Wee Fellas
© By Padraic Fiacc
Click Here for Artist's page in Archive
I The Snatch
It seemed such a cheap
Stage effect of reality that Death
Hiding in the wings
On a foundry roof
Sniping at soldiers should,
Like a childless woman,
Snatch away
A wee chalk-faced boy
Playing marbles in the mud.
II Gloria
Glory be to, so
Much for, salute
All us ‘armies of
The people’ who
Drag away
A ‘backward boy’
The eldest of a large
Family in the Low
Markets, sentenced to
Reform-school gaols
For being mental
For being poor
For being tortured into
Yelling ‘Yes/No,
I am an “informer!”’
And crucify him with
Bullets for nails
Up by the Zoo.
© Padraic Fiacc, Wee Fellas 1977
Padraic Fiacc reflects on the tragedy that many of those who died in the early Troubles were young and that many of those who suffered were the most vulnerable and least well equipped to cope in a war torn city.