Kickham, Charles Joseph

(1826-1882)

   The son of local draper, he was born at Mullinahone, in County Tipperary, where the Anner flows and the Slievenamon mountain rises not far away. Exploding gunpowder so damaged his young eyes and ears that his hopes of a medical career were dashed, so he became a journalist. He was active in the Young Ireland Movement and the Tenant Right League. He became a Fenian about 1860 and one of the writers for the Irish People newspaper. He was arrested, tried for treason, and in 1866 sentenced to fourteen years' penal servitude, but served only four years in prisons in England. He died at Blackrock, near Dublin, and was buried in the Tipperary graveyard. Some of his publications: Sally Cavanagh, or the Untenanted Graves, 1869 (novel, written in prison). Knockagow, or the Homes of Tipperary, 1879 (novel). Poems, Sketches, and Narratives Illustrative of Irish Life, 1879. For the Old Land, a Tale of Twenty Years Ago, 1886. Some of his poems: "Patrick Sheehan" (set to music by Andy Stewart), "Rory of the Hill," "She Lived Beside the Anner," "The Irish Peasant Girl," "The Priest and his People."

   Sources: An Anthology of Irish Verse: The Poetry of Ireland from Mythological Times to the Present. Padraic Colum, ed. Liveright, 1948. Andy M. Stewart: By the Hush (http:// andymstewart.com/by-the-hush.htm). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry, Second Edition Bibliography (http://collections.chadwyck.co.uk/html/ep2/bibliography/g.htm). Knocknagow, the history of the house (http://www.exclassics.com/knockngw/kn2.htm). She Lived Beside the Anner (http://sniff.numachi.com/Kickham, Charles Josephrickheit/dtrad/pages/tiLNDMNTN.html). Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Valley Near Slievenamon, A Kickham Anthology: The Poems, Letters, Memoirs, Essays, Diary, and Addresses of Charles J. Kickham. James Maher Mullinahone, ed. James Maher, 1942.