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Antoine Ó Raifteirí (also Antoine Ó Reachtabhra, or Anthony Raftery; 30 March 1779 – 25 December 1835) was an
Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
who is often called the last of the wandering
bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...
s.


Biography

Antoine Ó Raifteirí was born in Killedan, near Kiltimagh in
County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...
. His father was a weaver. He had come to Killedan from
County Sligo County Sligo ( , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region and is part of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. Sligo is the administrative capital and largest town in ...
to work for the local landlord, Frank Taaffe. Ó Raifteirí's mother was a Brennan from the Kiltimagh area. She and her husband had nine children. 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 Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...
. Within three weeks, eight of the nine children had died. 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 A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...
and performing his songs and poems in the mansions of the
Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...
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. 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. 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. 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 Edward Martyn (30 January 1859 – 5 December 1923) was an Irish playwright and early republican political and cultural activist, as the first president of Sinn Féin from 1905–1908. Early life Martyn was the elder son of John Martyn of Tul ...
, 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.


Eanach Chúin


Cill Aodáin

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


Legacy

*The first four lines of "Mise Raifteirí an File" appeared on the reverse of the Series C Irish five pound note. * Douglas Hyde wrote a play called ''The Marriage'' (''An Pósadh'') where a poor newlywed couple is visited by Raftery on their wedding day. The bard attracts a lot of people with his music, and leaves after giving the couple all the numerous gifts given to him for it. Soon after, it is discovered that Raftery had actually been dead for a while. * The author James Stephens published English translations of poems attributed to Ó Raifteirí in his book ''Reincarnations''. The American composer
Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor (music), conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the mid-20th century. Principally influenced ...
wrote a composition for mixed chorus – also entitled ''Reincarnations'' – based on three of the poems translated by Stephens. *An annual festival, Féile Raifteirí, is held in Loughrea, County Galway each year on the last weekend in March. Ó Raifteirí spent most of his later years in townlands close to the town. The festival features a contemporary Irish language poet and promotes the native arts of Ireland. The festival ends with a visit to Raifteirí grave in neighbouring Craughwell. * Kiltimagh town square features a granite memorial in honour of Antoine Ó Raifteirí erected in 1985, in that same year Kiltimagh twinned with Craughwell, the final resting place of the blind Gaelic poet. * Scoil Raifteirí, an All-Irish Primary School in Castlebar, County Mayo is named in honour of the poet. * The Raftery Room Restaurant is located in Kiltimagh Main Street* * Ó Raifteirí is mentioned in passing by IRA member Liam Devlin in Jack Higgins's 1975 novel '' The Eagle Has Landed.'' * In 2011 Seán Ó Cualáin directed a feature film ''Mise Raiftearaí an Fíodóir Focal''/''I am Raifteirí, The Weaver of Words'' documenting the life of Ó Raifteirí, which was produced by Sonta Teo for TG4, and featured Irish acto
Aindrias de Staic
in the lead role as Ó Raifteirí. * A street on the Ballymagroarty estate in Derry, Raftery Close, is named after Antoine Ó Raifteirí. All the streets in the estate are named after Irish writers. * Sketch of Raifteirí http://www.irishpage.com/graf/raftery.gif * In Radclyffe Hall's novel '' The Well of Loneliness'', Stephen Gordon's horse is named Raftery after the Irish poet. *
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
's 2020 song " I Contain Multitudes" contains the line "Follow me close, I'm going to Bally-na-Lee", presumed by Richard F. Thomas, Paul Muldoon, Brian Hiatt, and others to be a reference to Raifteiri's "The Lass From Bally-na-lee" ("Agus gluais go lá liom go Baile Uí Laí" / "So walk with me to Bally-na-Lee"). * Liam Clancy speaks Raifteiri's poem "Mary Hynes" over music in a song which appears on the compilation CD ''Favourites'' (2005)


References


Further reading

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External links


Famous Sons of KiltimaghStory of the Irish PoemScoil Raifteirí
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oraifteiri, Antoine 1779 births 1835 deaths 18th-century Irish male writers 19th-century Irish male writers Irish blind people 18th-century Irish-language poets 19th-century Irish-language poets Blind poets Writers from County Mayo Writers from County Galway People from Kiltimagh