My Hope One Hundred Years Later

by Lily Mulrenan

My hope tastes like a bundle of freedom resting on my plate.

My hope looks like a path to peace bursting through the clouds. 

My hope smells like a gust of fresh air waltzing through a waiting room.

My hope sounds like Michael Collin’s speech 

Echoing from the steps of the GPO.

My hope is that we are eternally free 

Living life to the full

in peace and harmony. My hope.

Written by Lily Mulrenan, as part of Poetry as Commemoration workshops led by Terry McDonagh in Castlerea Community School, Roscommon, in  November 2022. Transition Year students were invited to write a poem in response to Terry McDonagh’s poem ‘My Freedom One Hundred Years Later’, written in commemoration of the War of Independence.