Michael Hogan (31 October 1828 – 19 April 1899) was an
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
poet. He was known as the "Bard of Thomond".
Life
He was born in Thomondgate,
County Limerick
"Remember Limerick"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Limerick.svg
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Ireland
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 = Munster
, subdivision ...
. His father was a wheelwright and musician, who also made the flutes and fiddles that he played. He and his family experienced some of the ravages of the
Great Irish Famine
The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a ...
(1845–1848), about which he wrote later in life. In his early years Hogan worked at Russell's Mill, Lock Quay and later in life with Limerick Corporation. In 1858, he married Ann Lynch. They had no known children.
Hogan's first published works appeared in the ''
Anglo-Celt
''The Anglo-Celt'' () is a weekly local newspaper published every Thursday in Swellan, Cavan, Ireland, founded in 1846. It exclusively contains local news about Cavan and surroundings. The news coverage of the paper is mainly based on the pape ...
'', then in the ''Irishman'', the ''
Nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
'', the ''Munster News'', and the ''
Limerick Leader
The ''Limerick Leader'' is a weekly local newspaper in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It was founded in 1889. The newspaper is headquartered on Glentworth Street in the City.
The broadsheet paper currently is distributed in three editi ...
''. His first volume of works, ''Lays and Legends of Thomond'', was published in Limerick in 1861. A larger edition, under the same name, was published in Dublin in 1867. He then embarked on issuing a series of satirical publications which lampooned prominent figures in the city. They achieved an enormous circulation and caused a great sensation at the time. He continued publishing similar matter until a new version of his ''Lays and Legends'' was published in Dublin in 1880. In 1886, he went to the United States, where he stayed for three years.
A life-size statue of Hogan was erected to his memory at
King Johns Castle Plaza in Limerick city in 2005.
Unveiling of statue
Further reading
* Frank Hamilton - ''The bard of Thomond: his life, times and poetry''. Fercor Press, 1974
* ''The Lays and Legends of Thomond'' at the Internet Archive (www.archive.org)
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogan, Michael
1828 births
1899 deaths
19th-century Irish poets
Writers from Limerick (city)