“Does Any Man Dream . .
.”
In the last
two years in the Boys’ National School in Teeling Street, Ballina, one of my
teachers was the school principal, Mr. D. F. Courell. He taught us English and
one of the great escapes we had from school work was when new pupils came down
from the Convent school. During this time he would go to the big press and hand
out English books—“Blackcock’s Feather.” “The Swordman of the Brigade” and a
host of others, including some with poems. “The Bridge of Athlone” was my
favourite poem and I can still remember the first two verses. It was long after
I left school and went to work in the “Western People” that I renewed my
interest in this subject and a lot of people used to write in to the Editors who
would print their poetry in the papers. The earliest that I can recall, in the
late 1950 and early ’60s, was a teacher from Donegal called Dominic Kelly who
taught in Crossmolina but lived in Ballina. Every week during which the
“Ballina Herald” was printed he composed a poem about the happenings around
him, and he once had a great public spat with another great poet called Laurie
Gaffey, a Dublin man who loved Ballina and its fishing hinterland. Laurie
published a lovely book of poems called “Under an Irish Rainbow”. During this
public “debate” (through poetry) another Ballina man joined the fray. He was
Willie Barrett and his poetry and drawings of O’Ceallaigh and Gaffey were
featured on the front pages of the “Herald.” These were only a few names of the
many who graced the pages of the local papers but this form of writing into the
local media has become something of a memory of the past, whether it is that
people don’t write poetry any more.
In my
researches of Ballina papers, indeed all County Mayo Newspapers, since they
were first printed (in Ballina, 1823), people wrote some fine verses—some sad,
humorous, about wars, evictions, famine, death, heroes, villains, priests and
laity and everyday events such as the weather, heat, cold, and everything
imaginable. It was during these researches that I became interested once more
in poetry, and the amount of poems that I more interested in which was Ballina,
the River Moy, and those Ballina people who put pen to paper. Since the 1850’s
publications I have collected a lot of these poems and some of the people who
penned these from the beginning were William Kearney, who wrote long verses and
his command of the English language was second to none. He is buried in Old
Leigue and his headstone lies broken in half just as you enter New Leigue from
the old. He was known as the “Antiquarian of Ballina” and it’s a shame really
that this is how he is remembered. Another great man with the pen was a John
Ginty, Leigue, grandfather of Gerry
Ginty, who wrote all during the Great War and one of his great attributes was
that he wrote a lot of Acrostics dealing with well-known personalities in
Ballina. Another Ballina man who wrote lots of work also was a William Rush
from The Brook, Ardnaree, and there are many others, including Ruane from
Bonniconlon and Morris from Foxford. The poems—dealing with Ballina, The Moy
and works by Ballina writers, I hope to
publish in book form in the future, but in the meantime, enjoy this small book
of poems by Larry Doolan, and maybe some time in the future you will sit down
and put pen to paper and see your name in print. Best wishes.
P. J. Clarke
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