“Philadelphia, Here I Come” – Or Go

Dear Sir,

While on a visit to my childhood home,

I went to “Philadelphia, Here I Come”.

And found the hall half filled with goodly train,

Some nuns and clerics, and the Mayor with chain.

 

The kindliness, the humour and good sense,

I saw on all sides of the audience.

The Irish gleam I see where e’er I go –

Was that reflected on the stage? – not so!

 

I cannot say the acting did not please.

They played their parts with life and expertise.

They well projected what they had to say,

But they were worthy of a better play.

 

The author splits his “hero” into two,

He, and his “private self”, come into view.

Clever, and so original, you might say,

(But shades of Walter Mitty – Danny Kaye!)

 

Of course the point was – poor communication,

In Ballybeg and elsewhere in the nation,

(Leading so tragically to emigration!)

But why not give a “private self” to Dad,

Who’s much more inarticulate than the Lad?

 

And oh! The mindless, endless, stock-in-trade,

Of Bloodies, Bastards, and the sex tirade!

The shocking crudities that shock no more,

But merely bore – the mixture as before!

 

One line did shock and in protest I stand –

“The Angelus” joked of in a Christian land!

That golden statement of the Incarnate Word!

That “Fiat” of the Handmaid of the Lord!

 

No sir, if that’s the drama stuff of Sligo,

It’s time to say, “Philadelphia, Here I Go”!

 

Yours sincerely, Godfrey Carney (Rev.), St. Margaret Mary’s, Pilch Lane, Liverpool 14.

from The Sligo Champion, August 4th, 1972