Miriam reclaiming Eire’s war poet
DROGHEDA resident Miriam O’Gara-Kilmurry was conferred with her Master of Arts English on poet Francis Ledwidge in 2012 but waited a further five years to be presented to the Pro- Chancellor at the Dublin 2017 Open University Graduations at the hallowed ground of Croke Park and for good reason.
In a dissertation titled ‘ A defence of Francis Ledwidge as a War Poet through an exploration of War Imagery, Nationalism and Canonical Revisions’, Miriam argued a defence of the famed Inniskilling Fusilier, Lance Corporal F. E. Ledwidge, killed at the 3rd Battle of Ypres, 31 July, 1917, as Eire’s WWI War Poet, and recently converted her thesis to a book, Eire’s WWI War Poet:F.E. Ledwidge, published by Amazon. The dissertation was a response to continuing confusion as to what a war poet is and does, and addresses the mistaken notion, still held, that war poets are paid to glorify war as war mongers.
Miriam was overjoyed when awarded an MA(Engl)(Merit) in 2012 and deliberately waited five years to be presented at a ceremony.
“I was very keen to mark the centenary of the death of Francis Ledwidge, who for me is Eire’s WWI War Poet, in a personal way. Attending my Masters graduation in his centenary year 2017, would bring closure to a roller coaster research journey filled with interesting Ledwidge discoveries and experiences.”
In a talk at the National Library of Ireland, 2nd October, 2013, she started a campaign to raise awareness of the canonical neglect on Ledwidge’s War Poetry Collections, from Gallipoli, Egypt, France and Belgium, and why modern Ireland needs to reclaim Francis Ledwidge as Eire’s WWI War Poet, the canonical significance of whose war collections have gone academically under-appreciated for generations.
Miriam runs Executive Teacher, based in Drogheda, and is a contributor to an upcoming Lyric programme on Ledwidge due to be broadcast in early summer. “I believed it was time to officially acknowledge F.E. Ledwidge as Eire’s WWI War Poet” as he himself asks in his poem SOLILOQUY (c. 1916). ‘ Tomorrow will be loud with war How will I be accounted for. ‘