Songs & PoemsSongs & Poems
Around The Cuilcagh Mountains
A Song Written by Dan O'Hara
Around the Cuilcagh Mountains
There’s a rugged, lovely spot
It stands in County Cavan
Beside the Shannon Pot
There’s Glan, the Barrs, Blacklion
Going down the auld long braes
Where I rode my old black bicycle
For fifteen bob a day
Belcoo Railway
A Song Written by Phil (Bernard) Mc Donnell
(v1) Pat was once in Belcoo town to Enniskillen he was bound
Looking round and all around in the glen to see the railway.
(chorus)
Its engine boiling water tight
puffin with all its might
And upon my word it was a sight
to see the Belcoo railway.
Dan O'Hara Video
Video by youtube user gowlan. Around The Cuilcagh Mountains and Belcoo Railway sang by Dan O'Hara at the Bush bar, Blacklion, West Cavan reunion, Aug, 1989.
Phil Mc Donnell's Fire
A poem by Gerry (Mickey Frank) Maguire
The clock strikes four on this foreign shore, beside my sleepless bed.
The harvest moon is full and bright and memories fill my head.
I can see it still and I always will with longing and desire,
When the rafters rang and we danced and sang
Round Phil McDonnell's fire.
Mystery
A poem by John O Rourke
Cuilcagh on Christmas day is squat and immovable.
Stolidly I ascend the Oggal road towards Unshago.
Near the top Surveying North-Westerly in utter silence there is meditation.
A reed quivers in the mild light.
Man is thinking reed, Quinlan,the old professor once remarked.
In lotus position there is only God.
Ben ,
elongated, and back far reaching runs out to Sligo,
Its mountain a foggy grey blue.
Two bushes-branches entwined are dancing
One a Hindu goddess reaching out
The other in awesome rapture appears to bow.
Mc Canns Lament for Blacklion
by Dr Nessan Mc Cann who was a general practitioner in West Cavan and Belcoo from 1953 untill 1959
Though banished far from Ireland,
My thoughts go ever back
To a border town in Cavan,
They call it just the 'Black.
In any of the seasons,
My heart will miss a beat,
As thoughts go back to cavan
And quiet Blacklion Street.