Christmas in Ireland, 1920
by D.L. Kelleher
There were many Christmas seasons gone before,
And the people poor and kind,
With the fire upon the hearthstone and the door
Latched only against the wind;
And the lonely would be calling to the lonely till they’d
Meet;
‘Twas just like one big family in the little cobbled street.
But this Christmas is upon us, Jesus dear,
Not a candle lit for You,
And we in behind the shutters till we’d hear
The dark lorries rumbling through;
But the boys are out in ditches won’t forget Your Sacred
Name.
May the heart of every hunted son be Your bright candle-
flame!
Kelleher, Daniel Lawrence, Twelve Poems. n.d.
