The Dresden Shone Like Silver
The Dresden shone like silver
as it pulled into the quay,
though not the home they left from
new horizons gleamed.
The adverts read “Good wages”
and “Employment Guaranteed.”
They should have read “False Promises”
“Bad Dreams, Fulfilled.”
From Offices on Grand parade
and Dublin’s Sackville Street,
for the Argentine government
Dillion and O’ Meara schemed.
The future of 2000 souls
held in their cold hands,
they were too busy counting coins
To care what came next.
First came the Immigrants Hotel
a hotel with no beds.
On cold cold stone, they laid down
tossed and turned, nights on end.
Moving on to Paseo de Julio,
the starving mob was led,
too hungry to complain, too tired to sleep,
they shuffle their feet instead.
In a stable of putrid water
more fit for horses than men.
They say they were treated like cattle
But then cattle are watered and fed.
Some girls were taken to Tucamán street
where an Irish convent rang its daily bells,
others promised comfort from stylish carriages
found a cold welcome from Buenos Aire's madames.
who pulled up in the squalid evening
and pulled away swiftly again.
A Colony was set-up at Napostá
the Maccarthy’s settled in Balcarce
O’ Keefe’s, Pearce, Bourke, Jackson
scattered like leaves to the four winds.
Aboard the ship The Dresden
the Republic shone bright ,
left with a head full of phantoms
bright dreams ignite.
From Limerick, Cork and Dublin
to Tents on the Argentine plains ,
though not the home that they left from
new horizons gleamed.