Bridge of Tears - a poem for Creeslough

I was born a Rooskey, Creeslough away back in 1945. I had my Primary School education in the Church of Ireland school in the town.

I was the Church of Ireland, Dean of Raphoe Cathedral from 2003 to 2013. I roamed much but Creeslough has always been my roots.

I commend my thought and poem to you.

Bridge of Tears

Will I go back or will I go on?

The Bridge of Tears

Here’s a thought for thee. Yes for thee

Sit down by the mountain and by the sea,

Meditate on the Lord’s perfection

He will pour upon you from His collection

Of blessings stored just for this

He will hold, and enfold and He will kiss

All your hurts and all you miss,

All your pain may not be gone

But He will be there as you go on.

There is that “Bridge of Tears”

In Donegal with Muckish near

Family gap, deep as Muckish Gap

O’er brown warbling valley brook

Forced partings, they their homes forsook

Family and friend their journeys took

Departing friends, departing sadness

In the midst of all life’s madness

Many a long desolate backward look

Wracked in pain and tears as bodies shook

Each face a mirror of the other

Internal pain our visage mars

Mirrored only by our Saviour’s scars

My Christian walk is not perfection

I have known deep felt dejection.

Will all this be the death of me

Amidst His pain Jesus Christ did see

His Mother; — He left in another’s care

“Woman, behold your son”,

“Son, behold your mother”

Emigrants leaving, in that heartache share.

“This pain, this pain

I say it again “this pain”

My way as craggy as a Muckish path

It cuts my feet, is this my soul’s death?

To walk on up this hill,

Yes! Up this hill

It takes all, it takes all my will.

Before now I’ve been to Muckish top

With family and friends we didn’t stop,

Encouraged by each other’s care

We didn’t flop until we got there.

We picked our way over mossy stone

I traversed craggy path amidst my own

Yet it seemed to me I was quiet alone!

Suddenly on a mound of stone!

That giant cross stood there strong

Where it’s been, so very long.

The Cross can be for me the place

Where all my woes with Him I face

He was despised rejected by friend

His family too did not comprehend

He speaks to me, yes to little me

“Where you are, there I too will be

I am your guide on rough mountain side

Here I am with my arms open wide”.

“I am the Friend of the Bible sages,

Travelling on their lone pilgrimages,

I was their Rock of Ages,

They were pressed in on every side,

In Me, you also can find your guide”.

Crossing his desert Moses smote the Rock

Water gushed out to the people’s shock

The Spiritual Rock that accompanied them,

Was Christ as the living water forever flows,

How He comes no one really knows.

Brother, sister I hear you scream

Your shattered dreams

Your thousand screams

Come to me and sit by my stream

The water flows over rock and stone

Each one of us to dejection prone

Drop your tears from some bridge parapet

The love and the hurt we cannot forget.

Tears mingled in that living water

They flow from you, your cares do matter

But held in Christ it all seems better.

Come with me across your foaming sea.

Not Atlantic, but life’s vast ocean

This is not some magic potion, —

I’m in Christ’s boat,

we will stay afloat

Do not fear I’m always near.

Listen! listen! in your ear

“Do not fear, do not fear!”

With me we are fellows in a ship.

He holds us up as we go down

With Him beside and inside

We will not drown.

We — will — not — drown!

Very Rev. John Hay,

Former Dean of Raphoe.

Statement from the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Rt Rev Andrew Forster, on the tragedy in Creeslough:

"My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the terrible tragedy in Creeslough. The community there will be scarred by this incident for many years to come.

"I ask people to keep the bereaved and injured in their prayers, and to remember, too, members of the emergency services - and the people of Creeslough - who have been doing their utmost to save lives. We, as a community, owe them an enormous debt of gratitude."

The Rev David Nixon, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland. has issued the following in the light of the tragedy which has plunged the village of Creeslough into great sorrow and anguish:

"On behalf of the Methodist family across Ireland and especially in parts of Donegal, I offer sincere and heartfelt sympathy for all those who have been affected by this tragedy. Those who have lost loved ones and the families and friends who are still uncertain about the future of those in hospital.

“With others I want to praise the tireless efforts of the emergency services who came from both sides of the border to help in the aftermath of the explosion.

Finally I would like to offer prayerful support to Fr.Joe Duffy, Curatate of the Parish as he seeks to brings comfort to all who have been touch by what he has called “this tsunami of grief.”