Aughawillan Walls

My very dear friend and talented musician/singer/songwriter, Kevin Molloy came to visit us here in The Old Schoolhouse. He was so touched by its atmosphere and history and having read the book it is featured in, Memoir by John McGahern, that he penned this beautiful song...

(John McGahern went to school here and his beloved mother was the teacher)

 

Aughawillan Walls

 

 

 

Teacher tell me once again

The wonder of your world back when

How it was for you back in

your childhood Leitrim days

 

The singing of the barrack keys

Still floating the Coothall breeze

I see your face high in the trees

Your ghostly footsteps fall

 

Down leafy lanes, in Leitrim streams

Your spirit ebbs and spreys

Your heartbeat still - your silent quill

Your whisper in the trees

 

On down the corridors of time

Your childhood echo calls

Stored here for now, forever

In these Aughawillan walls

 

I feel your rhythm in the rain

The wind still whistles your refrain

That we may face the rising sun

A new dawn's spirit crawls

From Aughawillan walls

 

Teacher teach me one more time

The wonder of your every line

Let your astral wisdom shine

Till dusk as darkness falls

on Aughawillan's walls