People

In some of his poems the subject is not named but remains a mystery as in Kelly’s Dusk “I saw her once …. within the dusk and dusk was in her eyes.” Similarly, we are not introduced to The Turf Cutter but his thoughts as he works are revealed to us as he wonders about the absent owners of the bog where he is working “Will they come in sun or rain? Come and build the stones again?” We know, however, that three of his poems are dedicated to very real people – The Builder preserves the memory of Father Gleeson, Stephen’s Green Garden is dedicated to Stephen Flaherty, and The Bawneen Men, who dug the sod long ago in Connemara and who are named for the homespun clothes that they wore.

The Builder
The Church of St. James in Cashel, County Galway was built in 1901, primarily through the efforts of Father Gleeson, the parish priest. The church was much needed; prior to 1901, Sunday mass was held in the school with most of the congregation kneeling outside. Gleeson began the project with a donation of only 100 pounds, a gift from a visitor staying at Cashel Hotel and who witnessed the worshipers kneeling in the rain; other donations followed. Kelly's poem honouring the priest still hangs just inside the church door in Cashel in recognition of what he did for the community. As described by Dr. Brigham in her book The Road to the Western Isle "Sunday is to these scattered people of the countryside a great social event, as well as a religious rite" where friends and family would meet after Mass and chat and joke in little groups, with their bicycles stacked along the roadside.

He builded a church beside the road
In the bushes above the sea,
For the poor plain folk o’ the twisted lands,
An’ poorer an’ plainer he
Than the poorest neighbour speakin’ his name
With a blessin’ night or day,
For all that he was, an’ all that he did
In the Master’s name an’ way.

Stephen's Green Garden
Stephen Flaherty was known as "the Last of the Lilters." He was well known, and much sought after in Cashel and its surrounds for his lilting, a form of traditional singing common in Irish speaking communities. It was a time before radios and record players, when neighbours were generous with their talents whether it be singing, lilting, story telling or playing the fiddle and would get together for an evening's entertainment. In Kelly's poem, the poet is a blackbird honouring and missing Stephen, his lilting, and his sweet green garden.

Old Stephen's green garden lives on to his name.
And I, a poor blackbird, I sing to his fame.
A thousand things alter thro' dew time and snow
But you, O green garden, more green do you grow.

The Bawneen Men
The poem The Bawneen Men is dedicated to the men and women who, long ago, persevered in a harsh landscape, raising families, living by the sod and "having good old times". Their deserted homes with "scattered stones that once were dear" can still be seen in the Connemara landscape, though some have been restored.

The bawneen men are resting now,
They dig the sod no more;
Their pipes are dust, their pots are rust,
And the good old times are o'er.
On the edge of the world in the bushy ways
Is the chirp of the weeshy wren,
But a star looks down thro' a broken flue
On the ghosts of the bawneen men.