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A
common misconception about Ledwidge is that he was aloof
and dreamy. In fact Frank was good company and had many
friends. He was involved in many aspects of the local
community and was a natural leader and innovator. He founded
the Slane Drama Group in which he was both chief actor
and producer. He also attempted to establish a branch
of the Gaelic League but was thwarted by the supervisor
for the area. He expressed his disgust in verse:
"Oh!
what a pleasant world 'twould be,
How smoothly we'd step thro' it,
If all the fools who mean no harm,
Could manage not do it."
The
poet was also a keen political activist. While employed
in Beauparc copper mines Frank organised a strike for
tolerable working conditions. He was a founder member
of the Slane branch of the Meath Labour Union and held
the position of the General Secretary of the Meath Labour
Union Approved Society for a year. He was elected to
the Navan Board of Guardians and also the Navan Rural
District Council. Both Frank and his younger brother
Joe were founder members of the Slane corps of the Irish
Volunteers. Founded in November 1913 in response to
the establishment of the Ulster Volunteers by Edward
Carson to resist Home Rule, the mandate of the Irish
Volunteers was:
"To
secure and maintain the rights and liberties common
to the whole people of Ireland."
At
the same the European political landscape was changing.
On August 4th, 1914 England declared war on Germany
and so began the Great War. On September 20th John Redmond,
leader of the Home Rule Parliamentary Party made his
infamous 'recruitment speech' at Woodenbridge Co. Wicklow.
This speech split the Irish Volunteers into two factions.
One faction supported John Redmond and was named the
"National Volunteers", the other supported
Eoin McNeill and the original twenty co-founders and
retained the name the "Irish Volunteers".
At a meeting of the Slane corps the whole hall declared
for Redmond except for six men, one of whom was Francis
Ledwidge. At the next meeting of the Rural District
Council all except Ledwidge were united in their enthusiasm
for Redmond. His fellow councillors sneered at Ledwidge
and labelled him as a "pro-German."
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Yet
inexplicably five days later Frank enlisted in
the Royal Inniskillen Fusiliers at Richmond Barracks
in Dublin. It is impossible to say exactly why
Ledwidge enlisted in the army. One popular myth
is that Ledwidge enlisted under the influence
of his patron Lord Dunsany. However this is untrue
as Dunsany was so annoyed to discover that the
poet had joined the army that he almost refused
to have any more to do with him. One strong reason
for the poet's enlistment is the loss of his love,
Ellie Vaughey. Ellie could often be seen with
a new escort, John O'Neill.
The poet wrote of this:
"I'm
wild for wandering to far-off places,
Since one forsook me whom I held most dear,"
[After My Last Song]
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Fusiliers
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Ellie
went on to marry John O'Neill and settle in Manchester,
yet sadly she died shortly after childbirth just a year
later. Francis had foreseen Ellie's fate the night before
her death in a vivid dream of white birds flying over
the Atlantic  Ocean.
He wrote the poem "Caoin"
to describe this foreboding doom. Ledwidge wrote many
elegies to Ellie including the poignant "To
One Dead".
"A
blackbird singing
On a moss upholstered stone,
Bluebells swinging,
Shadows wildly blown,
A song in the wood,
A ship on the sea,
The song was for you
And the ship for me." [Abriged]
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