Micheál Ryan UN
The tenth of March was a fateful day
When a plane took off then hit the clay
And claimed the lives of all on board
The story of every life should be told.
Among the dead was Micheál Ryan
Who had worked and served in the UN.
He haled from Lahinch in County Clare
Where he surfed the Atlantic waves
Where he golfed on the courses
And married his college sweetheart
Proud dad of two with darling Naoise.
Just two weeks from reaching forty
While flying from Addis Abba to Kenya
The plane stalled on its takeoff
The pilots fought an unfair battle
To save the passengers and crew
Numbering one fifty seven
In a Boeing Max thirty seven
That should never have flown
Were it not for blindness and greed
When safety should have trumped speed.
There’s a road that Mick built
In far Bangladesh called after him
There’s a pride in the work that he did
But there’s a hole in the heart of his family
No body to give for a funeral
So mother and wife have to grieve for him
Just holding each other and his memory.
We will keep them all in our hearts
Proudly recalling his humanity
That drove him to travel and work
For the poorest in the human family.
Doing county and country proud
Now honored this year of Covid
The Irish Red Cross marked our hero
Who inspired all those that he met
For his work to be exalted in death.
Micheál Ryan 1989-2019.
Micheál, Gaelic for Michael, pronounced me-haul.
Naoise, also from the Gaelic meaning warrior, pronounced knee-sha.
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