The Orchard Keeper

Francis Ledwidge was a frequent visitor to the McGoona household at Donaghmore, near Navan, Co. Meath. Matty McGoona, an amateur naturalist and musician, became his close friend. A chance encounter with an elderly man beside the orchard at Donaghmore was the catalyst which led Susan Connolly to explore the life of Francis Ledwidge in greater depth, and to write her sequence of poems, The Orchard Keeper. Francis Ledwidge was born in Slane, Co. Meath, in 1887. He wrote poetry from an early age. He enlisted in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in 1914, and survived the battlefields of Gallipoli, Serbia and Arras before being killed on July 31st, 1917, the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres. The six poems gathered under the title Woman in a Black Hat, warmly recall the lives of close friends and family.

Author: Susan Connolly

Publisher: Shearsman Books

Publication Date: Jun 23, 2017

Number of Pages: 28 pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 1848615604

ISBN-13: 9781848615601