Pat Gallagher

Pat Gallagher (1865-1959) of Creevane, Coolaney, Co Sligo makes an appearance in my new poetry collection which is to be published by Revival Press, Limerick in March.

Pat, my maternal great grandfather, was secretary of Killoran parish United Irish League (UIL) club from 1901 until the club faded away because of the Great War and the postponement of Home Rule around late 1914 or early 1915.

Pat later supported Sinn Féin and spent a short period in Sligo Jail in 1920 having been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a raid for arms on Cultibar House, Coolaney. He hadn’t been involved in the raid but his son, Martin Dan, who was also arrested, had taken part. Pat was a small farmer and a farm labourer and had his hand cut off in an accident with a mowing machine in the early 20s.

I found all his reports on Killoran UIL meetings published in the local newspaper, the Sligo Champion, and used extracts to form a “found poem” arranged roughly in the style of Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”. I even found a “silence” quote to match Wittgenstein’s famous last line in the book “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”