Calry poet made name in Canada
CALRY Local History Society has announced plans to commemorate local poet, Michael A Hargadon, in a series of events in the year 2018 which coincides with the 50th anniversary of his death and the 130th anniversary of his birth.
Speaking at a launch event at the Clarion Hotel recently the Chair of the Society, Gerard Cunningham, stated that a Friends of Michael Hargadon Group has been formed and is meeting regularly to decide on how best to honour the poet who is perhaps better known in his adopted Canada than in Ireland.
He said: “Among the events planned are poetry readings at Hargadon’s Pub in Sligo branded Hargadon@ Hargadons; the publication of a new collection of his poems which have laid dormant for several decades; a plaque to be erected at his place of birth in Colgagh townland, Calry; and an exhibition on his life and works to coincide with National Heritage Week in 2018.”
Other proposals are under discussion with Sligo County Council, Maynooth University and Canadian partners, which will be announced at a later stage when agreements are reached with the relevant authorities.
Councillors Hubert Keaney, Cathaoirleach of Sligo County Council and Seamus Kilgannon, Chairperson of the County Sligo Heritage Forum both made opening remarks at the launch event and welcomed the work being undertaken by Calry Local History Society.
Brian Hargadon, the youngest and last surviving son of the poet, travelled from Ottawa to Sligo and was the keynote speaker at the launch event.
He gave a presentation on the life and works of his father who emigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1915, worked as a journalist for the Montreal Daily Star and became well known in Canadian literary circles. He was a founding member of the Canadian Authors Association in 1921.
Mullaneys Travel Agency in Sligo still retains the shipping list for 1915 which shows Michael Hargadon departing on 8 July 1915.
Being a dominion of the United Kingdom, Canada became embroiled in the First World War as soon as war was declared on Germany. A Patriotic Fund was established to support the wives and families of the Canadian soldiers who departed to fight in Europe, particularly in the Somme. Michael Hargadon penned a poem entitled To Those They left Behind which was widely published across Canada in newspapers and magazines, and generated huge interest in the Patriotic Fund raising a few million dollars.
After leaving the Montreal Daily Star, he then joined Canadian Pacific as the company’s chief publicity officer, a role that brought him into contact with the sporting, literary, entertainment celebrities of the 1920s and 1930s. The company was both a shipping line and a railway offering customized package tours across Canada. During his time with Canadian Pacific, he wrote many poems about the beauty of Canada which was published as Among the Mountains.
Returning on vacation to Sligo in 1924 to visit his mother, Michael Hargadon took many interesting photos that captured the people and landscape of the Calry and Sligo area which have only recently come to light. His son, Brian, remembers him as a kind and generous man with a phenomenal memory for verse and Irish history, and an extensive general knowledge. He could recite poetry for hours on end and being a newspaper reporter, he captured events through the medium of poetry.
His best known publication in Ireland was A Lovely Home which was heavily influenced by events, places and people associated with his formative years in Calry. His early mentors in Sligo were Willie Frazer, a farmer in Fermoyle, Calry and John Rupert Tracey, a teacher in the Marist Schools, Quay St, Sligo. Both are captured in his legacy of old photographs.
The Society presented Brian Hargadon with a commissioned piece by Sligo sculptor Michael Quirke, symbolising Celtic heritage and the Sligo landscape. The sculpture was comprised of sycamore wood with an inlaid stone sourced from the derelict house and garden of his great grandfather in Tully townland from which the Hargadon family was evicted by the Earl of Leitrim in the 1860s, resulting in their relocation to Colgagh where Michael Hargadon was born in 1888.