Upcoming Events

Galway | Anti-War / Imperialism

no events match your query!

New Events

Galway

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Mon Feb 24, 2025 01:15 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link BP Faces ?Existential Crisis? After Ruinous Attempt to Go Green Sun Feb 23, 2025 19:00 | Richard Eldred
BP's big green energy gamble has backfired, leaving profits in freefall and activist investors circling like sharks ? now, desperate to stay afloat, it's making a frantic dash back to oil and gas.
The post BP Faces ?Existential Crisis? After Ruinous Attempt to Go Green appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Migrant Powder Keg: Turmoil in Ireland Amid 300% Rise in Asylum Seekers Sun Feb 23, 2025 17:00 | Richard Eldred
With asylum claims up 300%, Ireland is ablaze with anti-migrant rage, with Dublin now a warzone of bus-smashing thugs, street machete fights and all-out brawls.
The post Migrant Powder Keg: Turmoil in Ireland Amid 300% Rise in Asylum Seekers appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Firemen Are Too Male and Too White, Say Chiefs Sun Feb 23, 2025 15:00 | Richard Eldred
Britain's fire service is too male, too white and stuck in the Dark Ages of bigotry, according to a report for the National Fire Chiefs Council.
The post Firemen Are Too Male and Too White, Say Chiefs appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Detectives Call on Grandmother ?For Criticising Labour Councillors? Sun Feb 23, 2025 13:09 | Richard Eldred
In a scene straight out of East Germany's Stasi playbook, a grandmother got a visit from two plainclothes police officers ? not for committing a crime, but for daring to criticise Labour councillors online.
The post Detectives Call on Grandmother ?For Criticising Labour Councillors? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?121 Sat Feb 22, 2025 05:50 | en

offsite link US-Russian peace talks against the backdrop of Ukrainian attack on US interests ... Sat Feb 22, 2025 05:40 | en

offsite link Putin's triumph after 18 years: Munich Security Conference embraces multipolarit... Thu Feb 20, 2025 13:25 | en

offsite link Westerners and the conflict in Ukraine, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Feb 18, 2025 06:56 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?120 Fri Feb 14, 2025 13:14 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Paddy in The Shed - poem of the Great War

category galway | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis author Thursday April 13, 2023 19:57author by Fred Johnston - Private Report this post to the editors

Poem around my late grand-uncle in Dublin


A poem retrieved from memories of my teenage years listening to tales of The Great War from my grand-uncle, Paddy Caffrey, who remained affected by it decades afterwards.

PADDY IN THE SHED

Paddy’s gone into the shed again
Shivering from his war
Till he fell down the stairs in Gardiner Street
And died behind the door

My grand-uncle was a dapper lad
Even in later years
A handkerchief in the breast pocket
He was fond of his few beers

He’d had a few when he tumbled
Down the tenement stairs
He’d survived his war and made it home
But he fought on for fifty years

I was a raw teenager then
The same age, more or less
He’d scuttled off to Flanders fields
On the Kitchener Express

He had some great yarns of courage
And a few about losing your nerve
And one of a young lad tied to a post
And shot for refusing to serve

He rode on a two-horse and limber
And one day while standing at ease
Came the whack of an Albrecht mortar
And blew one horse into the trees

My Granny would tell him to shut it
His stories were gory and rough
Too nasty and brutal and bloody by far
For young lads to hear, shocking stuff

As if we didn’t see him
Shivering in the back yard shed
When he reckoned that no one would miss him
If he popped out to chat with the dead.

FRED JOHNSTON

© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy