
But one attraction here;
The kindness of the people
Is what makes this land so dear.

C. 1998 Cáit Finnegan