Greetings,
It brought great joy to witness the Irishman’s Diary marking the bicentenary of the poet, William Allingham, who hailed from Ballyshannon, Co Donegal (Brian Maye, 26th March).
Jez Butterworth, the renowned English dramatist, has amassed several international awards over the past decade for his play, The Ferryman. At present, the play is being performed on the amateur stage by the Ballyduff Drama Group from Co Waterford. A character in the play recites, “I heard the dogs howl in the moonlight night; /I went to the window to see the sight; /All the Dead that I ever knew/Going one by one and two by two.”
These verses are excerpted from an Allingham’s less-known poem, A Dream, which was initially published in the 1850s, later included in the anthology Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry by Yeats. The poet Allingham will also be commemorated uniquely at a 200th birthday edition of the Allingham Arts Festival in Ballyshannon this coming November.
Sincerely,
MICHAEL McMULLIN,
Ballyshannon,
Co Donegal.