{"id":2013,"date":"2014-12-13T14:03:10","date_gmt":"2014-12-13T14:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2025-10-29T18:05:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T18:05:16","slug":"what-does-your-curragh-mean-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/what-does-your-curragh-mean-to-you\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT DOES YOUR CURRAGH MEAN TO YOU?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does your<\/i> Curragh mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A place where I’m happy<\/p>\n

see friends and learn things<\/p>\n

there’s the army and sheep<\/p>\n

and historic rings.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Prickly furze bushes<\/p>\n

evergreens and blackberries,<\/p>\n

wild wax-cap mushrooms,<\/p>\n

the old cemetery.<\/p>\n

Oak, chestnut and beech,<\/p>\n

birch, cherry blossom<\/p>\n

Playing conkers with friends<\/p>\n

at St. Leger’s Bottoms.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Winter red robins<\/p>\n

owls, kingfishers, pigeons<\/p>\n

magpies and skylarks,<\/p>\n

lapwings and chickens.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Sheep, rabbits, hares,<\/p>\n

squirrels, grey and red<\/p>\n

A hedgehog run over<\/p>\n

by a car and was dead!<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Foxes, deer, cows<\/p>\n

badgers and frogs<\/p>\n

tadpoles and cats<\/p>\n

and of course, horses and dogs.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Spacious for sports<\/p>\n

for a walk with your pet<\/p>\n

or rugby and soccer<\/p>\n

explore where you’re let.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Of our army we’re proud<\/p>\n

for they serve or country<\/p>\n

but there’s work to be had<\/p>\n

on the golf course so lovely.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

In Centra, the post office<\/p>\n

or as a fit fire-fighter<\/p>\n

a teacher or jockey<\/p>\n

paramedic or writer.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Oh what of the tales<\/p>\n

that are long handed-down,<\/p>\n

of Stonehenge standing here<\/p>\n

or a lake underground.<\/p>\n

Fionn, Bran and Sceolan<\/p>\n

who used to play here,<\/p>\n

guard the plains at Ballymany<\/p>\n

for all to hold dear.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

A greedy man owned<\/p>\n

all this plain for himself,<\/p>\n

’till St. Brigid cured him<\/p>\n

and her Cloak spread itself.<\/p>\n

It covered the plain<\/p>\n

life, land and water,<\/p>\n

to be known forever<\/p>\n

as St. Brigid’s Pastures.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

There’s the boxer Dan Donnelly<\/p>\n

who down in the Hollow<\/p>\n

beat Cooper from England<\/p>\n

to become a great hero.<\/p>\n

His arm was preserved<\/p>\n

in Kilcullen for years<\/p>\n

and now travels the world<\/p>\n

for the Irish to cheer.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

A Massacre here<\/p>\n

on the Plains of Kildare<\/p>\n

at the old Gibbet Rath<\/p>\n

in the bold ninety-eight.<\/p>\n

The Redcoats did charge<\/p>\n

the unarmed rebels down<\/p>\n

there were eighty-five widows<\/p>\n

in old Kildare Town.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

“Is there?” they asked us<\/p>\n

“anything you would change?”<\/p>\n

‘Well they ought to do more<\/p>\n

to clean up the place.<\/p>\n

The sheep poo’s annoying<\/p>\n

everywhere to be found,<\/p>\n

we’d like nets on the goalposts<\/p>\n

and a better playground.<\/p>\n

Stop the sheep in the gardens<\/p>\n

and corral them with fences<\/p>\n

No more evictions<\/p>\n

let’s come to our senses.’<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Should a tourist enquire<\/p>\n

“What route should I follow?”<\/p>\n

There’s the Military Graveyard<\/p>\n

And Dan Donnelly’s Hollow.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

One of the biggest green-grassy<\/p>\n

plains in the world<\/p>\n

it has the Army museum<\/p>\n

full of old army stuff.<\/p>\n

There’s the Racecourse and races<\/p>\n

and trains crossing there<\/p>\n

while Christy Moore sings<\/p>\n

‘The Curragh of Kildare.’<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Scoil Naomh Padraig, the Curragh 5th and 6th Class, December 2014, with Mario Corrigan, Celine Broughal, Margaret Riordan and Claire Connelly,\u00a0Kildare Library and Arts Services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does your Curragh mean to you? \u00a0 A place where I’m happy see friends and learn things there’s the army and sheep and historic rings. * Prickly furze bushes evergreens and blackberries, wild wax-cap mushrooms, the old cemetery. Oak, chestnut and beech, birch, cherry blossom Playing conkers with friends at St. Leger’s Bottoms. * […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-places"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8148,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions\/8148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}