Francis Ledwidge
Francis was the eighth of nine children born to Patrick and Anne Ledwidge. He was the first child born in the family's new home, a Laborers Cottage just outside the village of Slane, situated in the heart of the Boyne Valley, some thirty miles North of Dublin. Christened Francis Edward but known as Frank to his family and friends the fledgling poet would know hardship at an early age. His father died when he was just four years old and only three months after the birth of his youngest brother Joseph. The burden fell on his mother Anne to provide for the family by undertaking backbreaking "outdoor relief" work in the fields for a meager eight shillings a week.
Further tragedy was to befall the Ledwidge family when the eldest son Patrick returned from his book keeping job in Dublin with tuberculosis and a four year death sentence. Francis later said of that time:
"Oh those four years. It was as though God forgot us."
Despite the initial hardship the literary talents of Francis flourished from an early age. Described as an "erratic genius" by his schoolmaster Mr. Thomas Madden Francis joined a literary society for juveniles and was introduced to classic stories like The Arabian Nights, Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote and the poetic works of Shakespeare, Keats and Longfellow. From as soon as he could write Francis indulged in the creation of rhyme and verse:
"While I was still at school many silly verses left my pen, written either for my own amusement, or the amusement of my companions. Indeed I left many an exercise unfinished hurrying over some thought that shaped itself into rhyme."
His first poem of note came when Francis was aged fifteen. Upon finishing school the young poet went to work as a grocer's apprentice in Rathfarnham Co. Dublin. He hated his time there and was extremely homesick. His poem "Behind the Closed Eye" reflected the memories of the idyllic world he had left behind. After just a week of working in the grocers Francis stole away in the middle of the night and walked the thirty five miles home to Slane.
In the following years Francis undertook a variety of jobs in the Slane area including groom, farmhand, road worker and miner. He continued to write poetry and had many of his poems published in the local newspaper the Drogheda Independent. Many of these poems were taken to the newspaper office by Ellie Vaughey, the younger sister of his friend Paddy. Their relationship soon developed into love and Ledwidge wrote numerous poems which spoke of Ellie's beauty "Spring Love".
During this time Ledwidge acquired a patron in the form of a local aristocrat, Lord Dunsany. Dunsany wrote of the young poet:
"I was astonished by the brilliance of that eye that had looked at the fields of Meath and seen there all the simple birds and flowers, with a vividness that made those pages like a magnifying glass, through which one looked at familiar things seen thus for the first time. I wrote to him greeting him as a true poet, which indeed he was…"
Dunsany ensured that the poetry of Ledwidge would find a wider audience as his poems began to be published in the literary magazine Saturday Review. Dunsany also facilitated the introduction of the young poet to the Irish literary circle which included AE, Thomas MacDonagh, Katherine Tynan and James Stephens amongst others.
A common misconception about Ledwidge is that he was aloof and dreamy. In fact Frank was good company and had many friends. He was involved in many aspects of the local community and was a natural leader and innovator. He founded the Slane Drama Group in which he was both chief actor and producer. He also attempted to establish a branch of the Gaelic League but was thwarted by the supervisor for the area. He expressed his disgust in verse:
"Oh! What a pleasant world 'twould be How smoothly we'd step thro it If all the fools who mean no harm, Could manage not do it."
The poet was also a keen political activist. While employed in Beauparc copper mines Frank organized a strike for tolerable working conditions. He was a founder member of the Slane branch of the Meath Labor Union and held the position of the General Secretary of the Meath Labor Union Approved Society for a year. He was elected to the Navan Board of Guardians and also the Navan Rural District Council. Both Frank and his younger brother Joe were founder members of the Slane corps of the Irish Volunteers. Founded in November 1913 in response to the establishment of the Ulster Volunteers by Edward Carson to resist Home Rule, the mandate of the Irish Volunteers was:
"To secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland."
At the same the European political landscape was changing. On August 4th, 1914 England declared war on Germany and so began the Great War. On September 20th John Redmond, leader of the Home Rule Parliamentary Party made his infamous 'recruitment speech' at Wooden bridge Co. Wicklow. This speech split the Irish Volunteers into two factions. One faction supported John Redmond and was named the "National Volunteers", the other supported Eoin McNeill and the original twenty co-founders and retained the name the "Irish Volunteers". At a meeting of the Slane corps the whole hall declared for Redmond except for six men, one of whom was Francis Ledwidge. At the next meeting of the Rural District Council all except Ledwidge were united in their enthusiasm for Redmond. His fellow councilors sneered at Ledwidge and labeled him as a "pro-German."
Yet inexplicably five days later Frank enlisted in the Royal Inniskillen Fusiliers at Richmond Barracks in Dublin. It is impossible to say exactly why Ledwidge enlisted in the army. One popular myth is that Ledwidge enlisted under the influence of his patron Lord Dunsany. However this is untrue as Dunsany was so annoyed to discover that the poet had joined the army that he almost refused to have any more to do with him. One strong reason for the poet's enlistment is the loss of his love, Ellie Vaughey. Ellie could often be seen with a new escort, John O'Neill. The poet wrote of this:
"I'm wild for wandering to far-off places Since one forsook me whom I held most dear," [After My Last Song]Ellie went on to marry John O'Neill and settle in Manchester, yet sadly she died shortly after childbirth just a year later. Francis had foreseen Ellie's fate the night before her death in a vivid dream of white birds flying over the Atlantic Ocean. He wrote the poem "Caoin" to describe this foreboding doom. Ledwidge wrote many elegies to Ellie including the poignant "To One Dead".
"A blackbird Singing On a moss upholstered stone, Bluebells swinging, Shadows wildly blown, A song in the wood, A ship on the sea The song was for you And the ship for me."
The Cache
Stage One
At The above location note the two dates on the plaque call the A.B.C.D & E.F.G.H
Final Location
The cache is located at
N53 43 (D-H)(A+G)A
W 006 28 (B+B)(H-(E+G))
Please re hide the cache well as this area is popular with Muggles
The Windsockers
www.geocachingireland.ie