The Beginning

by Leah Doory

Silence, as the gunshot echoed,

The people were silenced 

The country went quiet

They knew what this meant, war had begun.

“Get off the streets”, cried the mothers 

To the children out at play.

Soldiers marched forward, eyes of steel 

Children ran home, eyes of sadness. 

Silence. No more laughter.

Only tears and sadness.

War filling our hearts and minds with blackness.

Silence. Tears. Death.

Nothing.

Written by Leah Doory, 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.