Daddy never spoke of it

by John Comerford

Did your father lead the Clara volunteers to Kilkenny,
Easter Monday 1916?
Was he arrested and sent to Wakefield prison after the Rising,
1916?
Daddy never spoke of it.
Did your father re-organise the volunteers in 1917
After being elected a Commander?
Was he involved in getting Cosgrave elected for Sinn Fein,
For Kilkenny in the 1917 By-election?
Daddy never spoke of it.
Did he raise loans for the Sinn Fein government in 1919?
Was he a Justice for the Sinn Fein courts?
Daddy never spoke of it?
Did your father organise the great escape from Kilkenny jail,
November’21?
Was he elected leader of the volunteers imprisoned in Kilkenny
’21?
If he did, Daddy never spoke of it.

Written by John Comerford about Martin Kealy, Blanchfield’s Park. Reproduced with kind permission of the author. This poem was composed in a Poetry as Commemoration workshop led by Mary O’Donnell in Kilkenny Library on March 8th 2023.