Denis's Boat To Inchagoill Poem by Paddy Glackin

You sailed me on a trip up from Oughterard
To see the millionaires castled near Cong
Thinking I was there to meet Mary Kate
Shocked when I docked in Inchagoill

That's where you ambushed me Fursey
Stalking me stealthily as I disembarked
First your carved head on the doorway
Staring me in the eye to roar at my soul

Limanin cooking boar smoked on a slab.
Lugna's rudder timeless as food without haste.
Me sailing to significant Castles while you waited.
Thirteen hundred years later revealed to me in this place

The slaying when it came was emphatic
A bloodless victory if you wanted a claim.
I ran around in your palm as you practised chiromancy
As the Byzantine Cross punched me square in the face.

Back out again beyond the head arch
Brendan, Neldan, Beoladh nonchalant
The O'Fflaherties of gone generations
Had slayed me effortlessly at the church porch

A worthless island in the shadow of Ashford
Yet the wealthiest place ever I've been
Saints laid in the clay filling the ether
The air thickened with spiritual reak

I will trek eventually to Picardy
Like the Inchagoill currach sailed
I will sink into your footsteps Fursey
And I will pray in your presence again