Joseph Campbell was a Poet, and Lyricist, from East Belfast.
View on RequestA keepsake of Joseph Campbell: being a lock of human Hair.
Joseph Campbell was a Poet, and Lyricist, from East Belfast.
He was born in Belfast in 1879. He wrote under the Gaelic form of his name Seosamh Mac Cathimhaoil.
He was one of 12 Irish nationalists who met in November 1913 to discuss plans for the formation of the Irish Volunteers. Campbell was involved in the IRA after the creation of the First Dail in 1919.
He was a staunch anti Partitionist and became a Sinn Fein Councillor in Wicklow in 1921 and went on to become active in the Irish Civil War on the Republican side.
With the Signature of the Anglo Irish Treaty, which brought to an end the Anglo Irish War, Campbell opposed it, both as an Ulsterman, and as a Republican.
He wrote to Arthur Griffiths to say :
“This will split Ireland from top to bottom, and Lloyd George knows it”
Griffith never replied..
The Civil War broke out in 1922 (after the Anglo Irish Treaty in December 1921) – in which Republicans, both Pro, and Anti Treaty,The contended. Campbell was arrested and imprisoned by Pro Treaty Republicans.
He is now best remembered for words he supplied to Traditional Airs, such as “My Lagan Love”.
He took part as a supporter in the Easter Rising of 1916, doing rescue work. The following year he published a translation, from Irish, of the short stories of Patrick Pearse, one of the Leaders of the Rising.
Two Blue Plaques commemorate him in East Belfast. One, in East Belfast, concentrates on his Lyrical side, the other, in Short Strand, his political side.
He died in 1944.
Within the records kept in Linen Hall Library Belfast is this item, a Lock of his Hair.
Owned by Linen Hall Library. Images used by Permission of The Linen Hall Library