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in collection, Facing the Public,
Sep, 2009,
Anvil Press Poetry, ISBN 978-0-8564641-2-6
The Boy from Durras
Yes,
that’s right, the Tans picked up children
and
you know why of course, don’t you?
They
were looking for information.
I’ll
tell you something now on the quiet
and
you’ll get no one round here
to
talk about it. No, they wouldn’t open their mouths.
There
was a young fellow picked up outside Durras.
He
was sent down from the house.
I’d
say only about twelve or thirteen,
not
much more, sent down to the shop to get the messages
And
the Tans picked him up, gave him a lift to the shop.
whether
he said something or not, was never known.
There’s
no point in asking me
and
you won’t get anyone round here to talk about it.
There
was an IRA safe house raided that night, anyway
a
truck load of the Boys taken to Bandon Barracks.
Well,
you wouldn’t want to be arrested by the Essex Regiment
no
sir, fingernails pulled off and a slow death by the barracks
fire
they
were very fond of the red hot poker, the Essex were.
Did
the boy give them a tip-off? No one knows.
You’ll
get no one round here to talk about it today.
And
it’s seventy years on,
No,
a crowd from the village came for the boy.
The
parents couldn’t save him, he was tied to a horse
and
cart and dragged, yes the very same that the Tans
done
to that priest outside Dunmanway, he was dragged
as
far as Dromore before they stopped.
I’d
say that’s a distance of about forty mile.
And
don’t forget that you never heard this from me.
Martina
Evans
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