Tuesday 1 August 2017

Jimmy's Hall

I'd never heard of Jimmy Gralton. But PIC of the week Times Present in The Irish Times caught my attention. And Ken Loach has made a film about the only Irish man to be deported from his own country- for building a Dance Hall.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/jimmy-gralton-a-deported-irishman-s-return-1.1806775
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/abbey-theatre-to-stage-premiere-outside-dublin-for-the-first-time-1.3130044


The Abbey Players
are taking to the boards
in the fields of Leitrim

To revive the fellow
who told us
not to listen to the Angelus.

In the year of the Eucharistic Congress
Ireland, Nineteen Thirty -Two,
he was hailed as an undesirable alien

Hunted like a deer
Caught and trapped. Deported
on a steamer bound for New York State.

They burnt down his hall.
The left no records.
They wanted no paper trails.

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