School: Clochar na Toirbhirte, Cill Mochua (roll number 15632)

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1. The Mass Bush

   

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   By the road near the village an old thorn-tree grows,
   Which in spring-time is white with May flowers' snows;
   The rich green sward, round it seems laughing in glee,
   Yet no dance is led off 'neath the hoary old tree.
   
   I asked an ag'd peasant what hallowed the ground?
   Why so fresh and so green grew the grass all around?
   Why the people who passed it looked down thoughtfully
   As though some sacred memory clung to the tree?

   Said he "long before yonder chapel did use,
   Or its golden cross glistened in heaven's blue skies,
   When around them our people no refuge could see,
   The priest said his Mass 'neath that haw-thorn tree."

   "There the maid and the matron, the young and the fair,
   The boy with the brown curls, the sire with grey hair,
   For a while from the earth and its sorrows were free,
   As they knelt at the altar beneath that old tree."

   "There oft have I prayed by my old father's side,
   There I knelt on the night that my dear mother died!
   There I first say my wife - ah, then, sir, you must see,
   Why so strong twine our heart-strings around that old tree."

   (continues on next page)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Maura Mc Donald

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Josephine Walshe

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Kilmacow, Co. Kilkenny