Anthony Raftery
Anthony Raftery lived the latter part of his life in exile, in Co. Galway,
which in those days, when travel was mainly by horse or on foot, was regarded
as a quite a distance from his native Kiltimagh. I suppose in today's term,
he could be regarded as an economic migrant.
The son of a small tenant farmer, Raftery worked in his earlier years for Frank
Taffe. By all accounts, young Raftery was a very strong young man, and was
regarded favourably by Taaffee, the owner of Killedan House. At this time,
also, Raftery showed an early promise in music and verse.
The young man soon left Killedan. Whether his departure was precipitated by the
unfortunate accident to Taaffee's horse, or whether he felt that the time was
ripe to go, Raftery found himself heading southwards, on the road to Co.Galway.
Armed with his fiddle and his love of song, but handicapped by diminished sight
as a result of small pox, Raftery was to roam the roads of Galway for over three
decades, receiving sanctuary from the more wealthy landowners.
Like many an exile from Kiltimagh, both before and after his time, Raftery pined
for his native shore; and it is likely that the Big House, at Killedan, was the
focal point of his nightly dreams. He had a great urge to return, and he expresses
this sentiment most poignantly in his best-known poem- Cill Aodain:
" If I could stand among my own people,
Then age would leave and youth would return."
Raftery died on Christmas Eve, in 1835, after a short illness. He is buried in
Killeenin, Near Craughwell, Co. Galway.
His people haven't forgot him. In 1972, to celebrate his life and works,
a Raftery Weekend was held in Kiltimagh.
In 1985 a granite memorial, to honour a favourite son, was erected in
The Market Square. In that same year Kiltimagh twinned with Craughwell,
the final resting place of the blind Gaelic poet.
Raftery Memorial in Kiltimagh
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