Posted by 
John Glynn
The British Army was deployed on the streets of the Six Counties 50 years ago this week. This poem was written by Patrick Galvin, poet and author of ‘Song for a Raggy Boy’, later adapted as a film. A Corkman, Galvin lived in Belfast for some years. (Photo from ‘Patriot Graves’ by P. Michael O’Sullivan).
Letter to a British soldier on Irish soil
By Patrick Galvin (1972)
Soldier
You did not ask to come here
We know that.
You obey orders
We know that.
You have a wife
A sweetheart
A mother
We know that.
And you have children
We know that too.
But soldier
Where you stand
There is death.
Where you walk
There is a burning wound,
Where you sleep
There is no peace
And the earth heaves
Through a nightmare of blood.
Soldier
When you die
The dogs will bury you.
When you came to this land
You said you came to understand.
Soldier, we are tired of your understanding,
Tired of British troops on Irish soil
Tired of your knock on the door
Tired of the rifle butt on the head
Tired of the jails, the gas, the beatings
In dark corners.
Soldier
We are tired of the peace you bring
To Irish bones.
Tired of the bombs, exploding in our homes
Tired of the rubble, growing in the streets
Tired of the deaths of old friends
Tired of the tears and funerals –
Those endless, endless funerals.
Soldier
When you came to this land
You said you came to understand
Is this your understanding?
We dream here,
We dream that this land
Is our land.
That one day
Catholic and Protestant
Believer and Non-believer
Will stand here
And dream
As Irish men and women.
We dream
Of a green land
Without death
A new silence descending
A silence of peace.
And this dream
We dream, soldier, without you.
That is our understanding.
Go home, soldier.
Your presence here
Destroys the air
Your smile disfigures us.
Go home, soldier,
Before we send you home
Dead.
Who Watches the Watchers? 