Thurles Information

The Queens Of Littleton Show

Courtesy of Thurles Author & Poet Tom Ryan ©

In all their fairest finery,
Silk and lace embroidery,
Frills – petticoat and jewellery
Beauts flock to the show at Littleton.
Lipsticked, rouged ideally,
Competitive to cruelty,
Eyes flashing like rich royalty,
The Queens of Littleton Show.
From Killenaule and Brumminjam
From every village, town they come
To see their maidens now become
The raging beauts of Littleton.
Charming, multi-colourful,
Fair and very beautiful,
Ruby cheeked and jovial
In Littleton to win.
Factory girl and farmerette,
Every beauty’s in a fret,
Palpitating, who will get
The title – “Queen of Littleton?”
War may rage on foreign field,
Armies conquer or may yield,
But the crowning glory is believed
To be the test at Littleton.
Families,cousins, children too,
Attired in every single hue,
To cheer the beaut that wins the “Blue”
The belle of all at Littleton.
“Star” scribe and flashing camera man
Attempt to capture, if they can
The mighty splendour of the one
That takes the sash in Littleton.
Dress, deportment, if you please,
Never mind your hunky knees,
‘Tis surely hard the judge to please
At the show in Littleton.
And when the judge the winner gives
Nigh all but one right then believes
That judges all are bat-blind thieves
For the show at Littleton.
I’ll dance and drink the cuppa tea
I’ll kiss the Queen, just wait and see,
“Prince Charming” may just envy me
At the show in Littleton.
END

Tom Ryan ,”Iona”, Rahealty, Thurles, Co Tipperary

Time For The Girls

From the pen of that wonderful Poet, Songwriter, Radio & TV Presenter Pam Ayres (MBE)

I’m normally a social girl, I love to meet my mates
But lately with the virus here, we can’t go out the gates.

You see, we are the ‘oldies’ now. We need to stay inside
If they haven’t seen us for a while, they’ll think we’ve upped and died.

They’ll never know the things we did, before we got this old
There wasn’t any Facebook, so not everything was told.

We may seem sweet old ladies, who would never be uncouth
But we grew up in the 60’s – If you only knew the truth!

There was sex and drugs and rock ‘n roll, the pill and miniskirts
We smoked, we drank, we partied and were quite outrageous flirts.

Then we settled down, got married and turned into someone’s mum,
Somebody’s wife, then nana, who on earth did we become?

We didn’t mind the change of pace, because our lives were full
But to bury us before we’re dead, is like a red rag to a bull!

So here you find me stuck inside for 4 weeks, maybe more
I finally found myself again, then I had to close the door!

It didn’t really bother me, I’d while away the hour
I’d bake for all the family, but I’ve got no flaming flour!

Now Netflix is just wonderful, I like a gutsy thriller
I’m swooning over Idris, or some random sexy killer.

At least I’ve got a stash of booze for when I’m being idle
There’s wine and whiskey, even gin, if I’m feeling suicidal!

So, let’s all drink to lockdown, to recovery and health
And hope this awful virus doesn’t decimate our wealth.

We’ll all get through the crisis and be back to join our mates
Just hoping I’m not far too wide to fit through the flaming gates.
END

Remember, tomorrow April 30th is Poetry Day Ireland.

Why not take some time to bring the joy of poetry into the lives of children and young people, with resources that will help them read, write and listen to great poetry.

Writing Poetry

Poetry Ireland creates excellent resource packs to support poetry exploration on Poetry Day and all year round. It is well worth checking out their back catalogue of Poetry Day resource packs.
Their 2019 pack is available by clicking HERE.
This pack provides many creative ways to get pupils writing different types and styles of poetry.
Other resource packs worth checking out are available HERE and HERE and HERE.

Reading & Listening to Poetry

Performing poetry with appropriate expression, rhythm and pace is an enviable skill, learned by listening to others read poetry.
One fantastic website, founded to inspire young learners by enabling them to listen to poetry, is ‘The Children’s Poetry Archive’ available HERE.

Treasured poets for young learners, (and older ones too), that you can listen to, include Spike Milligan, Michael Rosen and Roald Dahl. Poetry is explored and categorised across type, poet, theme and age. It certainly is one website that every parent, teacher and pupil should check out.

We hope these resources will help enhance your Poetry Day tomorrow and enable you to enjoy poetry all year round, with young and old.