You Can Be Heroes

You can be heroes

By Maria Ní Mhurchú

(For our boys who became men last Sunday 1st Sept 2019 )

You can be heroes

For years and years

Last Sunday

You went from being young boys

To being real hard clever

Footballing men.

Men with a strategy

Men with a plan

You read the game

And played it

To your advantage

You could have given us anything

Yet you gave us everything

My heart in my mouth

With every kick of the ball

They thought they had it in the bag

And you weren’t given a sporting chance

No-one expected the draw

Except for the Kerry supporters

The animals who came out in their droves

Tip of my hat to you Paudie

And we weren’t disappointed

You played with your hearts

Not with your feet

You didn’t take Sam home

… yet…

But Sam is saying the long goodbye

To the Jackeens

And in two weeks time

With God’s help

When you have Sam on the green and gold

I’ll raise a toast to

My brave Kerry Men

And I’ll party like post Malone.

@marianimhurchu

Knots and the Celtic Tiger

Janet's thread

 

  Words, Knots and Lines, published by Púca Press in 3 languages, Irish, English and German

One of the entries in the above book is a poem titled Knots.  The author is Maria Ní Mhurchú.  The linking of the knots shown in the Book of Kells and the state of knots in which we find the state of Ireland today is very clever.  Have a read yourself.

  Knots by Maria Ní Murchú

Knots by Maria Ní Murchú

When I flick through the Book of Kells

On the internet

My heart always misses a beat

Knots!

Endless knots!

Stylized, graphic, decorative….

Delicatewly woven by dedicated monks

Prayerful, innocent, beautiful.

No sign of the demon of greed here.

It reminds me of the girl with the golden locks

Dancing a Celtic dance

Her long hair plaited intricately

By deft fingers.

Ireland is tied up in knots today.

Not of a monastic…

View original post 178 more words

I saw the photograph

I Saw The Photograph…

 

Maria Ní Mhurchú

 

I saw the photograph and

It brought a lump to my throat;

A foetus

Five months old

Too fragile to be removed

From his mother’s womb.

 

The surgeon made an incision

In the uterus –

The baby suffering from spina bifida;

The surgeon worked away in the dark

Miraculous hands directed by angels from Heaven

Fixing the baby’s spine.

 

But that’s not what brought

Tears to my eyes

No, but the sight of a tiny hand

Courageously slipping out of his mother’s womb

Curling fingers around the surgeon’s ring finger

A small but firm grasp

A thank-you to medical science

And to Our Maker who gives us the courage

To strive to make this world

A better place.