Wrong Way
written by: Michael Durack
Remember Wrong Way Corrigan, the Flying Irishman
who mistaking (accidentally or on purpose) east for west,
Ireland for California, crossed the Atlantic in 1938,
landing in Baldonnell after 28 hours alone in the air?
Douglas Corrigan did not play football in Pasadena
but Wrong Way Riegels did, racing 69 yards
in the direction of his own end zone, to the dismay of team mates
and the bemusement of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
A navigational error that may have cost the Golden Bears
the 1929 Rose Bowl, who knows?
Wrong Way Lucey, Kerry midfielder in the 1962 All-Ireland final,
gained possession at the second-half throw-in
before punting the ball 50 yards towards his own goal.
A minor gain for Roscommon but the Kerrymen claimed the Cup.
At the London Olympics in 1908
Wrong Way Pietri, nearing exhaustion,
led the Marathon field into the White City Stadium,
took a wrong turn on the track, fell numerous times,
carried across the line by a doctor and umpire, disqualified.
Closer to home, Wrong Way Gleeson
at the wheel of a white Ford Anglia,
steering him and me eastwards towards Loughrea
instead of southwards for Limerick
before encountering the resistance of a Galway stone wall.
Minor scarring to human, machine and rock
but no permanent damage, wrong ways put to rights.
- Wrong Way - September 8, 2026
- Writing Poems - February 20, 2025
