Oh noble Michael Collins you were Cork and Ireland's pride <br />And the day you died at Beal na Mblaith a part of Ireland died <br />You died under sniper gunfire whilst still in your life's bloom <br />At Beal Na Mblaith 'The Gap Of Flowers' between Bandon and Macroom. <br /> <br />Who was the man who murdered you the one with satan mind <br />Was he a fellow Irishman one of your fellow kind <br />Or was he a hired killer working for the British Crown <br />And sent across to Ireland with a gun to gun you down? <br /> <br />What matter now who murdered you in such a cowardly way <br />Who gunned you down at Beal Na Mblaith at twilight of the day? <br />It took a chicken hearted man to fire that fatal shot <br />His killing you was craven act and cowards are best forgot. <br /> <br />But what matter most brave Irishman your death was not in vain <br />Your death brought an end to bitterness to suffering and pain, <br />Your death brought an end to bloodshed and healed the bleeding scar <br />That was brought about in Ireland by a bloody civil war. <br /> <br />Yet there are those in Ireland who still scorn your very name <br />Who blame you for the civil war who put on you the blame <br />Yet lest those people should forget that there's wrong and there is right <br />And that there is more than one side to the story of a fight. <br /> <br />And those who hated you the most rose to the heights of fame <br />And those who hated you the most by knocking you did gain <br />But those who knock a dead man must be classified as weak <br />As a dead man cannot answer back a dead man cannot speak. <br /> <br />Oh noble Michael Collins others used you as a tool <br />By sending you to sign the treaty that ended British rule <br />It was you who signed the treaty that started civil strife <br />A civil war that ended with the taking of your life.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-michael-collins/
