The Amazing Neily Joe

He drove the Millstreet ambulance going back decades ago
The likeable fellow Cornelius Murphy better known as Neily Joe
A stocky built cheerful fellow he was not very tall
And he was quite a character when memories of him we recall

When he retired from ambulance driving his better days long gone
But he was not one to sit back he kept on working on
He bought a tractor and done hire work for farmers in the Duhallow countryside
He earned his living in the honest way and in his work took pride

He was a founder member of the Millstreet pipe band
And with them played at sporting events and festivals in towns in southern Ireland
Like many of the band’s founder members his last remains at rest does lay
But the pipe band he helped to form is still going strong today

He was born and raised in Cullen from Millstreet Town about eight miles away
And at Inchaleigh he and his devoted wife raised their children where they had lived for many a day
It can be truly said of Neily Joe that Cullen’s loss was Millstreet’s gain
And good memories of the man he was in those who knew him does remain

With his cousin Jackie Murphy open air platform dancing he helped to revive
But like most things in life many old ways in time do not survive
On Summer evenings to their ceili band in Claraghatlea dancers on the borded platform danced till night fall
And only memories of the what used to be we have now to recall.

He retired from the Millstreet ambulance when i was a young man
When he was getting on in years and well past youthful elan
He went on to do other things though time had become his foe
And he has not been lost to memory the amazing Neily Joe.

“The Amazing Neily Joe” is by Francis Duggan
http://francisrhymer.blogspot.ie/2014/06/the-amazing-neily-joe.html