School: Laragh

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1. Pat Short (continued)

   

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   Short was he by name, and short too by nature
   A yard and a bib, I'm told was his stature,
   He lived all alone - no father or mother.
   No wife, no kids, no sister no brother.

   A mender of brogues or cobbler by trade
   With a last and an awl his living he made,
   The present his all; he looked not before him, The money when earned was spent in a 'jorium' [?].
   No Saturday night sent him sober to bed.
   "He'd die there some night" the neighbours all said,
   Or if not a corpse in his bed he'd be found,
   When crossing the river he'd surely be drowned.

   For his path from the pub, wound along its far bank,
   A near to Pat's hub, it was spanned by a plank,
   But Pat still boozed on in the usual style
   And heard all these things with a nod and a guile,
   Crossed the plank in the dark, rose
   safe in the morn'
   And treated themselves and their warning with scorn.

   Within a few miles of this very same spot
   The police some time ago had built a new hut
   And Sergeant Fitzgerald and three stalwart men
   Did just so much good there, as if there were ten.
   Fine times they had there, the neighbours so said
   Read and smoked all the day, and at night went to bed

   (continues on next page)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Matthew Smith

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   73

   Address

   Moyer, Co. Cavan