Rethinking the Irish Diaspora by Johanne Devlin Trew & Michael Pierse

Author:Johanne Devlin Trew & Michael Pierse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

It is quite astonishing that knowledge and appreciation of this poem, one of the jewels in the crown of Irish literature, is still almost wholly concentrated among academics or language activists.

But let us return to William Calwell’s 1935 claim that James Orr once had a place “among the Irish immortals.” Was this simply wishful thinking in Orr’s home village? The evidence suggests that it was not. In Templecorran Cemetery, Ballycarry, Orr lies buried beneath an imposing monument which honours him as “Poet, Patriot and Philanthropist.” It was erected in 1831, at the then enormous cost of £9000 and testifies to the high regard in which he was widely held. Furthermore, George Pepper’s 1829 essay in the journal The Irish Shield and Monthly Milesian, referred to earlier, indicates that Orr’s reputation was acknowledged in the United States at a period of noteworthy developments in the history of Ireland. The journal’s target market was the Irish migrant community, whose support was being canvassed in support of Daniel O’Connell’s campaign for repeal of the Act of Union. Along with Pepper’s essay, a small selection of Orr’s standard register poetry is reproduced, including the moving Lament for a Beloved and Affectionate Mother, likely to tug at the heart-strings of expatriates, while recommendations are made for further reading. Orr’s rousing anti-slavery piece Toussaint’s Farewell to San Domingo is one of several texts which reveal Orr as a keen supporter of the abolitionist movement.12 Pepper concludes by acknowledging Orr as “one of the most gifted bards of green Ullin of sylvan groves and limpid streams” (1829: 457). Something of Orr’s memory clearly lingered in America, for an American serviceman stationed in Ballycarry in preparation for the D-Day landings is reported to have read the words of The Irishman reproduced on Orr’s monument and to have expressed amazement because he knew the poem well from his school poetry text-book, but had never expected to find himself walking in the lanes and fields which the poet had known as home (Fig. 6.1).13

Fig. 6.1James Orr’s Monument, Templecorran Cemetery, Ballycarry, Co. Antrim (photograph by the author)

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