Coluim Wallace (1796 - 1906) the Old Poet

An Irish poet

of the genuine coin

and stamp

He hailed from

Lettermullen

His head was a trove

of handpicked humour

and farfetched oddments

His songs were

flights and fancies . . .

-

A barefooted gossoon . . .

he lived through the 'stirring epoch'

as P H Pearse called it

In An Claidheamh Soluis

one time

-

. . . 'twas the 'stirring epoch'

of the Irish famine

the French at Killala

of O'Connel for Clare

of Waterloo

of Robert Emmet

in Marshallsea Lane

-

In later years

the poet grew old

and broke

and blind . . .

He entered Oughterhead

Workhouse

And it was there

that he

sang his very last note

and they all agreed

that he'd always

be remembered . . .

as the oldest man

in Connemara!

____

Wallace lived in three centuries:

the 18th, 19th and 20th and when

he died he was 110 years of age.