Reilig Na mBocht

(In this place, known only to God, lie the bodies of Wexford's poor, deprived, handicapped and destitute)*

Remember the destitute buried here
at Reilig Na mBocht, a rat-gnawed heap
of skin and bone inches under our feet.
Honour Bridgey Begley and Jim Roche
interred in shallow unmarked graves.

Grieve for these paupers who broke
stones in the workhouse yard,
picked oakum like criminals,
queued for their heel of bread
or slop of stirabout,
their wasted remains dragged
here on makeshift carts.

Lay wreaths for Annie Blake,
flogged for smuggling in a herring.
Mourn for Lucy Waters
her head shaven bald as a felon,
incarcerated in the idiot ward,
for Jamsie Sinnott
whose desolate sobs echo
in the lonely quietness of this place.

 

*Headstone inscription, the Paupers' Graveyard, Coolcotts, Wexford.

Reproduced here, by kind permission of the author, Margaret Galvin. From "The Wishbone", a collection of narrative poems published by Wexford Libraries, December 2007

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