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News
War poet to be remembered at special concert
Corporal Frank Ledwidge
The Inniskillings Museum is organising a free concert in St Macartin’s Cathedral and St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church, Enniskillen, on Thursday, 20th July 2017 at 7.30pm to celebrate the life and work of Great War poet, Corporal Frank Ledwidge.
Corporal Ledwidge was serving with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Passchendaele in July 1917 when he was killed by a stray shell.
From a poor family in Slane, Co. Meath, Corporal Ledwidge’s father died when he was just four years ago and his mother struggled to raise him and his younger brother.
However as a child, he had a talent for rhymes and as a young man, was recognised as a gifted poet. He left school at the age of 14 to work on the roads as well as help his mother. He continued to write poems which were published in local newspapers.
As a nationalist, he joined the Irish Volunteers and when Redmond asked the volunteers to enlist in the British Army, Frank joined up, serving in Gallipoli and the Balkans. He was later sent to the Western Front where he was killed.
At the concert, readers including Enniskillen born actor, Adrian Dunbar, will read his poetry and music inspired by his work will be performed by Matthew Murphy and Lauren Coulter.