Francis Ledwidge.

Francis Ledwidge.

I drove out to Slane a number of years back taking the old road that comes down from Skryne, which is the way I usually go to avoid the traffic of Navan, or other places. Anyway picking it up at the crossroads beyond Lismullen School it runs pretty true all the way to the Yellow Furze and I wonder is this one of the roads Ledwidge had in mind when he wrote the poem "Skreen Cross Roads" . If he was travelling from Slane to Dunsany then I suspect that this might have been one of the more tempting routes. Ledwidge was another old schoolbook favourite in that his" Lament for Thomas McDonagh " was pretty much a standard at one time. The cottage at Janeville where he was born on the 19th of August 1887 is today a museum and anyone who takes the trouble to drop in will find it more than a rewarding experience. He enlisted in the Enniskillen Fusiliers on the 24th of October 1914 and was killed at Ypres on the 31st of July 1917. Of the reasons given for his enlisting; the "Lost Love" ,Ellie Vaughie was the one I was told on the day I visited. Ellie Vaughie died a year later in Manchester giving birth to a daughter and he was given leave to attend her funeral. Francis Ledwidge served on some of the most bloodiest battlefields of the war and was killed while at roadworks in the enemy bombardment that preceded the third battle of Ypres. A story is told of his friend Mattie McGoona locking up after working late back in Navan, and turning to see Francis coming in through the gate, hurried to greet him, but he was no longer there! The information for some of the above detail was taken from "Francis Ledwidge, Poet of The Blackbird", available from the museum.

The Blackbird of Slane:

click here

With thanks to Google Images, Youtube, The artist, and the man who posted it.