A Descendant Of Edward Walsh Poem by Francis Duggan

She is a descendant of Edward Walsh the famed Gaelic Poet the Brisbane woman Elizabeth Tunstall Nunn
And a few years ago she was in north west Cork where from her great great grandmother's journey south begun
A journey that took her all the way to Australia to sunny Queensland and a better life
With her surviving children and her second husband, Bridget the renowned author's wife.

I did not know that Edward Walsh had fathered children he lived in Millstreet up to a century and a half ago
But I am not a well informed person and about my Homeland's
history much I can't say I know
Still good to know that his seed is still living for Edward was an Irish literary great
With the likes of John Keegan Casey, J.J. Callanan and Mangan and other great poets of his era he did rate.

Elizabeth Nunn is justifiably proud of her ancestor and her week in Duhallow and Sliabh Luachra she wil not forget
Her great great grandfather's poems still loved by Gaelic scholars a century and a half after his death
She visited his grave site in Cork City and the memories with her will long remain
Of her travels around the Cork and Kerry border and in memory she re-visits there again.

I never knew that Edward Walsh had fathered children but good to know his seed lives on today
In sunny Brisbane in Queensland in Australia from Millstreet and Cullen half a world away
Elizabeth Nunn proud of her famed ancestor and one well might say she has a right to be
For he is one of Ireland's greatest writers and his name lives on in literary history.