Francis MacNamara (ca. 1810 - 28 August 1861), known as Frank the Poet, was an Irish writer, a
convict,
transported to the
Colony of New South Wales
The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...
, Australia from
Cashel, County Tipperary,
Ireland, he composed improvised verse expressing the convict's point of view.
Transportation
MacNamara in 1832 was convicted of larceny, and sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia. He often absconded and received an extended sentence as well as floggings and other punishments, and was finally sent to the dreaded
Port Arthur in
Van Diemen's Land. He received a
ticket of leave in 1847 and his freedom in 1849, after which there is little record of his life. His verse suggests he was an educated person with strong political convictions.
Writings
He versified from the start of his convict career: treating the court to an extempore epigram about being sent to
Botany Bay, and composing a mock-heroic poem about his case during the voyage out. Except for one longer poem, his verse was passed among convicts by word of mouth. Some of his
ballads and
epigrams survive in manuscript form in the
Mitchell Library, Sydney, having been written down in the late nineteenth century. The popular ballad ''
Moreton Bay or A Convict's Lament'', often sung in Australian primary schools, has been attributed to Frank the Poet. His published work, ''A Convict's Tour to Hell'' was written in October 1839 while he worked as a shepherd at
Stroud
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
.
In ''A Convict's Tour to Hell'' Frank dies during captivity and, assuming there is no place for him in heaven, heads downwards, setting up camp by the
River Styx, until
Charon
In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (; grc, Χάρων) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the wo ...
offers him a free fare on account of his reputation. Not liking the look of
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
, Frank first seeks admission to
Purgatory but
Pope Pius VII
Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a m ...
refuses him admittance, explaining that
Limbo was invented by priests and popes for their own exclusive use. He then tries Hell, where he sees many of his former jailers, including the brutal
Captain Logan, as well as
Governor Darling and
Captain Cook (condemned for discovering
New South Wales) – before the
Devil sends him to join the rest of the poor and downtrodden in
Heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
, as Hell was made just for the 'Grandees of the Land'.
Saint Peter admits him to Heaven on the say-so of several residents, such as Bold
Jack Donahue (a convict who turned
bushranger
Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...
).
Death and legacy
Francis MacNamara died in
Mudgee on 28 August 1861. News of his death was carried in three newspapers in New South Wales, the ''Western Post'' on 31 August, the ''Empire'' on 4 September and the ''
Maitland Mercury'' on 7 September.
On 5 August 2012
ABC Radio National
Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2.
History
1937: Predecessors an ...
broadcast "Frank the Poet - A Convict's Tour to Hell".
See also
*
List of convicts transported to Australia
References
*Reece, B., ‘Frank the Poet’ in B. Reece (ed), Exiles from Erin (Lond, 1991).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frank the Poet
History of New South Wales
History of Tasmania
Convicts transported to Australia
Australian male poets
1810s births
1861 deaths
19th-century Australian poets
People from Cashel, County Tipperary
Prison writings
19th-century male writers