It is hard to leave a country you call home and harder still to find another that can become your new home but for many emigration was the way to go .
Finding a home and a job. Building a future and settling down is what most people do in life but doing this, as a stranger in a country far from home is a challenge.
For many Irish people, emigration was an exit from the hardship in a place they had grown up in and called home. In the hard port cities like Belfast and Dublin people were bred and buttered some would say. Often those who had no butter had to leave to find it.
Barney liked to sit on the edge of Cave Rose mountain and feed the wild birds . It was quite high up there on the top and Barney liked to imagine he was a bird . Up high he could scan the township below and always thought how greener the far off fields looked .
It wasn't an easy road to the top of Cave Rose Mountain and for most of the townspeople they never were interested in climbing up there , but Davy was different to most of them . He loved to get away every chance he could to make contact with all the various birds on the mountain top .
He gave some a name and they seemed happy with him being there amongst them .
The people in the town liked to hear all about Barneys birds .
They had always known about his gift with birds . They rested on his shoulders and fed from his hand . There was no fear between them .
Barney grew up with his birds and as a young lad he sometimes brought them into school to show his school friends . he had brought a small number of the wild birds back home where they became pets .
Barney grew up and his love for birds never left .
For now at forty years of age he is the caretaker of a large bird sanctuary
situated within a national park in Australia .
,
"It was so beautiful there , with the song of the birds and the sun highlighting each moment ."
Says Barney .
His pride and joy is the large loft he built to house a number of pigeons he races . Barney He painted a big smiling face on the roof of the pigeon house just in case the birds are feeling a little low .
One day when Barney had to move house the job of moving the entire pigeon house also presented itself . Luckily Barney was just going next door .
He hired a crane for the day and it was all over in an hour or so .
The entire neighbourhood was out watching the spectacle of the pigeon house being lifted up into the air .
All the birds have adjusted well in their new home away from home .
They're not captives in a cage . Barney built bird houses on wooden stakes and has them placed all around his garden .
He recorded the various singing of all the birds around his garden and started to build a collection of sounds .
The Sweetest Sound
By Paul Mc Cann
The sweetest sound that I heard
was just the sound of the birds .
Words were nowhere in their song,
but still I just sang along .
Voices in my ear.
Do this ,do that .
God what will I do?
All they do is scream and shout
while the birds they sing so true .
I hear the sweet song of the birds ,
it lifts me up so high .
If only I had the wings to fly,
I'd sing to the sky .
Words sometimes can hurt ,but words can sometimes be nice,
the words of love are often dear,
but always worth the price .
Birds have no words within their song it's just a melody ,
the sweetest song I ever heard , was from the birds to me.
Bird Cages And Songs
By Paul Mc Cann
In shades of black and blue,
the budgie and cockatoo,
back to beak and crest to breast .
Birds of small feather stick together,
blending their vivid colours inside the nest .
I can hear their songs ringing out ,
with a colourful chorus,
that echoes sweetly ,
in the soft tropical heat of the morning sun
that is highlighted completely ,
by the scattered hue of the birds behind bars in a cage,
without a enemy ,
to tatter their feathers ,
blue as the Pacific,
Golden as the sand .
They are free .
Impossible to be kept quiet they sing their songs .
of which nothing can compare .
Natures gift is held inside a cage ,
to be admired because such beauty is rare .
Sweet Birds Of The Night
By Paul Mc Cann
Have you heard the doves in the night ?
Their flight is a flock of fun sometime after one when the glow of the moon has begun .
I've seen them glowing bright .
I've heard the flapping of wings pass me by in furious flight ,
in their search for the rising sun .
They seem to scream through the air , a ghostly sight here and there ,
above the rooftops they're a strange sounding distant delight .
Where do they go when they fly through the night , they're gone out of sight ,
to the morning light they're flown , come back soon birds of the night .
By Doctor Write
The End
Originally Posted On Site: 2008-08-11 07:53:09
Last Login: 01.06.09
Visits as of 12-12-07: 57
