Antoine Ó Raifteiri

• Born — 30 March 1779 • Birthplace — Kiltimagh, County Mayo, Ireland • Place of death — Craughwell, County Galway, Ireland • Resting Place — Killeeneen Cemetery, Craughwell • Language — Irish • Genre — poetry • Notable Works — Eanach Dhúin, Cill Aodáin

Antoine Ó Raifteirí was born in Killedan, near Kiltimagh in County Mayo. His father was a weaver. He had come to Killedan from County Sligo 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. Ó Raifteirí was an intelligent and inquisitive child. Some time between 1785 and 1788, his life took a huge turn. It all started with a cough, and soon two of the children began experiencing headaches. Another child had a high fever. A rash appeared on Ó Raifteirí's hand, and it caused severe itching. Soon the children were covered in that same rash, they had contracted smallpox. Within three weeks, eight of the nine children had died. One of the last things young Ó Raifteirí 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 and performing his songs and poems in the mansions of the Anglo-Irish 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, Ó Raifteirí had a patron in Taaffe. One night Taaffe sent a servant to get more drink for the house. The servant took Ó Raifteirí with him, both of them on one of Taaffe's good horses. Whatever the cause (said to be speeding) Ó Raifteirí's horse left the road and ended up in the bog, drowned or with a broken neck. Taaffe banished Ó Raifteirí and he commenced the life of an itinerant. According to An Craoibhín (Douglas Hyde) one version of the story is that Ó Raifteirí 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 Ó Raifteirí worked his name into the poem, and then only at the end. Another version has it that Ó Raifteirí 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, 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.

Ó Raifteirí's most enduring poems include Eanach Dhúin and Cill Aodáin which are still learned by Irish schoolchildren.

These are the opening two verses of "Cill Aodáin": Anois teacht an earraigh beidh an lá ag dul chun síneadh, Is tar éis na féil Bríde ardóidh mé mo sheol. Ó chuir mé i mo cheann é ní chónóidh mé choíche Go seasfaidh mé síos i lár Chontae Mhaigh Eo. I gClár Chlainne Mhuiris A bheas mé an chéad oíche, Is i mballa taobh thíos de A thosóidh mé ag ól. Go Coillte Mách rachaidh Go ndéanfadh cuairt mhíosa ann I bhfogas dhá mhíle Do Bhéal an Átha Mhóir