John O'boyle

No Stone for the Poet John O'boyle

In the early 17th century Dame England drove the native Irish from the richest six counties of Northern Ireland. Seamus Cavanaugh and Tommy Gibbons were but lads when the English soldier put a sword through the heart of Tommy's father. A curse was put upon the English King and his heir to the throne. Tomy was to become a skilled ploughboy, a teacher , and a poet. Semus was to don the whitw robe of a Dominican Friar, ever challenging the God for peace and justice for Ireland. There was a time of peace when the natives brought life to the bog laden rocky fields of Connaught, but English greed was ever in the storms that blew from the English shore. First there was a consumptive tax and then there was a Commission of Defective Titles. An isle which sought peace was caught amidst the gale. Tommy and Seamus stayed the course. They kept the faith. They were citizens of a land that never was, keepers of dreams.