They Are Irish
They Are Irish
by Nellie Moran
They are Irish -
they drink strong drink and live long lives,
they bury their sons and daughters and then
their sons and daughters bury them.
They are Irish -
they are a people of emotions,
a people of strong hands and warm hearts,
a hard people with an inborn love of fragile things.
They are Irish -
they are a stubborn loyal people,
A people of bad luck, of dead dreams
that were not easy dying.
They are Irish -
they laugh and weep from the depths of their being
and their story and the story of all Irish
is written in their eyes.
They are Irish -
they have a rough and tumble way about them yet,
they play with children and share their dreams,
they have a broad, warm grin.
They are Irish -
and had they never been conquered, had not all their
causes failed, then they would be, what in their hearts
they are -- a warm and gentle people.
But the world labeled them slaves and sought always to
remind them of their place.
Yet pride, nay arrogance, made straight their back and
set a certain hardness to their face.
So it is, that, They are Irish -
and they must live two lives.
One - for the world to see,
The other - because they must be who they are.
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
