On The Railway Track From Cork To Kerry Poem by Francis Duggan

On the building of the railway track from Cork to Killarney through the north Cork and east Kerry countryside
It has been said for every sleeper laid that at least one working man died
In the depths of the Irish Winter in weather wild and wet and cold
On the railway track they died in their thousands they were not meant to grow old

On the railway track from Mallow to Banteer to Millstreet and beyond Rathmore
Young men for meager rations to feed their families every day died by the score
In the famine days in Ireland when the potato crop failed to grow
How many people died of hunger is something we will never know

Why good and decent people die of hunger seems beyond one to explain
For to feed their own upper class the British out of Ireland took the grain
They had famine too in parts of Britain as historians do recall
Where many people too died of malnutrition down south in Devon and Cornwall

We need food for our survival as much as we need water and air
The wealthy never die of hunger doesn't life seem so unfair
In the eighteen forties building the railway tracks of Ireland slaving for a pittance pay
Good young men in their thousands died of hunger every day

By wars and droughts that give rise to famine of living resources people denied
Millions of people have died of hunger in Countries Worldwide
But it is always the poor people who suffer in scarcity when times are tough
The wealthy never die of hunger they always have more than enough

In the Irish potato famine hundreds of thousands of people died
Young men working for a pittance on the railway track in the green countryside
Weakened from weeks of hunger in weather wet and windy and cold
On the railway track from Cork to Kerry they were not meant to grow old.