An Old Song From My Distant Past Poem by Francis Duggan

'The Boys of Barr Na Sraide who hunted for the wran'
A line from a song of Sigerson Clifford and when I was a young man
I heard it sung in pubs and clubs years ago and far away
But that is in my distant past in the long gone yesterday.

Sigerson Clifford a poet from County Kerry from the Town of Caherciveen
And I recall at a March horse fair in Millstreet Town an Irish traveller tall and lean
One in his mid thirties with tousled brown hair I've forgotten his name
Was singing that immortal song that brought it's author fame.

An old song from a famous poet about the Wrenboys of his Hometown
The boys who left Caherciveen in search of their own renown
Some of them lived to a ripe old age and some of them travelled far
From their home place to battlefields for to fight and die in war.

An old song from my distant past from a Land beyond the seas
Revitalize again in me old fading memories
On Winter evenings around the fire place by old men I heard it sung
But that was many years ago in the days when I was young.