TERESA BRAYTON’S POEM, ‘KILDARE’
Leinster Leader 24 December 1910. P. 7.
KILDARE
Say what of Kildare?-is she waking or sleeping?
Now the day of our testing is growing apace.
And mighty as winter-tossed billows on leaping
Wild ‘farrahs’ ring out from the lips of our race!
What of Kildare, ever foremost and ready,
Whenever our warflag was raised for the right.
Has she lifted her standard, true hearted and steady.
Where Kildare ought to be-in the thick of fight!
The shrine of St. Brigid whose lamp ever burning
Shone out like a star on the ramparts of God,
The home of Lord Edward, our eagle of morning
Could traitors abide on so sacred a sod!
Could fear of defeat or despair of a morrow
Find place where the ashes of Tone are at rest
Is there room for a coward or time for a sorrow
With “Croom a boo” watchword and oak tree for crest!
No, from Naas to Maynooth rings the slogan of “Freedom.”
From Newbridge to Leixlip, Kilcock to Athy
The men of Kildarra are there when we need them
They know how to fight and they know how to die.
There the spirit of liberty hovers unsleeping
Where rebels and martyrs found birth an a grave
And the murdered of Mullaghmast watch still are keeping
O’er fields never trod by the foot of a slave.
Sure the challenge she threw in the face of the foeman
Of old when her claims flashed their falchions in air
Is still to the fore for a finish, and no man
Shall humble the shield of Fitzgerald’s Kildare.
Unconquered, invincible, steadfast forever,
With a hand for the south and the north and the west
The foremost in onset the latest to waver,
She stands from the Counties, the first of the best.
Kildare is awake for she never has slumbered
Whenever the summons to battle went forth,
The deeds of her dead with the bravest are numbered.
The sons of her soil are the salt of the earth.
As true as the Liffey that sweeps ever onward
Through sunshine and storming, through shadow and light,
Kildare holds her standard aloft in the vanguard
Where Kildare ought to be-in the thick of the fight.
Teresa C. Brayton.
In New York “Irish World.”
[line 26 – claims should read clans according to the book ‘Teresa Brayton – In an Irish Twilight; An anthology of Her Poetry and Short Stories.’ Compiled by Bernadette Gilligan and published by The Teresa Brayton Heritage Group, Kilcock in 2002.]
A copy of Teresa Brayton’s Poem, ‘KILDARE’ which appeared at Chrismas-time in the Leinster Leader in 1910.
