Extramural Activity

Patrick O’Connor was born on this day in 1924 on the lower Falls but after his father emigrated he spent his early years – until age 5 – with his grandparents in East Street in the Markets. It was as a high-schooler in New York that he adopted the name Pádraic Fiacc (“fiach dubh” is “raven”) and began writing poetry. He settled in Glengormley upon his second and final return; it is not clear that he ever saw East Street lined with British Army soldiers, as shown in the mural above. He wrote of his early life in ‘First Movement’:

Low clouds, yellow in a mist wind

Sift on far-off Ards

Drift hazily …

I was born on such a morning

Smelling of the bone yards

The smoking chimneys over the slate top roofs

The wayward storm birds

And to the east where morning is, the sea

And to the west where evening is, the sea

Threatening with danger

And it would always darken suddenly

Some of Fiacc’s poems are in the TroublesArchive. There are two videos below. The first is an interview with NVTv’s Bernard Conlon; the second is of a reception in Belfast City Hall.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LuNdYDm0U4]

Click and click again to enlarge (to 2870 x 2138)

Copyright © 2014 Extramural Activity

Camera Settings: f8, 1/400, ISO 400, full size 3295 x 2455

text: X02057 [X09070] X09071 1929