Eough O'Riley Enough
There was moss down the back of his jacket,
his shirt all dishevelled and torn.
Most of the night O'Riley's lips,
a flagon of whiskey had worn.
He staggered the street like a dancer
who had lost all the will to fly.
Filing abuse at the windows and doors
of the good village folk he passed by.
His knuckles were swollen and bloodied.
His eyes were away with the stars.
O'Riley again found his pleasures,
in the sleaze of the street-fighting bars.
His woman was beautiful Mary Maguire
the flower of County Kildare.
Her face like a blossoming garden
and a forest of autumn her hair.
Sweet Mary held close to her breast,
her reason to thank God above.
As they warmed by an open flamed fire,
that was fuelled by a good mothers love.
She rued the day she'd been given away
that warm summers day of July.
Just five years before, under old Celtic lore
she had kissed her contentment goodbye.
She'd married a man of love and the land
and had soon taken gift of a child.
Then watched as the alcohol butchered her dreams
and turn the man's decency wild.
She kept with one eye on the window,
no candle of welcoming burned.
Her ears had been warned by the footsteps,
as slowly the door handle turned.
One look from O'Riley a chill filled the room,
like before down her spine she had felt.
There he stood sporting a drunk ruddy face
as he gradually loosened his belt.
"Away from my child, you bastard!" she screamed
"Across my dead body" she cried
"Your violence speaks only of liquor,
And the madness of hell in your eyes".
"For a knife as long as is sharp I swear
I will plunge oh so deep in your heart".
"And be judged for the action of sin I commit,
But forever from you be apart".
O'Riley moved in for the thrashing,
to fulfil his sadistic desire.
Mary took hold of the poker,
That stood in the hearth of the fire.
She struck with the strength she could muster,
but he felt not a sober man's pain.
She smashed and she smashed 'til his eyes rolled away.
then again and again and again.
For the life of O'Riley she took back then,
repentance each day she has shown.
And hopes that her God will show mercy,
to a mother protecting her own.