{"id":2487,"date":"2018-02-01T15:35:45","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T15:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=2487"},"modified":"2025-10-02T14:03:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T13:03:33","slug":"the-poems-of-teresa-brayton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/the-poems-of-teresa-brayton\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POEMS OF TERESA BRAYTON"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEINSTER LEADER<\/em> 4 JANUARY 1986<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Poems of Teresa Brayton<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eamonn Mulvihill<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Teresa Brayton was born in Kilbrook, near Enfield, in 1868 and first wrote poetry as a young girl for the Land League and National League in the 1880\u2019s. This was the decade of the Rise of Parnell, M.P. for Meath and the poems were published in local and national papers such as \u201cThe Nation\u201d and the \u201cWestmeath Independent\u201d.<\/p>\n

Teresa Boylan was her maiden name and she taught for a time at Newtown school before emigrating to the United States in 1895, aged 27 years. She worked in journalism and her poems of exile were often recited by herself at the end of Irish-American functions. In these poems of exile she cherished the small things of life that she remembered about the Ireland and the Kilbrook of her youth. She married a Canadian called Brayton and under this name she published two books of verse, \u201cSongs of the Dawn<\/em>\u201d in 1913 and the \u201cFlame of Ireland\u201d in 1926.<\/p>\n

It is fitting that \u201cBrayton Cresent\u201d is called after her because she has been described as \u201cthe poet of the homes of Ireland\u201d. She wrote about the fireside chats, about ghosts and pookahs, about the sound of the latch lifting as neighbours came in to visit at night and about home-cooking, work and prayer. In The Old Boreen<\/em> she writes:<\/p>\n

Oh, do you remember the low white house,<\/em><\/p>\n

With its coating of yellow thatch,<\/em><\/p>\n

The earthern floor and the open door,<\/em><\/p>\n

That swings to a ready latch.<\/em><\/p>\n

Again, in The Old Fireside, <\/em>she writes;<\/p>\n

In some friendly place apart<\/em><\/p>\n

When all their<\/em><\/p>\n

tears are dried,<\/em><\/p>\n

I know I\u2019ll meet my neighbours<\/em><\/p>\n

By\u00a0God\u2019s own fireside.<\/em><\/p>\n

Teresa Brayton\u2019s poems are about the cuckoo and corncrake, the thrush and the blackbird. Her poems also reveal her deep memories of the changing seasons of the Irish year. \u00a0Spring and Summer were the busy seasons of her youth with ploughing, haymaking and turf-cutting but Autumn and Winter brought rest. In the poem When the leaves begin to fall<\/em> we can see this in the first verse;<\/p>\n

When the days are getting<\/em><\/p>\n

shorter and<\/em><\/p>\n

The nights are growing long<\/em><\/p>\n

And there comes a sort of<\/em><\/p>\n

sadness in the<\/em><\/p>\n

Robin\u2019s evening song,<\/em><\/p>\n

A feeling of contentment<\/em><\/p>\n

settles down upon us all \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n

For our busy days are over<\/em><\/p>\n

when the leaves begin to fall.<\/em><\/p>\n

Her audience widened in Boston and New York as she published poems entitled Kerry, Leitrim, Derry, Clare<\/em> and The Boy from the County Down<\/em>. She reminded the Irish exiles abroad of the customs and the music that were native to them. The Enfield Branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann is appropriately called the \u2018Teresa Brayton Branch\u2019 when one reads, in the poem Kerry <\/em>the following lines which she remembers;<\/p>\n

The Blue bogs purple with\u00a0heather,<\/em><\/p>\n

the ring of the crossroad set,<\/em><\/p>\n

For dancing on summer\u00a0evenings<\/em><\/p>\n

to the tunes that I can\u2019t\u00a0forget.<\/em><\/p>\n

The poems recall customs like Hunting the Wren <\/em>and she also wrote very moving poems and blessings in celebration of Christmas.<\/p>\n

