Francis Ledwidge

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Francis Edward Ledwidge (19 August 1887-19 July 1917) was an Irish war poet and soldier from County Meath.

He was killed in combat at Passchendaele during World War I and was sometimes referred to as the "poet of the blackbirds."

Early life and work

Francis Ledwidge, also known as "Frank," was born in Janeville (Baile Sinead) on the eastern edge of Slane, Ireland's eighth child in a poverty-stricken household. Patrick Ledwidge and his wife Anne Lynch (1853-1966), both believed in providing their children with the highest education they could afford; however, when Francis was only five years old, his father Patrick died, forcing his wife and the children to work at an early age.

Francis graduated from the local national school aged thirteen years old, and although he continued to educate himself, he found what jobs he could find. At Beaupark Mine near Slane, a trade union protester since 1906, as a shop assistant, road surface mender, and supervisor of roadwork, as a result of a strike for improved mining conditions, three years ago, I was suspended for three years, three years before the general 1913 strike, being a trade union activist since 1906).

He had aspirations for permanent white-collar service when he was appointed the Slane branch of the Meath Labour Union (1913-14). He was known for his ties with Sinn Féin.

Early poetry and nationalism

Ledwidge, a strong builder with striking brown eyes and a sensuous visage, wrote where ever he could, sometimes on gates or fence posts. His works were published in a local newspaper, the Drogheda Independent, at the age of fourteen, and reflected his love for the Boyne Valley. From mid-1909 to today, he was also published in the Irish Weekly Independent and Sunday Independent with some regularity. These early poetry journals were largely unpaid.

In 1912, he wrote to the Anglo-Irish landlord and dramatist Lord Dunsany, enclosing copybooks containing his early writing while working as a road labourer. Dunsany, a man of letters whose own debut in publishing was with a few poems, felt that his work had value and was promoted in Dublin, including W.B. Ledwidge, who spoke to a variety of Irish literary figures, including W.B. Dunsany. Yeats and Oliver St. John Gogarty, with whom Ledwidge became more familiar, became more popular.

For several years, Dunsany sponsored Ledwidge with money and literary advice, as well as a desk in Dunsany Castle's library, where he worked with her regularly. Dunsany's first collection of poems of the Fields followed the Irish Literary Revival and the Irish social taste for rural poetry. Despite Ledwidge's growing association with the aristocratic Lord Dunsany, he retained a keen curiosity in working men's living conditions. In 1906, he was one of the founding members of the Meath Labour Union's Slane branch. Despite the Vatican's condemnation of Marxism, Ledwidge found no contradiction between Roman Catholicism and socialism. He served as interim secretary of the union in 1913, and the following year was elected to the Navan district rural council and board of guardians.

Ledwidge, a zealous patriot and nationalist, was a passionate patriot and nationalist. Members of the local council stymied his attempts to establish a branch of the Gaelic League in Slane. The area's chief encouraged him to continue his fight, but Francis gave up. He did manage to act as a founding member of the Slane Branch of the Irish Volunteers (1914), a paramilitary group formed in reaction to the establishment of the Ulster Volunteers, who had promised to refuse Home Rule for Ireland even though it meant civil war. If necessary, the Irish Volunteers were sent to combat the Unionists and make sure Home Rule came to pass.

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