The storyteller ©2019TonyFallon0128

The storyteller ©2019TonyFallon0128

My real name is Tony O'Fallon and I'm an Irish Feller

Everybody knows an Irishman sings or is a storyteller

We can tell you sad or scary stories that will reduce you to tears

Or scary ones about my grandfather who is dead for twenty years

My father could tell the wildest lies imagined that was his style

I think he believed half of them himself he never cracked a smile

One night sixty years ago he told a neighbor a big one after work

And I had to tell him the truth last year when he visited New York

He acted like he had been betrayed but maybe he was having me on

Maybe this is a story I'm making up, but you can't check he's gone

Most of the stories we tell each other are designed to bring a laugh

And you'd have a full-time job in Ireland if you owned a polygraph

Most of the comical stories are told after a big pint of beer

And even though you didn't like scary stories still they'd persevere

If you think the beer stories are mean don't wait ‘till he drinks poteen

And starts talking about the leprechaun with the portable guillotine

My specialty is telling stories about the banshee's lonely chilling cry

Which sounds like many cats fighting, and means you are going to die

People who believe in the banshee lead lives that are tormented

After horrific dreams of dying they wake up disoriented

Another contentious issue in Ireland was the weeping statues

Often found not too far from bars where they were promoting booze

Other strange occurrences are saints and heavenly apparitions

Seen by children who are late for school, so I have my suspicions

I often woke up myself on peaceful nights and heard strange noises

And from the closet in my sister's room heard very strange voices

Some ghosts come and go and are very rarely naughty or malicious

Others come back as big black dogs and can be snarly and vicious

No matter where you go there are odd people who could be possessed

The ghosts dwindled when electricity finally came to the west

You can be a non-believer and declare ghosts could not exist

Why can't the souls of dead relatives live peacefully in our midst?

Some of the ghosts in Irish stories are peaceful and not evil

But people won't walk certain roads alone in case they'd meet the devil