I Loved Claraghatlea Then

The Winters were cold and windy and wet
And the fields often gray with frost something i remember yet
And cattle in the farmyard sheds often bellowing for silage or hay
In the place i was raised in from here far away

But i loved Claraghatlea then and i always will
That green old Town-land in view of Clara Hill
Where i would be a stranger to many today
But love of place until death with me will stay

Claraghatlea is a beautiful place in the Spring
When on leafy groves and hedgerows the wild nesting birds do sing
The cattle out of wintering sheds gaining weight by the day
And the hawthorns cloaked white in their blooms of the May

My heritage to anyone i never deny
But this to most people would also apply
For as long as the breath of life it is in me
A Claraghatlea fellow i always will be

The Summer seldom did pass without days of rain
And in wet Summer weather for farmers no financial gain
In late Autumn the shortening days often wet and windy and i can recall
The deciduous trees their brown leaves shedding in the cool of the Fall

Brown storm water babbling in every stream, rill and drain
And Finnow flowing bank high swollen by heavy rain
But i loved Claraghatlea then and i always will
That green old Town-land in view of Clara Hill.

by Francis Duggan
http://francisrhymer.blogspot.ie/2017/05/i-loved-claraghatlea-then.html