A selection of Poems, Stories and Memories By Paddy Meegan At last! This will be the reaction of many, on hearing that the poems of Paddy Meegan are available in print form. For a generation and more, Paddy's name has been synonymous with sublime skills on the football field, with Meath and Syddan football teams. Speed, accuracy, courage and a lightning football brain combined to make Paddy a household name, even in those pre-television days; and his fame, as an integral part of a Meath team which first brought home the 'Sam Maguire' in 1949, has long been assured. But not all of his fans - nor even of his acquaintances - will have known that, alongside family, farming and football, Paddy has devoted countless hours to yet another labour of love - as it is surely fair to call it - namely his poems, reflections and stories on an amazing range of subjects. The readers of this volume (and there will surely be another volume) can at a glance see this and choose accordingly. The excitement of 'Those Old Sam Days' and 'Old Bonfires remembered' contrasts with the tragic tone of 'Casey's Cross' and 'Cormac McAnallen'. Every mother who has prepared a child for his first day at school with instantly identify with 'Little Lonesome Feelings', as indeed with many other tender childhood reflections. And like Sonya, the young woman reading through a preliminary draft of these poems - amazed to recognise lines that she had seen for years ("The First Communion Suit") framed in her childhood home - many, I am sure, as they read, will recall lines they first heard spoken by Paddy himself, at a wedding, a senior citizens' party, or some such festive gathering. Within Paddy's native parish of Lobinstown, and much further afield; those who for some years now, have looked forward to a worthy reflection from Paddy, can now at last re-read at their leisure, and salute a man for all season, truly. Tweet

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