A recent enquiry from New Zealand as to the
author of a poem “ My home town in Kildare” required some research which failed
to answer the authorship question but nevertheless threw up other material, the
results of which now forms the basis for this article. But firstly the poem, the first stanza of
which read
“Tonight
I am sadly thinking, I don't have much more time
For
I am almost eighty and my health is in decline
I
think of a place that's far away, old friends and neighbours there
I
wonder if they remember me, in my home town in Kildare.”
The initial enquiry was made on behalf of a native of Castledermot, now
living in New Zealand and naturally enough my thoughts turned to two men from
around that area, each of whom published
a book of poetry. “Many Moods in Many Metres” by Thomas Greene of
Maganey was published postumously in Dublin in 1902. He had died the previous year aged 58 years. However, references in the Kildare poem to
“the forty hours procession” and to “benediction after Mass” were unlikely to
be the work of a member of the Church of Ireland so Thomas Greene was ruled
out. For much the same reason, George
Henry Graham, a native of Castledermot was also disregarded. He was a Methodist whose book of poetry “Lest
we Forget” was printed by R.T. White of Fleet Street, Dublin, when I cannot
say, but sometime after 1894.
George Graham was an interesting man whose ancestors were in charge of the Post Office in Castledermot for upwards of a 100 years or so before finally losing that position after George's father committed suicide in February 1857. George Henry who was born in the year of Catholic Emancipation 1829, for a long time harboured a desire to emigrate to Australia but following his father's death, he thought hard of leaving his mother. He had two sisters, Elizabeth who married Samuel Cope of Castledermot and Sarah who married Richard Giltrap of Elverstown. His mother, Mary Ann died in 1859 but even then, George for some reason or other postponed his plans to emigrate. We know that he married Ann Marie Brown of Plunketstown and the following lines in his poem“That Old Churchyard” indicate that when in November 1866 George and his wife set sail for New Zealand on the ship “Himalaya” , they left behind in the churchyard in Castledermot the remains of their three young children.
“Within
that Church, those vows were made.
Which
sweetly during life
With
Anna's lot bound up my own
And
made us man and wife,
Our
children, three short gleams of bliss
Shed
on our hearts, on high
Their
spirits fled, their little forms
Within
that churchyard lie”
George and Anna Graham reached New Zealand in
February 1867 and they settled in Waimate which is about ten kilometres inland
and almost halfway between Christ Church, Dunedain and Queenstown. Nowadays, Waimate is a small town with a
population of about 2,700 served by approximately 50 shops but when the
Graham's arrived they were amongst the first settlers in the area. George Graham carried on farming and three years
later he was appointed Clerk of the Magistrates Court. He had been involved in
Court work while in Ireland, exactly in what capacity I have not found out. He
appears to have undertaken many different roles while in New Zealand and apart
from farming and working as a Court Clerk, he also worked as a Newspaper
Reporter and was appointed a Justice of
the Peace. However, it is in his role as an advocate of the Temperance Movement
that he is best remembered in present day New Zealand.
He is commonly regarded as the father of
Temperance work in Waimate where he took a leading role in the first Temperance
meeting held in the town at Christmas 1868. His lifelong involvement in the
Temperance Movement was an interesting and very commendable change from his young
days in Castledermot where, like most
young men of his time, he took drink.
But even before he embarked on the “Himalaya” George Henry Graham was
committed to the Temperance Movement and indeed spent a lot of his time while
on board the ship travelling to New Zealand encouraging fellow passengers to
sign Temperance pledges. As a
Methodist lay preacher and a temperance reform advocate, Graham was an
accomplished public speaker and a regular contributor in print for the cause of
temperance principles.
His wife, Anna Marie died in 1873 leaving him
with a son George and a daughter Ann Marie, both of whom were born in New
Zealand. The young Ann Marie died aged
21 years while George (Junior) achieved fame as one of a team of three men who
were the first to reach the summit of Mount Cook in New Zealand.
George Henry was Mayor of Waimate in 1891 and
1892 and in 1894 he returned for his first and only visit to Ireland. That
visit was the subject of a poem which he titled “Once more I have seen thee” in
which he wrote of the joy and sadness on
reliving scenes from the past
“Once
more have I seen thee, old Ireland
And
wandered along thy dear shore
My
glad feet have trod
The
rich verdant sod
Of
thy hills, plains and valleys once more.
Graham returned to New Zealand where he was
elected Mayor of Waimate for the third
time in 1894. In addition to this
role, he at various times acted as Secretary of the Public Library Committee and
indeed he was the first secretary of that committee when appointed in 1882. He was also secretary to the High School Board of Governors from its inception
in 1883 until his death and for 25 years was Treasurer of the local Masonic
Lodge.
George Henry
Graham died on 25th February 1911 at the age of 82
years. On the day of his death, flags were flown at half mast and business
premises in Waimate closed for the funeral.
At that funeral, the Masonic
Lodge attended in full, regalia and the Masonic Service was performed. He was survived by his second wife Louisa and
his son George. His obituary in the New Zealand press noted that“his liberalism
was always of the sound, progressive, humanitarian kind. His Irish brogue knew how to flatter whilst
it preached and the not displeased subject of his shafts would remain smiling
though rebuked. He was a man liked by
Catholics and Protestants alike”.
His brother William Graham who remained in
Castledermot died in December 1891 unmarried
aged 71 years. However, the links
between the Grahams and the Cope's which were first forged with the marriage of George's sister
Elizabeth to Samuel Cope in the 1860's were renewed when Jeanette Graham,
grand-daughter of George Henry Graham, herself a New Zealander married Samuel
Cope of Knocknagee, Castledermot in 1934. Sadly within three years of their
marrige, 41 year old Samuel Cope died. His widow later returned to live in New
Zealand.
Castledermot born, Samuel Henry Graham is today
remembered in the New Zealand town of Waimate where Graham Street in the centre
of the town is named after him.
No comments:
Post a Comment