To Hell Or To Connacht

To Hell or to Connacht was Cromwells's war cry
To poor Irish tenant farmers his cruel words did apply
Cromwell was a war criminal the facts never lie
To Hell or to Connacht were his words or die.

When Cromwell handed over the command of the Royalist Troops to Henry Ireton the results were the same
In human history their treatment of poor Irish people is a human shame
In their conquests of Ireland thousands of people died
Any form of human rights of them was denied.

Poor Irish tenant farmers were put on the road
To Connacht or to die of no fixed abode
Oliver Cromwell and Henry Ireton were far worse than cruel
They were despotic leaders who abused their rule.

Anyone who knows of history surely do know
Of the atrocities of the Crown forces in Ireland three and a half centuries ago
Cromwell and Ireton were horrible men
They must have been born in the Devil's den.

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poem by Francis Duggan
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Irish-English

Having stolen all the goods and gone,
The English are back in Ireland
Seeking the good of man
In folksong of the past.
Irish in acadamia
Have left the country behind
Preferring to live where the air comes in,
Leave the stench to the English mind.
It's neither one thing nor another
But a blend that works the best.
But when it comes to English-Irish
The latter think the opposite's blessed.
Living by the nostrils the Irish whiff the past,
'The English they can have it. By the future we are cast.'

poem by Douglas Scotney
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On Irish Politics And Politicians

Politics in the Republic of Ireland with any joy I can't recall
Nepotism rife in the ranks of the three major parties Labour, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail
Jobs for their kin and their mates only Irish Politicians in their ways so small
In Politics since my time in Ireland suppose things would not have changed much at all
I was never a member of any Irish Political Party to me they seemed a very flawed lot
The way they conducted their business I certainly haven't forgot
Any one party not cleaner than the other honest politicians anywhere hard to be found
I recall amongst Irish Politicians that nepotism did abound
They grew old and retired on their big pensions they took care of themselves and their own
Honesty and fairness with them not a high priority the most of them for such not known
When they spoke of doing good for the Country they did not mean what they did say
They only helped their families, friends and relations respect to them I could not pay
There were a few honourable Irish Politicians just a few that I can recall
But honesty does not survive well amongst Politicians they are a flawed lot overall.

poem by Francis Duggan
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There is not a single injustice in Northern Ireland that is worth the loss of a single British soldier or a single Irish citizen either.

quote by James Callaghan
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My father's parents were Irish. Only a year before my father died, he and I went back to Ireland for a week to look at the old homestead.

quote by John C. Hawkes
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The Priests of Ireland

YOU have waited, Priests of Ireland, until the hour was late:
You have stood with folded arms until 'twas asked—Why do they wait?
By the fever and the famine you have seen your flocks grow thin,
Till the whisper hissed through Ireland that your silence was a sin.
You have looked with tearless eyes on fleets of exile-laden ships,
And the hands that stretched toward Ireland brought no tremor to your lips;
In the sacred cause of freedom you have seen your people band,
And they looked to you for sympathy: you never stirred a hand;
But you stood upon the altar, with their blood within your veins,
And you bade the pale-faced people to be patient in their chains!
Ah, you told them—it was cruel—but you said they were not true
To the holy faith of Patrick, if they were not ruled by yon;
Yes, you told them from the altar—they, the vanguard of the Faith—
With your eyes like flint against them—that their banding was a death—
Was a death to something holy: till the heart-wrung people cried
That their priests had turned against them—that they bad no more a guide—
That the English gold had bought you—yes, they said it— but they lied!

Yea, they lied, they sinned, not knowing you—they had not gauged your love:
Heaven bless you, Priests of Ireland, for the wisdom from above,

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poem by John Boyle O'Reilly
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I love to go to Ireland just to relax.

quote by Ron Wood
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The Dedication To A Book Of Stories

SELECTED FROM THE IRISH NOVELISTS

THERE was a green branch hung with many a bell
When her own people ruled this tragic Eire;
And from its murmuring greenness, calm of Faery,
A Druid kindness, on all hearers fell.
It charmed away the merchant from his guile,
And turned the farmer's memory from his cattle,
And hushed in sleep the roaring ranks of battle:
And all grew friendly for a little while.
Ah, Exiles wandering over lands and seas,
And planning, plotting always that some morrow
May set a stone upon ancestral Sorrow!
I also bear a bell-branch full of ease.
I tore it from green boughs winds tore and tossed
Until the sap of summer had grown weary!
I tore it from the barren boughs of Eire,
That country where a man can be so crossed;
Can be so battered, badgered and destroyed
That he's a loveless man: gay bells bring laughter

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poem by William Butler Yeats
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When I was younger, I was in love with everything about the British Isles, from British folklore to Celtic music. That was always where my passions were as a young girl, and so I studied folklore as a college student in England and Ireland.

quote by Terri Windling
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Rain is also very difficult to film, particularly in Ireland because it's quite fine, so fine that the Irish don't even acknowledge that it exists.

quote by Alan Parker
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I'm just a true Irish boy at heart.

quote by Colin Farrell
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The Dead whno Died for Ireland

The dead who died for Ireland!
Oh, these are living words
To nerve the hearts of patriots —
to steel avenging swords —
They thrill the soul when spoken,
and lowly bend the head
With reverence for the memories
of all our martyred dead.

The dead who died for Ireland —
the noble ones — the best,
Who gave their lives for Motherland,
Who poured upon her breast,
In Freedom's cause, the blood she gave —
Who with their dying breath,
Sent prayers to God to heal her woes —
then sealed their love in death.

The dead who died for Ireland,
How hallowed are their graves!

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poem by John Boyle O'Reilly
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I can't play my songs on the smaller harp. I have a Celtic harp. I can't do the key changes.

quote by Joanna Newsom
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Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow.

quote by James Joyce
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Ireland is also quite nice. So is Amsterdam.

quote by Diane von Furstenberg
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The gun is not out of Irish politics.

quote by Ian Paisley
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But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible.

quote by Anne McCaffrey
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At Leeds I've tried to concentrate on my club form, but you get caught up in all the World Cup fever once you come back to Ireland and see all the Irish boys again.

quote by Robbie Keane
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I am hugely proud to have played for Ireland.

quote by Kenny Cunningham
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In the Hoops of Green

In the hoops of green
In colours proud
Players, past & present
Heroes to Parkhead’s crowd.

From Maley’s days
And Jock Stein’s glory
The faithful have grown
On Celtic’s story.

From the streets of Glasgow
From Maryhill Road
To the sidewalks of Toronto
The passion still grows.

As we sing with pride
Old familiar songs
Our culture and faith
We will pass along.

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poem by Daniel McDonagh
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