The Bard of Cloiche Brice – Michael Luke Pháidín

Michael Coyne, the poet was born in Cloghbrack Upper in 1881, son of Luke Coyne and Sarah 'Sally' Diskin. He went to school to third class in an English only school as Ireland was still under British rule. He took th emigrant ship to Scranton, Pennsylvanis to work in the depths of the coal mines there. He returned hoping for some support to proress his learning and scholarship but when it wasn't forthcoming he left again this time for Pittsburgh, mining coal in the bowels of the earth. Michael never returned to Ireland. Before he emigrated, while still a young man he composed more than 20 poems on the themes of love, loss, emigration, the social life of Cloghbrack and the Irish Language… He was described by Professor Tomás Ó Máille in his 1934 book Micheál Mhac Suibhne agus Filidh an tSléibhte.

This collection contains 23 poems in Irish with English translations and narrative describing the people and the places referenced in the poems. Twelve of the poems wre previously unpublished and believed lost.