PHOTOS

 Before i joined the army i lived in Donegal,

 Where, every night, the fairies would hold their carnival.

 But now I'm out in Flanders where men like wheatears fall

 And it's Death and not the fairies who is holding carnival.

 I oft go out at night-time

 When all the sky's a-flare

 And little lights of battle

 Are dancing in the air.

 I use my pick and shovel

 To dig a little hole,

 And there i sit till morning-

 A listening-patrol

 A silly little sickle

 Of moon is hung above;

 Within a pond beside me

 The frogs are making love

 I see the German sap-head;

 A cow is lying there,

 Its belly like a barrel,

 Its legs are in the air.

 The big guns rip like thunder,

 The bullets whizz o' erhead,

 But o'er the sea in

 England good people lie abed.

 And over there in England

 May every honest soul

 Sleep sound while we sit watching

 On listening patrol.

 Patrick in uniform

 Patrick MacGill, Irish journalist, Poet and Novelist, born Glenties County Donegal

 Served with the London Irish Rifles ( 1/18th Battalion London Regiment )and was

 Wounded at the Battle of Loos, in September 1916.

In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown

To beauty proud, as was your mother's prime

In that desired, delayed incredible time,

You'll ask why i abandoned you, my own

And the dear breast that was your baby's throne

To dice with death, and oh! They'll give you ryhme

And reason; one will call the thing sublime

And one decry in a knowing tone.

So here, while the mad guns curse overhead

And tired men sigh, with mud for couch and floor

Knowing that we fools, now with the foolish dead

Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,

But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed

And for the Secret Scripture of the poor.

Tom Kettle, Irish Poet, Politician, Teacher and Soldier wrote this poem

For his infant daughter Betty whom he had never seen. Two days later Tom was killed whilst serving with the 9th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Part of the 16th Irish Division, who attacked Ginchy during the Battle of the Somme on the 9th of September 1916.

Tom has no known grave.

( To read more about Tom Kettle see pages on the 16th Irish Division )