North of Newry

[Jimmy O'Connell]

North of Newry
As you drove towards the Sprucefield roundabout
It always happened – the radio mast
Like an aerated rusted skyscraper
Was the cause, you were told, an army tower

Used to intercept and spy on the
IRA the Tagues and their fiendish band -
But within sight of that tower RTE
Radio would begin to crackle and

Disappear into the ethered space bleak
With blank sound as plummy Auntie Beeb tracked
Through with warnings of ‘heavy traffic south
Of Mannings Heath…’ and ‘the M60 out

Of Manchester going west is clearing,
Police advise caution due to flooding…’
Useless if one were driving from Dublin…
Comforting if one were from south Antrim.