My Great Grandparents
Immigrated from Ireland
On a boat in 1866
In Ireland a potato famine
Thousands at home were starving
For Grandpa it was religious freedom
Granddad took two bibles
One Catholic and one Protestant
Upon departure each Bible tossed to the seas
He had read them in their entirety.
Protestants could own property
If you were Catholics you could not
In America was religious freedom
Grandpa carried the seeds of fruit trees
He landed in Lockport,New York
The birthplace of my Grandfather in 1872
As many of his brethren before him
A proud immigrant he had found home
Now a hundred years or so later
We are fighting the same wars
for the same religious freedoms
As an Irish immigrant son
In his memory, "Let there be peace!"
Freedom of choice in belief found
In America the land of the free
