Michael Scanlan (1833-1917), was a nationalist poet and writer. Known as ‘the Fenian Poet’, he authored a number of well-known ballads such as ‘The Bold Fenian Men’ and ‘Jackets Green’. Born in Castlemahon, Co. Limerick, his family emigrated to Chicago when he was 15 years old. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and wrote for a number of papers. He supported the Fenian invasion of Canada and promoted ‘physical force Republicanism’. He became a senior figure in the American government, in 1887 he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Statistics in the State Department. He died in 1917.
