My Great Granny* fought in the GPO
Did you know
My Great Granny fought in the GPO?
I didn't think so
You’d only know
If you read the tiny footnotes
In those big history books
Written by men about men
(the deeds of heroines
sub-scripted to the deeds of heroes).
Or if you checked the index
Under B for bandages
Or T for tea
But she was there all right
Her and everybody’s Great Grandad
Because as we all know
everybody’s Great Grandad fought in the GPO
Look at any photograph taken on Easter Monday 1916
And you will notice that the GPO
Completely takes up one side of O’Connell Street
That was, of course, to accommodate everybody’s Great Grandad
You couldn’t see my Great Granny
Among all the Great Grandads
But she was there all right
A feisty, fighting, footnote soldier
An artiste treading the boards
in that doomed theatre of war
A prima donna dodging bullets and shrapnel
Managing ranks of boiling kettles
Daintily manoeuvring through reams of bandages
Wrapping Great Grandads from head to toe
Mummifying their folk memories
For redeployment in pubs all over Ireland
Wondering, always wondering
If the Great Grandads in the GPO
might see fit
To give her the vote
or if the Great Grandads might
be concerned that her female temperament
would be overwhelmed
By having to tick a box
Curiously, if the GPO had not expanded
To completely take up one side of O’Connell Street
All of the Great Grandads would not have fitted
Then all the Great Grandsons would have had to tell another story
Wasn’t it very obliging of the GPO
To billet all of those fine warriors.
* Universal Great Granny
Copyright Berni Dwan 2015
Did you know
My Great Granny fought in the GPO?
I didn't think so
You’d only know
If you read the tiny footnotes
In those big history books
Written by men about men
(the deeds of heroines
sub-scripted to the deeds of heroes).
Or if you checked the index
Under B for bandages
Or T for tea
But she was there all right
Her and everybody’s Great Grandad
Because as we all know
everybody’s Great Grandad fought in the GPO
Look at any photograph taken on Easter Monday 1916
And you will notice that the GPO
Completely takes up one side of O’Connell Street
That was, of course, to accommodate everybody’s Great Grandad
You couldn’t see my Great Granny
Among all the Great Grandads
But she was there all right
A feisty, fighting, footnote soldier
An artiste treading the boards
in that doomed theatre of war
A prima donna dodging bullets and shrapnel
Managing ranks of boiling kettles
Daintily manoeuvring through reams of bandages
Wrapping Great Grandads from head to toe
Mummifying their folk memories
For redeployment in pubs all over Ireland
Wondering, always wondering
If the Great Grandads in the GPO
might see fit
To give her the vote
or if the Great Grandads might
be concerned that her female temperament
would be overwhelmed
By having to tick a box
Curiously, if the GPO had not expanded
To completely take up one side of O’Connell Street
All of the Great Grandads would not have fitted
Then all the Great Grandsons would have had to tell another story
Wasn’t it very obliging of the GPO
To billet all of those fine warriors.
* Universal Great Granny
Copyright Berni Dwan 2015
