Tom Kelly: Patriot, prisoner, Jesuit, politician, and the man I simply knew as grandad
For Irish News columnist Tom Kelly, the fateful events of 1921 form the backdrop to a fascinating personal story of the grandfather he is named after. He traces his life from republican patriot, to religious vows, to trade unionist and politician Tom Kelly, who was imprisoned in 1921, went on to be a Labour councillor in Newry 31 May, 2021 01:00
A young Tom Kelly before his arrest in 1921
ON May 3 1921, Northern Ireland was declared a political entity. On May 24 the first elections took place for the new parliament.
In a stunning victory, unionists took all but 12 seats. This was a devastating blow to nationalism in the north.
Watch: Tommy Tiernan reads Austin Clarke s The Echo at Coole rte.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rte.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In 1939 Patrick Kavanagh came to Dublin to work full-time as a writer. A daunting task at any time, in 1940s Dublin this was almost impossible.
Kavanagh observed that âpoetry is a luxury trade⦠a man has no business adventuring into it unless he has buckets of moneyâ. Despite many war-time shortages, jealousy and petty snobbery were in plentiful supply. The big raw-boned Monaghan man striding Dublinâs streets drew sneers from city slickers. (On observing a man driving a manure cart, one wag said acidly: âI see Paddy Kavanagh is moving houseâ).
Nonetheless, by the early 1950s Kavanagh was a well-known literary figure, having produced critically-acclaimed â if controversial â work such as The Green Fool and Tarry Flynn, and a long poem, The Great Hunger, which depicted the loneliness, depression and sexual frustration of the small farmer.
âAnd O she was the Sunday/in every weekâ. Who now remembers the poet who wrote those lines used in a long-running Bord na Móna TV ad campaign? The 125th anniversary of the birth of their author, poet Austin Clarke â for many years a literary critic for this newspaper â is a timely reminder of a writer who deserves to be remembered for much else, not least taking on Church and State in his work at a time when few confronted the might of the crozier.
Clarke was born on Dublinâs Manor Street on May 9th, 1896, but in old age became the poet of Templeogue where for almost 40 years he lived in Bridge House, now the location of a bridge on the Dodder named after the poet. In a number of his poems he celebrates that local river and records the changes in the area from rural to suburban in the 1950s and 1960s. In his long lifetime, Clarke saw Ireland move from being a part of the British Empire to the independent but flawed state that came in for close scrutin
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