Tall Towers.

Falcon Nests.

Twisted Rocks.

Summer Sunsets.

Mary Black.

Soul Singing.

A Song for Ireland.

Drinking in the Pub all day.

Fiddler play your Reel.

Stand on the beach at Dingle.

Atlantic Bass and Galway Salmon.

Living on the Western Shore.

Luke Kelly.

The Voice of The People.

A Song for Ireland.

Ireland has been blessed with some extraordinary Singers.

Mary and Luke sing with natural authority.

Singing songs all their lives.

Silver songs of Freedom.

Songs for Ireland.

Louis MacNeice’s long autobiographical Poem, ‘Autumn Journal’ has had a prominent place on my shelves for more than 50 years now (I was a precocious Poetry devotee).

Today I feature two exquisite shorter poems which demonstrate his technical accomplishment and plangent imagination.

… I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk

to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.

And ain’t it the truth ….

It’s no go the merrygoround, it’s no go the rickshaw,
All we want is a limousine and a ticket for the peepshow.
Their knickers are made of crepe-de-chine, their shoes are made of python,
Their halls are lined with tiger rugs and their walls with head of bison.

If you are Irish or know someone who is Irish or of Irish heritage (and that’s all of you!) please share these Hail St Patrick Posts as widely as possible.