Glenageary

 Glenageary (Gleann na gCaorach). 

The valley facing towards the sea

Where once the white sheep grazed

Facing towards the morning light

Falling back to mountain night

Standing sentry over granite piers

The outstretched arms of Dun Leary

Comfy in suburban clothes

Steeped in history and times before

The builders came and built the roads

That mark our houses and our homes

Polite and pleasant neighbors

Overseeing tidy gardens. 

Once preserve of church of ireland 

Now home to all and sundry

Mercifully saved from ostentation

From private roads with mansions. 

Middle class without the airs

At ease and comfortable in its skin

With a necklace of neighbors

Glasthule, Sandycove and Dalkey. 

Not forgetting Sallynoggin

Still affordable and pleasant

And friendly Monkstown 

Demarked by unknown boundaries. 

A melting pot of workers

Teachers and plasterers

Dentists and bankers

Electricians and managers.  

A suburban Bermuda Triangle 

Where many enter and few will leave

Content to dwell between sea and hills

To see out our lives in this vale.