Bluebells, Heather and Reeds: poems of Mullagh Lake and Mullagh Hill, Co. Cavan (St Kilian's Heritage Trust, 2007) – John Keegan Casey, Bernard Nulty, T.P. McKenna, Peter Fallon

Bluebells, Heather and Reeds – a collection of poems recalling, with nostalgia, the way of life around Mullagh Lake and Mullagh Hill in years gone by – produced by St Kilian's Heritage Trust in 2007, with cover design and drawings by Rory Clarke. Mullagh, Co. Cavan, is the traditional birthplace of St Kilian, the Irish missionary martyred at Würzburg. The book is 'dedicated to those who had to emigrate and never returned home', and emigration runs through it: the poems are by natives and lovers of the parish, at home and abroad, from the nineteenth century to the present. Contents: My Native Hills (Bernard Nulty); Exiled Soliloquy (T.P. McKenna); Mullagh Hill and Old Mill Stream (Robert O'Reilly); Rochford's Tale, Lady Saunderson's Order, Twenty Years Ago and The Patriot Chief (Bernard Nulty); Elegy (Annie M. O'Reilly); A Lay of Early Missionary Days (John Keegan Casey); Anniversary (Peter Fallon); Mullagh Hill (Mollie Reilly); The Scenery of Mullagh Lake (Robbie Reilly); Mullagh Hill (Maureen O'Dwyer); and Mullagh Lake (Paddy Murray). Notes on the authors explain the connections: John Keegan Casey (1846–1870), author of 'The Rising of the Moon', who wrote of St Kilian under the pen-name 'Leo'; T.P. McKenna (1903–1929), a native of Mullagh and uncle of the stage and screen actor T.P. McKenna, who emigrated to Argentina and died in Buenos Aires; Bernard Nulty (1830–1892), who emigrated to the USA about 1849 and contributed poems on Irish and national topics to the Boston Pilot under John Boyle O'Reilly; Annie M. O'Reilly, whose 'Elegy' describes the tragic drowning accident on Mullagh Lake in August 1823; and Peter Fallon, born in 1951, founder of The Gallery Press. About 32 pages, 14.8 x 21 cm, paperback, with line drawings. THEMES: Co. Cavan poetry, Mullagh, St Kilian, Irish emigration, Irish local history, John Keegan Casey, Peter Fallon, nineteenth-century Irish verse, Irish diaspora in America and Argentina.

Author: St Kilian's Heritage Trust, Rory Clarke (Illustrator)

Publisher: St Kilian's Heritage Trust

Publication Date: 2007

Binding: Paperback

Condition: New