Michael "The Bard" Mullin

Poems

In Memoriam

(Cardinal Logue)

We mourn the great departed:
We mourn our chieftain gone:
That Star hath set in Eirinn
That long o’er Eirinn shone.

The four sad winds of Eirinn
Carry the wail afar,
From the sad hearts in Eirinn
To where our exiles are.

God sent that Star to guide us
On to His blest abode:
While many a smooth road lured us
From the rough, narrow road.

God spared us long that Lighthouse
Above the billows dark,
When hidden rocks and tempests
Threatened the struggling bark.

His good and great achievement
Have fashioned, high and broad
A pyramid ascending
From Eirinn up to God.

No need for us to praise him
To him earth’s praise was dross
No need for us to mourn him:
But, oh: we mourn our loss.

A Star hath set in Eirinn:
Still darkling on we grope:
Lo! a new Star in heaven
Filling our hearts with hope.

MICHAEL MULLIN, ‘The Bard of Foremass’,
Foremass Lower, Sixmilecross, Co. Tyrone.

Verse 4 – bark or barque – a ship
Verse 6 – dross – refuse – of no value

In memory of Joan Duggan (nee Mullin), Michael’s daughter. Died 5th March 2017 in Daisy Hill Hospital Newry. Rest in peace

Hail Mary Full Of Grace

Tis a sweet wee holy prayer
For October or for May
Anytime or anywhere
Tisn’t difficult to say
You could say it cooking – sewing
Or when cleaning up the place
When home-coming when out-going
Hail, Mary, Full of Grace

It will sanctify your losses
And turn them all to gains
It will glorify your crosses
And pacify your pains
Say it when your hopes grow dimmer
And your struggles grimmer grow
Pray it in your spells of gladness
And of sadness and of woe

Say it when you’re feeling weary
And your heart is sad and sore
And the oftener you pray it
You will come to love it more
You will grow to say it sleeping
And when death you have to face
None in vain has ever prayed it
Hail, Mary, Full of Grace.

Poems in Category , , A Bit of Broken Delph, A brave lad, A Bunch of Heather, A Dozen Wee Ducks, A Dream, A Dream of Home, A Failte to Foremass, A Fairy Field, A Farmer’s prayer, A Farmer’s reverie, A Field of Beauty, A glimpse through Erin’s past, A Happy Valley, A Harvest Eve in Foremass, A jolly Ploughman, A Little While, A Love Song, A Neglected Melody, A Nice Day In February, A Picture, A Ploughman’s Picture House, A Prayer for Mary, A Reverie, A Robin sang, A sigh for Foremass, A Sigh for Foremass, A Summer Eve In Tirowen, A Sweet Retreat, A turfman’s musing, A Walk and a Wish, A wee peat posy, A Wee Wee Poem, A Wise wee cat, A Wise Wee River, A Wreath of Shamrocks, A-Cartin turf, All For Mary, All Souls Night, An Autumn Scene, An Exile’s Homecoming, An Exile’s Recollections, An Irish Whin Bush, An Old Man’s Prayer, An Old, Old Pair, An Untitled Poem from late 1960/Early 1970s, April, April, At the corn sowing, At The Cutting of The Peat, At The Stacking of The Corn, Autumn Musings, Autumn Musings, Back to the bog, Beech Leaves, Blame me not if I’m unworthy, Blessed Oliver Plunket, Both of us dream, Brian, Brian and Maire, Brigid’s Day, By A Foremass Fireside, By A New-Made Grave, By A Pleasant Riverside, Cardinal Macrory, Carting home the turf, Cloughfin River, Cushla Machree, Cutting the peat, Danny Aroon, Dear Irish Breeze, Death of an August Day, Deceived, Dermot, Do Not Wait Till Christmas, Doing the Stations of the Cross, Easter 1916, Exile Dream, Farewell To Foremass, Feast of The Assumption, Flying, Fond Memories, Foremass Braes, Four Wee Ducks, Glennanffrin, Grave Thoughts, Green Fields, Greeting The Exiles, Had I The Muse’s Art Divine, Hail Mary Full of Grace, Harvesting, He Knelt by a Grave, Heaven on Earth, Hi for the hills, I Love, I Sing, I take a stroll, I walk among my stooks, In April, In Foremass in Tyrone, In Memoriam, In memory of Joan Duggan (nee Mullin), Michael’s daughter. Died 5th March 2017 in Daisy Hill Hospital Newry. Rest in peace, In Springtime, In the bog, In the boglands, In The Doorway of her Cottage, Johnny, Joy comes with Spring, Joy Comes With Spring, June, Kathaleen, Kindness, Knockmanny, Lament of The Rose of Knockmanny, Lines To A Thrush, Lines to Mary, Little Things of Grace, Looking Back, Looking back, Loud Roars The Breeze, Love In A Cot, Loves Petition, Mary, Mary Machree, Maureen Asthore, Memories of May, Mountain hiking, Mountain musings, My Favourite Stream, My God is Not A Distant God, My Monitor, My Native Stream, My Rosary Beads, Near A Hill-Top, New Year, No Surrender, Noreen of Shane, November Dead, O Foremass Mine, O Little River, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, O! Cruel Fate, O, Teach Me, Blackbird, Of The Sacred Heart of Jesus, On Altamuskin, On Altamuskin Brae, On Christmas Day, On the Mountain, One Bower, Only a few more hills to climb, Optional, Patrick Dan (PD) Mullin “The Bard”, Pleasant Comrades, Ploughing in the Foremass fields, Ploughin’, Porridge, Remembering, Remembering, Rustic Charms, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sad Songs are the Songs for Me, September Days, Sing Us A Song of Joy, Sing us a song of joy, Song of a Foremass Farmer, Song of the grey-beards, Spring In My Garden, St. Bride, St. Brigid’s Day, St. Brigid’s Day, The Bog Road, The Bogwind, The brown bogs of Ireland, The Brown Bogs of Ireland, The critical times, The Daisy, The eve of June, The Farmer among his stooks, The Foremass fields, The hills for me, The Holy Year, The Hopeful Bachelor, The key of happiness, The Magpie’s Song, The Masterpiece, The May in Ireland, The noble men who died, The Northern Blackwater, The Old Altar in Altamuskin, The old and new, The Old Home Road, The old year, The Ould Clocker, The Owenbrack, The Ploughman, The Poet to the Farmer, The Poet to the Farmer, The Roads of Tyrone, The rushing gale, The Secret, The Sleepy Valley in July, The song of the plough, The Song That Soothes My Heart, The Turfman’s song, The Vale, The Valley of The Telephone, The Wood In Autumn, There’s a High Hill in Tyrone, This is an unpublished and untitled peice – probably a first draft and undated post 1950, Thomas Davis, Thomas Davis, Thoughts by an old ruin, To Autumn, To Mullaghcairn, To My Brother, To My Brother, To My Youth’s Comrade, To Pansies, To Please My Love, To The Queen of October, To the river Erne, To The Sacred Heart, To welcome May, Tom Tig, Turf smoke, Untitled piece 1947, Untitled Poem/Handwritten, Waiting for the Bogtime, Weary winds asleep, Wee Burn, Welcome Home, What Makes Me Love My Mary, When Apple Trees Bloom, When carting home the peat, When Spring comes to Foremass, When the Heather blooms, While Ploughing in Spring, Whin Bushes, With Her Besom In Her Hand, Your Love, ‘tis Springtime now in Ireland, ‘twill soon be Spring in Ireland, ‘twill soon be Spring in Uladh,

(Cardinal Logue)

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