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Creggan Churchyard

by
Gabriel Campbell

Reproduced, with the Society's permission, from the 1992 Journal of The Creggan Local History Society

Creggan Church and Graveyard

Of all the places on God's earth
Whose praise is sung in song and verse
I know a place - unsung as yet
Whose beauty far outweighs the rest

Here lie O'Neills - all warriors hold
Their deeds - the stuff of legends told
Nearby MacMurphy takes his rest
From days when outlaw he was pressed

Priesthunter - Johnson of the Fews
And landlords who extorted dues
A priest who lived through famine times
Poor men from now all recline
In Creggan's stony fragrant soil
Here all as one - released from toil

Sometimes at twilight here I stray
When summer's sunset closes day
Across the Meadow comes the strain
McCooey's verse - I hear again
As if the world to turn had ceased
In Creggan Churchyard - all is peace