Kiltrea Bridge
I happened on this tragic story in an old newspaper from 1923, and as Kiltrea Bridge over the river Urrin is a place where I have spent many a summer evening fly fishing I had a special interest in it. On a visit to the river shortly after reading this tragic story, I felt compelled to abandon the fishing rod and walk in my waders through the river until I was under the central eye. I could see where the repairs had been made many years ago and visualised the moment that the tragedy happened and as it unfolded at daybreak. I returned to my fishing, however the sad event of 1923 was preying on my mind and over the following hour or so I came up with most of the following poem which I finished off shortly afterwards.
Kiltrea Bridge
As I stand here by the river casting out the fly,
My mind rambles back to many years gone by.
To a tragedy that happened at the bridge here in Kiltrea,
Where the body of a man was found at the dawning of the day.
It was back during the civil war in nineteen twenty three,
When bridges were blown up to hamper the enemy.
When brother fought against brother and father fought against son,
And when that war was over no one could say they won.
Michael O Brien was the innocent victim’s name,
He had been visiting his sister who lived in Caim.
And as he cycled back to his Enniscorthy home,
He was unaware that Kiltrea Bridge had been blown.
Little did he know that his life was near an end,
As he freewheeled down the hill and around Tobin’s bend.
He fell down on top of the blown up bricks and mortar,
Struggled to the river bank and died in shallow water.
He was found the next morning by a man called Patrick Dunne,
Who arrived to do some fishing in the early morning sun.
It was there he found Michael, his lifeless body cold,
In the prime of his life about thirty five years old.
No marker marks the spot of where you breathed your last,
No little wayside cross to an innocent victim of our past.
I'll say a little prayer and may the Lord have mercy on your soul,
As I fish in peaceful waters of the Kiltrea bridge hole.
Damian Cullen,
July 2014