Thursday, March 17, 2011

St. Patrick's Day - Limerick #2


St. Patrick's Day - Limerick #2

In honour of Saint Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland, whose Feast Day is to-day, I have penned 5 or 6 Limericks with an Irish theme.

Here is the Second! Please be kind - I'm well aware I'm no Seamus Heaney or Yeats. Hell, I'm not even a Pam Ayres. Or worse still, an Andrew Motion!

A pig farmer's son from Dundalk
Was addicted to all forms of pork
Whe he ate all the bacon
His poor Da was makin'
He was forced to move down to Cork.

Dundalk (from Irish: Dún Dealgan meaning "Dalgan's stronghold, or fortress") is the County Town of County Louth in the Irish Republic. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations with the mythical warrior Cú Chulainn, known as the Hound of Ulster . The town's crest reads Mé do rug Cú Chulainn Cróga, meaning "I gave birth to brave Cú Chulainn". It was granted its charter in 1189.

Our poor farmer's son is here on the Rocky Road to Dublin, and beyond that Cork. The Irish name for Cork, Corcaigh, is derived from the Gaelic word for swamp. There's a touch of swamp-grass at the signpost's foot to show our man is setting off in the right direction. His Da loves him, but times are tough and the sorry gentleman cannot survive with his big fat son eating him out of house and home. I think the farmer's son's name is Ralph Cummings.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

lol, it's so sweet and tragic at the same time