Twenty-Five Feet

by Sally McHugh

My neighbour Una
Knitted Aran sweaters,
Needles clickity-click,
all day, all evening long.
Stories a-plenty
but never of her godfather, Liam
Or their safe house for the Irish Volunteers.
What I remember was tales of
descendancy from the Gaelic family of O’Eidin
benefactors of our medieval Dominican Priory.
Una left me her golf putter:
I can land the ball blindfold from twenty-five feet,
the distance Liam Mellows stood from the firing squad.

Reproduced with kind permission of the author. This poem was composed in Poetry as Commemoration workshops held at Galway City Museum  on 5th and 12th of November, 2022. The workshops were led by writer Gerry Hanberry.