Lough Funschinagh

 Lough Funschinagh by Tony Fallon.(C)22416

Come listen to my story all you friends and peers,

And I’ll tell you of a Rahara Lake that often disappears.

It doesn’t bother the locals, in fact, they think it's common,

That a lake should disappear in the County of Roscommon.

The first time I saw an eel I thought it was a snake,

As I walked in shallow waters of the Disappearing Lake

If you want to know how to get there coming from Lecarrow

Turn left into O’Connor’s road which is winding and narrow

The further you go on that road the more it becomes remote

The kind of terrain more suited for a donkey or maybe a goat

In there you’ll have the company of wild geese, duck and drake.

They and seagulls nest their young ones on the Disappearing Lake

It is surrounded on all sides by roads plus wet and regular land

There is no kind of beaches because there is not a bit of sand

I often went there fishing with rod and reel and expensive gear,

But I never caught anything like the Beattie’s did with a spear

Ah! the pike that came from Funshinagh was the poor man’s steak.

And you couldn’t say the water wasn’t fresh in the Disappearing Lake

A Limerick woman came there once and with cameras was geared

But when she got there after travelling the lake had disappeared

I stood on Ardmullen hill one evening the lake stretched many miles

When you are far away in America those memories cause smiles

Another evening the sun was setting and I heard the corncrake

And watched the water turning red on the Disappearing Lake

One time my son and I were home on a bit of a summer vacation,

The lake was disappearing and Ardmullen was our daily location

If our fancy friends in New York saw us then they would be awestruck

To see us fighting off the locals for some pike in the Roscommon muck

Many Pictures of fish we caught and the dry terrain we did take,

For there was not a drop of water left in the Disappearing Lake

And now something has gone terribly wrong drought replaced by floods

That threatens farmers livestock their oats and wheat and spuds

Is this the end result of all the recent winters rain and storming 

Or another warning sign from nature about this global warming

Whoever though that shore dwellers would have to lie awake

Worrying about flooding, by water, from the Disappearing Lake.

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