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Kevin Connolly
Kevin Connolly is the former editor of Belfast's free magazine BLT (Belfast Life Today), plus the property magazine The Hothouse, a supplement of the Sunday People. He has had twenty poems published in books and magazines, and he is currently completing his first horror novel. He has written over fifty comedy short stories, and lives in Belfast.
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The Belfast Boy by Kevin Connolly
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He made even the most football-loathing pygmy
From the deepest recesses of Timbuktu
Sit up and take notice of the beauty that can be created
By the gentle art of booting a ball around a football pitch.
鈥楨l Beatle' created dreams for millions of people,
Who didn't know that the human body
Could create such artistic magnificence
With the merest twist of an ankle鈥
The slightest bend of a knee鈥
The simple act of kicking
A football up and down a pitch.
You didn't need to be a fan of his team
To appreciate and love
The awe-inspiring style this genius created
Like a modern-day Leonardo.
He was a lesson to everybody
Who doesn't know how gifted they are
In their own unique way.
Some people are more gifted than others鈥
But we are all capable of reaching our own personal Nirvana
If we cover every last blade of grass.
People here are obsessed
With which foot somebody kicks with.
But future generations will tell tales
About the greatest feet
That anybody from this province ever kicked with 鈥
The incomparable feet of the man
Who single-handedly put Northern Ireland on the map.
The greatest footballer this world has ever seen
Will be remembered 鈥 and loved 鈥
Long after we mere mortals have gone up to that great
Elysian football field in the sky.
Not bad, for a wee boy from Belfast!
To people in the furthest-flung corners of the world,
He IS Northern Ireland.
If you mention Northern Ireland
To a Tibetan monk or an Eskimo鈥
The first two words they say are:
鈥淕eorge Best!鈥
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