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Minister's ode to Fullerton Dam
02.05.11
INISHOWEN'S Fullerton
Dam has been immortalised in a poem penned by the
North's Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness.
Mr McGuinness read his poem at the official opening
on Saturday of Belfast's new Lyric Theatre to
symbolise how important structures can be built
against the odds. The leading Sinn Féin politician,
who has "dabbled" in poetry for a number of years,
read his poem 'Fullerton's Dam' as a tribute to the
creators of the new Belfast arts building.
He told the gathering that the Fullerton Pollan Dam,
in the Illies, was written for his slain friend,
Sinn Féin councillor, Eddie Fullerton, who managed
to get built a multimillion-euro reservoir close to
his grandmother’s home at Sleadran between Buncrana
and Carndonagh. |
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The Fullerton Pollan Dam in Illies,
Inishowen. |
The following is Mr
McGuinness's poem as it appears in today's Irish
Times...
Fullerton's Dam
Purple heathered hillsides clothe the peaty bogs
leaching streams of water swimming pools for frogs.
Down along the glenside a rich brown vein does run
to meet and greet another beneath the rising sun.
Here below twin bridges the Crana springs to life
amid kamikaze midges where father found his wife.
At castle gates salmo waits out in the Swilly blue
for destiny and a leaper’s spate to bring her home
so true.
A creator with an earthy face decreed his plan would
make this valley the perfect place to gather
raindrops in a lake. |
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