Heroes every one

Dear Editor I’m sure this poem, Buchanan Street Soldier Lads (second list) by James Scullion, will be of great interest to many Coatbridge people.

While I pleased many soldiers’ wives I have offended others

Because I did not mention their husbands or their brothers

Who have gone from Buchanan Street to see this great war through

And to teach the brutal Germans what the Coatbridge lads can do

Owen Brannigan, Bob Kennedy, Mick, Jimmy and Dan Dillon,

Willie and Barney Murphy, Harry Phee and Jimmy Hillen,

Two Foxes and two Fallons are names I must not omit –

The brave lads from Buchanan Street will do their little bit.

Hugh O’Hanlon, Pat O’Hanlon, Pat Morgan and Mick Tracey

John and Hugh McIneirney, John Kelly and Ted Gracey

Three more Dillon brothers, Willie, Jim and Davie the dude,

They are all good fighting men when they are in the mood.

Pat Meechan,P at McWilliams, and Dan Mulraney; you know Dan,

Jimmy Gormley, Willie McLure, and the iron-headed man;

When it comes to taking Berlin they’re the men who can take it -

The brave lads from Buchanan Street will do their little bit.

Will Fleming and his son Bill went to face the German Steel

With Pat and Joe Pinkerton, and Jimmy and Charles O’Neill,

John Duffin, Tom Ferguson, three G ribbons, P, J, and R,

Have gone to help their comrades to carry on the war.

Pat Mullen, Willie Keegans, Jim Coffield and Paddy Clarke

Would like to be out sniping with the Kaiser for a mark,

They are always first into a fight, they are always last to quit -

The brave lads from Buchanan Street will do their little bit.

Jim Crawford, good old Jimmy, went to teach the raw recruit

How he should load his rifle and the proper way to shoot;

Jock Morris, Will Costello, John Cummings, and Dan O’Malley,

Jim Gaffney and Pat Creilly to the colours soon did rally;

Eddie Reynolds, Andrew Clifford, James and David Byrne,

James Savage and John McDonald went the German cranks to turn;

When Kitchener sees Coatbridge men he knows they are well fit -

All good and hardy soldiers who can do their little bit.

Two of the Cassidays are left, Eddie and his brother John,

Let us hope they live to get revenge for Jimmy who is gone;

The two McDonalds, and Hugh Burns, John Murphy and Pat Roche,

Hammie Dickson and James Hart would like the Germans to approach;

Bob Young the two McMullens and the brothers McAtear;

With men like these defending us what have we got to fear,

Every one as good a soldier as ever packed a kit,

At fighting they are terrors and each one will do his bit.

I will write of four of our brave lads the bravest of the brave,

They fought that our homes might be safe, their lives for us they gave

Barney McFarlane, Jimmy Cassidy, along with young John Hart,

Are lying now somewhere in France where each played a hero’s part;

When people talk about John Brown each one the story tells

Of how this hero fought and fell out in the Dardanelles;

Many heroes I could mention, but space will not permit,

Who left Buchanan Street, Coatbridge, to do their little bit.

Mrs Young, Coatbridge

Poignant A reader has sent a poem marking Remembrance