John Keegan Casey (1846—1870) was a Fenian poet, known as The Poet of the Fenians, is most well known for his poetry and participation in the 1867 Fenian Rising. Born during the Famine in Co. Westmeath, 1846, he became disillusioned with the insufficiently nationalistic education he was receiving and began to write poetry. It was during this time that he wrote the most famous of his poems ‘The Rising of the Moon’, possibly at the age of only fifteen. In the 1860s he became involved with the Fenian movement and consequently wrote for The Nation under the pseudonym ‘Leo’. He also began giving speeches to mass rallies in the years just before the Rising of 1867. In the aftermath of the abortive Rising he was arrested and released on the condition that he leave Ireland for Australia. Instead he remained in Ireland in disguise. He married the next year, in 1868, to Mary Josephine Briscoe. He suffered from poor health as a result of the time he spent in prison, and died after falling from a cab on O’Connell Street, St. Patrick’s Day, 1870. Between 50,000 and 100,000 people attended his funeral procession. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
Writings
The Rising of the Moon (1860s)