A few days ago, I went to the launch of a new book about the renowned poet John Montague, written by Adrian Frazier, a professor in Galway university. The launch was held in Garvaghey GAA Centre, County Tyrone and a crowd of about four hundred from all walks of life turned out. The book “John Montague – A Poet’s Life” is published by Lilliput Press and is almost 400 pages long. It was clearly a labour of love for Adrian Frazier. He spent at least five years researching and writing.
It was fitting that the book launch was held in the Garvaghey GAA Centre near Ballygawley since that is where John or ‘Johnnie’ (as he was known locally) was reared by his aunts after being sent home from New York in 1933 when he was four years of age. It is the townland and world of Garvaghey (the rough field) that features so much in his poems and writings. This was his spiritual home. I don’t think John ever played Gaelic football for Errigal Ciaran but he was immersed in the Gaelic culture of that part of Tyrone. He was familiar with the story-telling and the music and was aware of local writers like Carleton and Marshall and the Bard Mullan.
It was in the Parish of Errigal Chiarán that John/Johnnie spent these formative years in a traditional Catholic family. He attended the Primary school in Glencull and was, by all accounts, an outstanding scholar. He had a serious speech impediment or stammer which meant it was difficult for him to express himself by speaking. He made up for that in his writing ability. The stammer seemed to improve as years went on.
At Primary school he went after hours to Irish language classes organised by a local priest. Once, the priest organised a trip to the Donegal Gaeltacht for the pupils but John refused to go. Later in life, he recalled that his decision not to go to the Gaeltacht was one of the moments that made him a poet-‘it is in the broken places that poetry flourishes’, he said later on recalling this incident.
John Montague was born in New York in 1929. His father Jim was from Garvaghey and his mother, Molly Carney, was from Fintona. However, after the Depression hit the USA, the parents found it difficult to raise the three boys so they sent the boys back to Tyrone to live with their aunts. Seamus and Turlough were sent to the mother’s sister in Fintona and John was sent to the father’s two sisters who lived on the home farm in Garvaghey. The two aunts looked after John very carefully. Their mother returned to Fintona to run her family’s pub-now called “The Poet’s”.
After Glencull Primary school, John went to St Patrick’s College Armagh, run by Vincentian priests. He likened it to being in jail. Again he was an outstanding student and was encouraged by teachers –especially by Sean O’Boyle. After Armagh he went to UCD and then to the USA for four years. He returned to Ireland but soon felt the draw of Paris and France. He met his first wife, Madeleine, in Paris and remained for many years before returning to Ireland to teach in Cork University.
I met John only a few times over the years but I got to know his two brothers quite well. Seamus was our local doctor in Ederney when I was growing up there. He was very attentive to all his patients and was a frequent visitor to our house when my mother was unwell. He loved to speak to me in our native tongue. Turlough, who lived in Fintona and had a legal practice in Irvinestown was my solicitor on occasions and a good man to have representing you in legal matters.
John I discovered was a wonderful poet and had a gift with the language. As well as poems he wrote short stories. One collection was ‘Death of a Chieftain’. John suggested the name “The Chieftains” to Paddy Moloney when he was looking for a name for his new band. He was also fluent in Gaeilge and French. In Paris he became friends with Samuel Beckett. They lived close to one another and met up frequently for a glass or two.
He kept in contact with family and friends in Ireland and was greatly affected by the conflict that raged in the 1970s and 1980s. He wrote an interesting poem “Border Sick Call” about a journey he made along the border with his brother Dr Seamus who was called out one day to tend to an ill woman across the border in Donegal.
Much of his writing is about love and relationships; having been married three times he was well qualified on that subject. His first wife Madeleine was French. His second wife was Eveeyn Robson with who he had two daughters, Sibyl and Oonagh and his third wife is Elizabeth Wassell, a writer also from the USA.
John won many awards for his poetry and is recognised throughout the world.
He is survived by Elizabeth who is also a writer-mostly of novels -and his two daughters.
The night of the book launch in Garvaghey felt like a real celebration of the life of a great poet and a beloved Tyrone man. The author Adrian Fraizer deserves much praise and gratitude.
Great article.