(1887-08-19)19 August 1887 Janeville, Slane, County Meath
Died
31 July 1917(1917-07-31) (aged 29) Pilckem Ridge, near Boezinge, Passchendaele salient, Belgium
Occupation
Labourer, miner, writer and poet
Nationality
Irish
Period
1890s–1917
Genre
Poetry
Francis Edward Ledwidge (19 August 1887 – 31 July 1917) was a 20th-century Irish poet. From Slane, County Meath, and sometimes known as the "poet of the blackbirds", he was later also known as a First World War war poet. He befriended the established writer Lord Dunsany, who helped with publication of his works. He was killed in action at Ypres in 1917.[1]
Born to a poor family in Slane, County Meath, Ledwidge started writing at an early age, and was first published in a local newspaper at the age of 14. Finding work as a labourer and miner, he was also a trade union activist, and a keen patriot and nationalist, associated with Sinn Féin. He became friendly with a local landowner, the writer Lord Dunsany, who gave him a workspace in the library of Dunsany Castle, and introduced him to literary figures including William Butler Yeats, Æ and Katherine Tynan, with whom he had a long-term correspondence. He was elected to a local government post and helped organise the local branch of the Irish Volunteers, while Dunsany edited a first volume of his poetry and helped him secure publication for it.
Despite having sided with the faction of the Irish Volunteers which opposed participation in the war, and the opposition of Lord Dunsany, he enlisted in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in October 1914, and continued to write poetry on campaign, sending work to Dunsany and to family and other friends. Having been posted to several theatres of the war, he was killed in action in July 1917 during the early phase of the Battle of Passchendaele. At the time of his death, he and Dunsany were in advanced preparation for a second volume of his work, and Dunsany later arranged for a third volume, and a collected edition of 122 poems in 1919. Some musical settings of his work were also composed. Further poems, from the archives at Dunsany Castle and some material held by families of relatives and friends, were published by Ledwidge's biographer, Alice Curtayne, in 1974, by enthusiast Hubert Dunn and by the two major Ledwidge memorial groups, in 1997 and 2022 respectively.
A museum of his life and work was opened in his birthplace cottage in 1982 and was the site of multiple events in the decades after; it remains operational as of 2022. Ledwidge was selected as one of twelve prominent war poets - and the only Irish one - for the exhibition Anthem for Doomed Youth at the Imperial War Museum in London in 2002. He has been memorialised at events at the Slane museum, in Ypres and in Inchicore, Dublin, with his official centenary commemoration at Slane in 2017 and his work set to music and performed by Anúna at the former Inchicore barracks the same year. A few Ledwidge manuscripts are held in the National Library of Ireland, and the main surviving collection, including his early works, in the archives of Dunsany Castle, along with letters. Selections of both handwritten and typed manuscripts have been shown publicly at the Anthem for Doomed Youth exhibition and at a book launch at Slane Castle in 2022, and privately to scholars and members of the Ledwidge Cottage Museum committee.
^Lowry, Donal in: McGuire, James and Quinn, James (eds): Dictionary of Irish Biography From the Earliest Times to the Year 2002; Royal Irish Academy Vol. 5, Ledwidge, Francis Edward pp. 394-97; Cambridge University Press (2009) ISBN 978-0-521-19979-7
Francis Edward Ledwidge (19 August 1887 – 31 July 1917) was a 20th-century Irish poet. From Slane, County Meath, and sometimes known as the "poet of the...
with the surname include: FrancisLedwidge (1887–1917), Irish poet Joseph Ledwidge (1877–1953), Irish sportsman Michael Ledwidge, American novelist LEDWICH...
mailed to his family just days before he was killed in action. When FrancisLedwidge, who was a member of the Irish Volunteers in Slane, County Meath, learned...
(1750–1825), second Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York FrancisLedwidge (1887–1917), poet killed in action during World War I. Denis Nulty...
"Dawn", a poem written by Emily Dickinson "Dawn", a poem written by FrancisLedwidge "Dawn", a poem written by John Masefield "Dawn", a poem written by...
Free State. The remarks attributed to National Volunteer and poet, FrancisLedwidge, who was to die in preparation of the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917...
entrance has since been lost. Another folk tale involves the ghost of FrancisLedwidge. According to the story an old friend of Ludwidge was working at the...
Joe Doyle, since the 1990s, who gathered materials by Dunsany and FrancisLedwidge at Dunsany Castle, compiled writing and publication data, and unearthed...
Buí" in Irish) by Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna. His friend, the poet FrancisLedwidge, wrote a "Lament for Thomas MacDonagh" with the opening line "He shall...
and Math is delicately described in the poem "The Wife of Llew" by FrancisLedwidge. The Blodeuwedd story is referenced in the novel and film Tylluan Wen...
May 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2013. "Philip Chevron (The Pogues) & FrancisLedwidge – the Music of longing". The Immortal Jukebox. 17 March 2016. "Lorelei...
Philip Johnstone - David Jones - T. M. Kettle - Rudyard Kipling - FrancisLedwidge - P. H. B. Lyon - D. S. MacColl - John McCrae - Patrick MacGill - E...
whom he jointly wrote a play) and others. He befriended and supported FrancisLedwidge, to whom he gave the use of his library, and Mary Lavin. Dunsany made...
ideals were granted a spiritual dimension in their work; Arnold Bax, FrancisLedwidge, George William Russell and W. B. Yeats responded through verse that...
marriage and been rejected). Tynan was also later a correspondent of FrancisLedwidge. She is said to have written over 100 novels. Her Collected Poems appeared...
researched and authored a study of the life and work of the Irish poet FrancisLedwidge. William Hubert Dunn, known for most of his life as Hubert, was born...
refurbished and extended in 1979. According to local folklore, the poet FrancisLedwidge worked there for two days as an apprentice before homesickness for...
(died 1882) Anatoly Kudryavitsky (born 1954) Emily Lawless (1845–1913) FrancisLedwidge (1887–1917) C. S. Lewis (1899–1963) James Liddy (1934–2008) Ruth Frances...
Hodgson - W. N. Hodgson - A. E. Housman - Aldous Huxley - Violet Jacob - FrancisLedwidge - Winifred M. Letts - Sidney Royse Lysaght - Rose Macaulay - Alasdair...
Popular culture "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" The Footballer of Loos Artists: William Orpen FrancisLedwidge Related Irish in the British Armed Forces...
century James Joyce Patrick Pearse Joseph Plunkett Thomas MacDonagh FrancisLedwidge Padraic Colum F. R. Higgins Austin Clarke Samuel Beckett Brian Coffey...
Lavin – Saoi of Aosdána Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – gothic novelist FrancisLedwidge – poet C. S. Lewis – author of the Chronicles of Narnia Michael Longley...
attended the Model School. He is a winner of the UCD Ulysses Medal. FrancisLedwidge has associations with St. Michael's CBS, formerly Richmond Barracks...
about 11:00 a.m. Among the fatalities that day was the Irish war poet, FrancisLedwidge, who was "blown to bits" while drinking tea in a shell hole. Ellis...
An individual from these groups is the Boyne Valley "peasant poet" FrancisLedwidge, who was pressured by the Irish Volunteers into enlisting in the British...
1954, R/E) Emily Lawless (1845–1913, E) Sarah Leech (1809–1820, E) FrancisLedwidge (1887–1917, E) C. S. Lewis (1899–1963, E) James Liddy (1934–2008, E)...
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