Tis Christmas time in the Old <\/em>land now<\/em><\/p>\n

There is brooding snow in the <\/em>wind<\/em><\/p>\n

The turf-light flickers in shelf and dresser<\/em><\/p>\n

With holly and ivy twined<\/em><\/p>\n

But you and I by the stranger\u2019s hearth<\/em><\/p>\n

Think back to old times again<\/em><\/p>\n

To the dear old ways and the Stephen\u2019s Days<\/em><\/p>\n

That we went hunting the Wren.<\/p>\n

But there was also a sad, pathetic and poignant quality in the poems of Teresa Brayton. With great tenderness she could express the sense of loss at leaving Ireland, losing a friend \u2013 and especially her mother whose memory she had always cherished. This sense of sadness is best revealed in the central verse of The Old Bog Road.<\/em><\/p>\n

My mother died last<\/em><\/p>\n

Springtime<\/em><\/p>\n

When Ireland\u2019s fields were green\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

Also in the poem In Memoriam<\/em> she writes in memory of Thomas Cowley, Kilbrook;<\/p>\n

Then we bade you goodbye<\/em><\/p>\n

for ever and saw you borne<\/em><\/p>\n

away<\/em><\/p>\n

From the ceaseless noise of the<\/em><\/p>\n

city to your home in the<\/em><\/p>\n

churchyard clay.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the slope of a country hill<\/em><\/p>\n

side where the lights and<\/em><\/p>\n

shadows pass,<\/em><\/p>\n

And the night dews glitter like<\/em><\/p>\n

Teardrops<\/em><\/p>\n

A down on the sighing grass.<\/em><\/p>\n

Finally, the poems of Teresa Brayton record the strong feelings she had about Irish freedom. She wrote about Robert Emmett, Parnell and the fight for Irish freedom. Poems such as Gerry Connor\u2019s Forge <\/em>and A Thousand More <\/em>are about the cause of Irish liberty.<\/p>\n

In 1959 an active committee of the Enfield Guild of Muintir Na Tire arranged the erection of a Celtic Memorial Cross over the grave of Teresa Brayton who died in 1943.\u00a0\u00a0 She had known Mrs. Pearse, Countess Markieviez and many others associated with the 1916 Rising so it was Eamon De Valera who came to Cloncurry and spoke at this occasion. The local committee was praised in the papers for their \u201centerprise\u201d and for \u201cshowing what a small rural community can achieve without official assistance\u201d. The members of the committee were Liam Corrigan, Pat McQuillan, Miss Margaret Kearney, Thomas Walsh, Michael Kearney and Robert Tuite. Local people subscribed to the costs.<\/p>\n

Teresa Brayton worked for the Irish World<\/em> newspaper. Elizabeth Deely of the New York Irish Drama League wrote in 1947 of Teresa Brayton: \u201cShe, more than any other, is the poet of the Irish exile.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1980s we in Enfield, especially the young people, are in a sense exiles-in-time from the world that Teresa Brayton remembered. Her poems will always be a primary source or window into the rural life of our district in the 1880s. In Songs of the Dawn <\/em>1913 she introduces us to her book:<\/p>\n

Unto my own the Irish I send<\/em><\/p>\n

with smiles and tears<\/em><\/p>\n

This little book of melodies<\/em><\/p>\n

caught from the flying years<\/em><\/p>\n

With all the love that\u2019s in me<\/em><\/p>\n

and all the best I know<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019d call them back oe\u2019r many a tract<\/em><\/p>\n

To lands of long ago.<\/em><\/p>\n

And since this is the Christmas season, I conclude with a quote from A Christmas Blessing<\/em> by Teresa Brayton:<\/p>\n

May peace be your treasure<\/em><\/p>\n

and long be your living<\/em><\/p>\n

With joy in good measure for<\/em><\/p>\n

taking and giving<\/em><\/p>\n

In friendship go leor beyond<\/em><\/p>\n

bound or expressing<\/em><\/p>\n

To your door I am sending this<\/em><\/p>\n

Christmas Blessing.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEINSTER LEADER 4 JANUARY 1986 The Poems of Teresa Brayton By Eamonn Mulvihill   Teresa Brayton was born in Kilbrook, near Enfield, in 1868 and first wrote poetry as a young girl for the Land League and National League in the 1880\u2019s. This was the decade of the Rise of Parnell, M.P. for Meath and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","category-social-history"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7810,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2487\/revisions\/7810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}