Antoine Ó Raifteiri Explained

Birth Date:30 March 1779
Birth Place:Kiltimagh, County Mayo, Ireland
Death Place:Craughwell, County Galway, Ireland
Resting Place:Killeeneen Cemetery, Craughwell
Language:Irish
Genre:poetry
Nationality:Irish
Notableworks:Eanach Dhuin, Cill Aodain

Antoine Ó Raifteirí (also Antoine Ó Reachtabhra, or Anthony Raftery; 30 March 1779 – 25 December 1835)[1] was an Irish language poet who is often called the last of the wandering bards.

Biography

Antoine Ó Raifteirí was born in Killedan,[2] near Kiltimagh in County Mayo. His father was a weaver. He had come to Killedan from County Sligo[1] to work for the local landlord, Frank Taaffe. Ó Raifteirí's mother was a Brennan from the Kiltimagh area.[3] She and her husband had nine children.[4] Antoine was an intelligent and inquisitive child. Some time between 1785 and 1788, Antoine Ó Raifteirí's life took a huge turn. It all started with a cough. Soon two of the children began experiencing headaches. Another child had a high fever. A rash appeared on Antoine's hand. It caused severe itching. Soon the children were covered in that same rash. They had contracted smallpox. Within three weeks, eight of the nine children had died.[4] One of the last things young Antoine saw before going blind was his eight siblings laid out dead upon the floor.

As Ó Raifteirí's father was a weaver, he had not experienced the worst of that era's poverty, but it would be much more difficult for his son to escape hardship. He lived by playing his fiddle and performing his songs and poems in the mansions of the Anglo-Irish gentry. His work draws on the forms and idiom of Irish poetry, and although it is conventionally regarded as marking the end of the old literary tradition, Ó Raifteirí and his fellow poets did not see themselves in this way.

In common with earlier poets, Antóine had a patron in Taaffe. One night Frank sent a servant to get more drink for the house. The servant took Antóine with him, both of them on one of Franks good horses. Whatever the cause (said to be speeding) Antóine's horse left the road and ended up in the bog, drowned or with a broken neck. Frank banished Antóine and he commenced the life of an itinerant. According to An Craoibhín (Douglas Hyde) one version of the story is that Antóine wrote Cill Aodáin (as DH Kileadan, County Mayo, his most famous work apart from Anach Cuan, to get back in Frank Taaffe's good books. Taaffe however was displeased at the awkward way Antóine worked his name into the poem, and then only at the end. Another version has it that Antóine wrote this poem in competition to win a bet as to who could praise their own place best. When he finished reciting the poem his competitor is reported to have said "Bad luck to you Raftery, you have left nothing at all for the people of Galway" and refused to recite his own poem.[5]

None of his poems were written down during the poet's lifetime, but they were collected from those he taught them to by An Craoibhín Aoibhinn Douglas Hyde, Lady Gregory and others, who later published them.[6]

Ó Raifteirí was lithe and spare in build and not very tall but he was very strong and considered a good wrestler. He always wore a long frieze coat and corduroy breeches.[7]

Ó Raifteirí died at the house of Diarmuid Cloonan of Killeeneen, near Craughwell, County Galway, and was buried in nearby Killeeneen Cemetery. In 1900, Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and W. B. Yeats erected a memorial stone over his grave, bearing the inscription "RAFTERY". A statue of him stands in the village green, Craughwell, opposite Cawley's pub.

Poetry

Ó Raifteirí's most enduring poems include Eanach Chuin and Cill Aodain which are still learned by Irish schoolchildren.

Cill Aodáin

These are the opening two verses of "Cill Aodáin":

Legacy

References

  1. Book: Jeffers, Ron . Reincarnations . Earthsongs . 2003 . [Corvallis, Oregon] . 4 .
  2. Book: Murphy, Maureen O'Rourke . MacKillop, James . An Irish literature reader: poetry, prose, drama . Syracuse University Press . 2006 . Syracuse, NY . 108 . 978-0-8156-3046-3.
  3. Book: O'Hara, Bernard . Mayo: aspects of its heritage . Archaeological, Historical, and Folklore Society, Regional Technical College . 1982 . Galway, Ireland . 292 . 978-0-9508233-0-0.
  4. The Deel Basin : a historical survey . Crossmolina Historical & Archaeological Society . 2 . 8 . 106 . [Crossmolina] . 1990 .
  5. Book: Denvir, Gearóid . Litríocht agus Pobal . . 1997.
  6. Bartleby. http://www.bartleby.com/250/142.html Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  7. http://www.iol.ie/~rjtechne/century130703/1960s/dmcmanus.htm Recollections of Dermot McManus
  8. https://archive.org/details/selectedplaysofd0000hyde/page/80 Selected plays of Douglas Hyde : "An Craoibhin Aoibhinn"
  9. Web site: The Project Gutenberg E-text of Reincarnations, by James Stephens.
  10. http://www.lieder.net/lieder/b/barber.html
  11. Web site: Untitled Document . 2010-05-24 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101218192711/http://www.lochariach.com/ . 18 December 2010.
  12. http://www.kiltimagh.net/people.html Raftery on Famous People from Kiltimagh
  13. http://www.scoilraifteiri.com/ Scoil Raifteirí WebSite
  14. http://www.iol.ie/~raftery/raftery.html Ireland OnLine Raftery Room Entry
  15. Web site: Mise Raiftearaí an Fíodóir Focal (I am Ó Raifteirí, The Weaver of Words) . . 18 June 2018 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130729085200/http://www.tg4.ie/en/corporate/news-releases/2010/161210.html . 29 July 2013 .
  16. Web site: Antoin Ó Raifteirí: Máire Ní Eidhin (The Lass from Bally-na-Lee) . . 20 April 2009 . Love poems & quotes: German, French, Italian, Russian etc. . 14 June 2020.
  17. Web site: Bob Dylan fans tangled up in clue to solve Irish riddle of I Contain Multitudes . Pavel Barter . 26 April 2020 . The Sunday Times . 14 June 2020. Web site: Bob Dylan's latest song makes reference to Irish poets, an ode to his own life . . 27 April 2020 . IrishCentral . 14 June 2020. Hear Bob Dylan's Daring New Song, 'I Contain Multitudes' . Brian Hiatt . 27 April 2020 . Rolling Stone . 14 June 2020. Web site: Bob Dylan's New Song and Ballinalee County Longford . . 18 April 2020 . Cassandra Voices . 14 June 2020 .

Further reading

External links