Welcome.
This website has been developed to celebrate the memory and to share a collection of the poetic verses of the Tyrone poet Michael Mullin, also known as Michael “The Bard” Mullin. He was known locally as ‘The Bard of Foremass’. Born and raised in the townland of Foremass Lower, Sixmilecross, County Tyrone, Michael’s love of nature, the land and its people and his deep faith is reflected in all his poetry.
When his grandson Patrick Mullin died and being of a computerised mind he bequeathed that this website be set up to publish his grandfather’s poems. It has taken some time and many false starts but we the family have now organised a small amount of his poems here.
We hope you get the same enjoyment from his poetic verses as we do.
Michael Mullin was born on the 29th of January 1886 to parents Terence and Margaret Mullin née Conroy. He was reared on their small farm in the townland of Foremass Lower. As he grew up and lived in his beloved Foremass he always saw God’s handiwork in the natural beauty of the countryside and from this he drew inspiration for a lot of his writing.
He lived through turbulent times at the beginning of the twentieth century and in his early years he read and contributed to papers including The Nation, The Weekly Freeman, The Packet and other magazines of a nationalist and republican point of view. He also wrote for the Ulster Herald and there was a long running poetic debate in the Poets Corner in the Herald about whether young ladies should wear cloaks or shawls and it was at this time that he was first called The Bard of Foremass by fellow poet Michael Conroy from Barnesone. He contributed to the Ulster Herald from his late teens to well into his old age.
His poems were also published in The Cork Examiner, The Independent and religious magazines, The Far East and African Missions
He married Mary Jane Mullin of nearby Foremass Upper townland in 1919 and reared their family in Foremass. His poetry generated much needed supplemental income for his young family. As a prolific poet Michael Mullin wrote on a wide range of subjects but his favourite themes were Nature, God, Love, Family and Farming. His catalogue of poetry stretches to hundreds of published poems with further work that remains unpublished.
He died on St. Brigid’s Eve in 1978 two days after his 92nd birthday.
He is buried just inside the gates and opposite the front door of
St.Mary’s Chapel, Dunmoyle, in the parish of Errigal Ciaran, Co. Tyrone.
Porridge
There are French fiddles and Jew’s harps
Jazz dancers and jazz bands
All sorts of foreign music
Which comes from foreign lands.
But to me the sweetest music
To cheer a poor man’s cot
Is the music that comes plumping
From a boiling porridge pot.
O Ireland reared some brave men
When her oats fed brawn and brain
One Paddy reared on porridge
Could trounce two Englishmen,
My money on the stirabout
Grown on an Irish plot
It sings the song that bubbles from
A good oat porridge pot.
Our Gaels fought England’s battles
As history’s pages tell,
When they charged with ripping bayonets
Into the mouth of Hell.
Now food’s shipped over oceans
Tins, packets and what not,
But I’d sacrafice the whole jing bang
For porridge, cold or hot.
Michael Mullin, ‘THE BARD OF FOREMASS’
Foremass Lower, Sixmilecross, Co. Tyrone.