Life
1779-1835 [Antoine Ó Reachtabhra; Antoine Raiftearaí; occas.
Anthony Raftery, and err. Aodhagan]; b. Killeden, Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo,
c.1784; blinded by smallpox in infancy; travelling bard, known as ‘Kiltimagh
Fiddler’; passed most of his time in the Gort-Loughrea district of
Co. Galway; wrote on contemporary events such as Daniel O’Connell’s
Clare election victory and the hanging of Whiteboy Anthony O’Daly;
best-known for "Mise Raiftearaí File", "Contae Mhaigh Eo",
and "Anuach Cuain" (a lament for those drowned at that place);
also "Seanchas na Sceithe" [var. Sceiche], a metrical history
of Ireland; bur. Rahasane, nr. Craughwell, Co. Galway; poems edited by
Douglas Hyde from oral tradition (Abhráin agus Dánta
an Reachtahbhraigh, 1903. DIB DIW DIH FDA OCIL
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Works
D[ouglas] Hyde, ed., Abhráin atá Leagta ar a Reachtúire;
songs ascribed to Raftery, in Songs of Connacht, Chap. V (Gill
& Son 1903; reps. NY: Barnes & Noble 1973; Shannon: IUP 1979);
Abhráin agus Dánta an Reachtabhraigh (Baile Atha
Cliath 1933); Ciarán Ó Cloigligh, ed., Raiftearí,
Amhráin agus Dánta (An Clócomhar Tta., 1987);
Criostoir O’Flynn, ed., Blind Raftery (Cló Iar-Channachta
1997) [bilingual anthology].
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Criticism
W. B. Yeats, ‘Dust Hath Closed Helen’s Eye’, The Celtic
Twilight (1902).
Douglas Hyde, ‘A Famous Mayo Poet’ [Raftery], The Gael (April 1903), rep. in Padraic Colum, ed., A Treasury of Irish Folklore [2nd rev. edn.] (NY: Crown Pub. 1967), pp.115-116;.
Lady Gregory, Poets and Dreamers (Dublin 1903; rep. Gerrards Cross, 1974).
B. O’Rourke, County Mayo in Gaelic Folksong, in B. O’Hara, ed., Mayo, Aspects of Its Heritage (Galway 1982), pp. 153-56, 291-96.
A. Ní Cheannain, Raifterí an file (Baile Atha Cliath 1984). There is a biographical novel by Donn Byrne, Blind Raftery (1924).
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Notes
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology (Derry: Field
Day 1991), Vol. 2; selects ‘Mise Raifteri’, ‘Cill Liadáin’,
‘Máire Ní Eidhin’; when Douglas Hyde discovered
some poems of Raftery in MSS at the RIA, Lady Gregory found 22 more in
another MS; Hyde iussued his first edition of Raftery in 1903, and edited
another in 1933; ‘Mise Raifteri’ may not actually be by Raftery
himself, [723-38], 787, BIOG, Antoine Raftery [Raifteri], b. Lios Ard,
Co. Mayo, probably 1784; some education at hedge-school; blinded by smallpox
at nine; encouraged by his landlord, the Taaffes, till disagreement with
them, and afterwards became wandering minstrel in South Galway area; died
Christmas Eve 1835; stories about him collected by Lady Gregory and Douglas
Hyde; along with Edward Martyn, they erected a stone on his grave at Killeenin
nr. Craughwell, Co. Galway; Yeats also attracted to legend of Raftery.
Vol. 3, see pp.1309-10 [Declan Kiberd calls him the nineteenth century
writer and cult figure, p.1312]; also pp.1359, 1282-83.
University of Ulster Library, Morris Collection, holds Abhrain agus Danta ... (1933); Abhrain atá Leaghta ... (1903). Blind Raftery. Abhráin atá Leagtha ar an Reachtúire, ed. of poems by Douglas Hyde (Dublin 1903, rep. with add. 1933, 1969).
W. B. Yeats echoes Ó Rathaille’s best know poem (Gile
na Giolla)’, in "The Curse of Cromwell": ‘You ask
what - I have found, and far and wide I go:/Nothing but Cromwell’s
house and Cromwell’s murderous crew ... //And there is an old beggar
wandering in his pride—/His fathers served their fathers before Christ
was crucified.’ See also translations anthologised in John Montague,
ed., New Oxford Book of Irish Verse (OUP 1986), pp.195-199 [‘Brightness
most bright I beheld on the way, forlorn’; ‘The drenching night
drags on’; The Vision; Valentine Browne; ‘No help
I’ll call’).
Douglas Hyde, in his edn. of Songs Ascribed to Raftery, ‘[...] gives an account of first hearing “The County Mayo” being sung by an old man at the door of his cottage while himself on a shooting expedition one fine frosty morning. “[will] you learn me that song?”, he asked. “That was my first meeting with the wave that Raftery left behind him.”’ (Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde, 1974, p.29.)
Daniel O’Connell’: Raftery wrote a poem entitled ‘Bua Uí Chonaill’ [‘O’Connell’s Victory’] arising from the Clare election of 1828 [see under Daniel O’Connell, RX].
James Joyce makes a jocose allusion to Raftery in the “Cyclops” episode of Ulysses: ‘the harsher and more personal note which is found in the satirical effusions of the famous Raftery ...’ (Ulysses, Bodley Head Edn., 1961, p.404).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)