Dermot Bolger Walking The Road

Drama on One: Walking the Road RTÉ Radio 1  by Dermot Bolger   A labourer turned literary debutante, poet Francis Ledwidge lost his life late in the Great War, and the pathos of his passing preserves his early work in the amber of the might-have-been.   Dermot Bolger’s lyrical biopic of the proletarian poet predates the current fashion for 1914 by many years, Peter Hanly plays the premature Ledwidge and Joe Taylor his phantom chaperone in this vigil of pilgrims. Sound Supervision Mark McGrath Produced by Aidan Mathews A Soldier’s Grave Then in the lull of midnight, gentle arms Lifted him slowly down the slopes of death Lest he should hear again the mad alarms Of battle, dying moans, and painful breath. And where the earth was soft for flowers we made A grave for him that he might better rest. So, Spring shall come and leave it seet arrayed, And there the lark shall turn her dewy nest.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.