An unbelivable chance is born

Comment on recent events in Northern Ireland

An unbelievable chance is born

I have watched them on the news each day

Pale, tired-eyed faces

From dark meeting rooms in grey

Back-street houses.

I have zapped them away, just catching words

Meaningless political words,

Or have listened awhile as they voiced

Meaningless, political words.

I thought before I zapped away

Of a mocking tale or a gibe

To please a companion

Around the table in the canteen,

Being certain that they and their like

Lived where hope has no morn:

All changed, changed utterly:

An unbelievable chance is born

That man leaves a stage

Now full of potential,

His deeds a monument

That will stand until

His is just another name

That kids have to learn

Pointlessly for their exams.

How wonderful that day

That he made possible.

This man his companion

In efficacy, optimism and commitment

Who supervised the invasion

Of those who come to share with us

The new abundance.

That man had the gift of words.

He can paint pictures.

Of ordinary men that make 

Him and them extraordinary

This other his helper and friend

Was a believer in force.

In the end he forced respect

For his beliefs and integrity.

This other man I had dreamed

A power-mongering, vain-glorious lout.

Who had done most bitter wrong

But one whom others loved,

As one whose song

Did not change with the seasons

He was there from the start

Of the awful comedy;

He, too, has been changed in his turn,

Can I too?

An unbelievable chance is born

Minds with one purpose alone

Through summer and winter seemed

Enchanted to a stone.

To us in tvland it seemed.

A waste of time and energy

To try one more time to bend

Unbending wills and hearts  

And mouths from which only

Meaningless, political words

Were vomited year after year

As ordinary people cried

Tear after tear.

But we did not know

That change

Minute by minute change;

Second by second change

Dripping inexorable stalactite-forming change

Can take place if there is hope.

We did not know that hope

Had not wild-geesed away

Like some of us to comfortable

Lives in far off lands

Where flickering images and 

Meaningless, political words

Could be zapped away and

Not thought about

Too long a sacrifice

Can make a stone of the heart.

O may it now suffice?

It is heaven's part, our part

To murmur name upon name,

Of the fallen

And keep their names alive

Never to forget the hatred

That ended their lives abruptly

Never to allow it take root

Again in Irish soil.

Now let us honour them in verse

As others were before

Those whose actions 

Have now ended

A full century of war

Let us say 

Ahern and Blair 

And Doctor Paisley too

And Adams and MacGuinness

Gentlemen. Thank you.

An unbelievable chance is born

-          Lorcan Flynn

(with apologies to you know who J