Thomas O’Grady, son of the late Brendan O’Grady, posts articles with poetic interest in Irish Matters and even though they are all centring of the poetic ingredient they are also of great historical interest. His latest inclusion is about a recent book of poems publication by a former Monaghan person from Knockaconny called Aidan Rooney. Aidan is a longtime resident of Massachusetts, where he teaches at Thayer Academy in Braintree. An unabashed admirer of Heaney, he not only travelled to Dublin for his funeral but also followed his funeral cortege northward to Bellaghy for his interment. His experience in the cemetery prompted a poem that he titled simply “In a Country Churchyard.” Aidan is the author of two previous books of poems, Day Release (2000) and Tightrope (2007) but the particular poem mentioned above is included in his third publication - ‘Go There’ (MadHat Press). Anyone interested in poetry, in Seamus Heaney, or just a lovely story then you can read all about it at this link - http://irishmatters.blogspot.com/ Thanks to Thomas for drawing my attention to this article which is a joy to read. He also sent me a cutting from a PEI paper of a piece which was published in the Charlottetown Guardian on Father’s Day and is worth reading as its about his Father and himself.

Thomas with his late father, Brendan. Brendan was one of the first, if not THE First, person from PEI to take an interest in the Monaghan/PEI connection when he visited Emyvale in the late 50’s, and a number of times after that. Thomas was the guest speaker at Canada Day in Monaghan town two years ago.