Patrick Macgill

He hailed from Glenties County Donegal And was hired out to farmer before he was thirteen And later on he readily did recall The hardships he endured and the things he'd seen. He went to Scotland worked with navvy gangs And in a work shack his first verses he wrote And for success he did not have long to wait As fame came early to the navvy poet. In his autobiographical novel 'The Children Of The Dead End' He told of the hardships endured at the time By boys who worked as hard as full grown men And were worn out before they reached their prime. He told of characters like 'Moleskin Joe' He'd lose his week's wage in a poker game He laboured hard for every bob he earned But never had a penny to his name. In his time there were many great writers Such as Kipling, Masefield, Eliot and Yeats, James Joyce, Eugene O Neill and Hemingway As well as many other literary greats. And though literary critics may not rate him amongst these They tend to under rate Patrick MacGill I enjoyed his verses as a school going boy One of my favourites then and a favourite still.