School: An Mhainistir, Móin Rátha (roll number 14243)

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1. Caoch the Piper by John Keegan (continued)

   

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   And seasons came and went, and still
   Old Caoch was not forgotten,
   Although I thought him "dead and gone"
   And in the cold clay rotten
   And often when I walked and danced
   With Eily, Kate and Mary,
   We spoke of childhood's rosy hours,
   And prayed for Caoch O'Leary.

   
   (VI)

   Well - twenty had gone past,
   And Junes red sun was sinking
   When I, a man, sat by my door,
   Of twenty sat things thinking.
   A little dog came up the way,
   His gait was slow and weary,
   And at his tail a lame man limped -
   T'was "Pinch" and Caoch O'Leary!

   
   (VII)

   Old Caoch! but ah! how woe-begone!
   His form is bowed and bending,
   His fleshless hands are stiff and wan
   Ay- Time is ever blending
   The colours on his threadbare "bag"
   And "Pinch" is twice as hairy
   And "thin-spare" as when I saw

   (continues on next page)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Peter Phelan

   Gender

   Male

   Informant

   William Kelly

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Mountrath, Co. Laois