School: Finiskill (roll number 13075)
- Location:
- Finiskil, Co. Leitrim
- Teacher: Cathal Ó Floinn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0219, Page 399
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- (continued from previous page)Poets were rather scarce in the locality in olden times, and as competition in verse-making was not as keen as in the days of the bards poets rarely if ever attacked one another in verse. The people whom Mc'Gann attacked were not poets like himself but ordinary country folk who were unable to retaliate in verse but who often threatened to do so in a more tangible way.
Both poets were farmers but neither followed his profession with the keenness of a true son of the soil. Harvey had a brother living with him who did the farm work while Tom composed his verses. Mc'Gann had a wife and seven daughters yet not withstanding the chance of any male helper he never worried about farm work and was often heard saying, with pride rather than shame that he "sold him last cow at the June Fair of Longford in the year 1886." Despite his lack of interest in farming he managed to live comfortably enough owing no doubt to the generous assistance which he so often received from friends in America. The one good poem composed by Harvey and most of those composed by Mc'Gann were first heard in the last decade of the 19th century. Harvey was illiterate but Mc'Gann was a good writer and a very deep reader, mostly of history.(continues on next page)
