A Citizen Of Claraghatlea Poem by Francis Duggan

A Citizen of Claraghatlea is all that I can be
And though I left it many years ago it still feels home to me
In house by stream from Claramore my life's journey began
And there I spent my boyhood years and grew into a man
The fields I knew in boyhood years many of them had a name
Perhaps were I to see them now to me they would look the same
As they looked many years ago when I was in my prime
Some three decades or more ago and that's going back in time
I often visit Claraghatlea if only in a dream
And I can hear the dipper singing in the flooded stream
That rushes down from Claramore swollen by heavy showers
Through lush old fields of Claraghatlea resplendent in their flowers
A Citizen of Claraghatlea though there I did not stay
The love of place it follows us as some are known to say.