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.

James Clarence Mangan.

James Clarence Mangan.

Of all the poets that could be named as having some connection to Meath, James Clarence Mangan is perhaps the most widely and best known. A standard of the old english "readers" his poem "Dark Rosaleen" is probably known to everyone who went to school in Ireland. Born in 1803 his mother Catherine Smith came from the parish of Kiltale in South Meath. She married James Mangan a hedge-school teacher in 1803 and set up in a business in Fishamble Street in Dublin, inherited from her aunt Mary Farrell who had moved from Kiltale to Dublin. The source for this material is "A History of Kiltale" and for anyone interested in the above it is probably required reading. Published in 2000 and edited by Pat McKenna, I would think a copy could be had  from the County Library. What is interesting about the article is the first hand accounts, both from a letter written by the poet at the height of the famine in 1847 (Kiltale Summerhill Meath 21st July 1847) when he visited his mother's old home, and a piece or short article from the Irish Press dated 21st of June 1949. (Mrs Mary Madden /Culmullen)  There is too much material to be reproduced here but I would imagine the woodlands and countryside around Dunsany where he is said to have dined every Sunday with a Fr. Jones, the parish priest, has not changed all that much. The article goes on to say that after a love affair had gone wrong " Mangan used still come to Kiltale but after that he went more often to   Kilmessan. The tavern was there.... No less that W.B. Yeats said of Mangan "To the soul of Clarence Mangan was tied the burning ribbon of Genius". A number of years ago I attended a reading in his honour at the Trim Library arranged by Tommy Murray of the Meath Writers' Circle and if I remember right, some of his relations were there. James Clarence Mangan died in 1849 and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetry. The video clips below are from Youtube so thanks to those who loaded them and the artists performing on them, Worth a look!

Dark Rosaleen.click here

Dark Rosaleen

click here

With Thanks to "A History of Kiltale" and Youtube. More information if you click under videos on youtube. Also thanks to Wikipedia.

Photo: Memorial Bust of James Clarence Mangan/ St Stephen's Green. (Google Images)