SINN FÉIN Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, at a function on Saturday marking the opening of the new Lyric Theatre in Belfast, read one of his poems which he dedicated to the “creators” of the new building and to everyone involved in creative endeavours.
He explained to the artists and patrons of the arts attending the event that the poem Fullerton's Damwas about a friend of his who, against the odds, built a multimillion-euro dam in Inishowen, Co Donegal, close to his grandmother's home between Carndonagh and Buncrana.
Mr McGuinness, who has “dabbled” in poetry for several years, presented the Rev Ian Paisley with a copy of one of his poems when he stood down as First Minister in 2008.
The Deputy First Minister also noted there were differing opinions on his poems. He recalled for the audience how previously the Sunday Timesasked two academics to adjudicate on one: the Cambridge professor finding fault, the Oxford professor judging it "perfectly splendid".
MARTIN McGUINNES'S FULLERTON'S DAM
Purple heathered hillsides clothe the peaty bogs leaching streams of water swimming pools for frogs.
Down along the glenside a rich brown vein does run to meet and greet another beneath the rising sun.
Here below twin bridges the Crana springs to life amid kamikaze midges where father found his wife.
At castle gates salmo waits out in the Swilly blue for destiny and a leaper's spate to bring her home so true.
A creator with an earthy face decreed his plan would make this valley the perfect place to gather raindrops in a lake.
