Rates, Taxes & Council Matters
‘Village Politicians’ by Abraham Reimbach 1813
Song of a Kerry District Councillor
It appears that Politics was as popular a subject of conversation over a hundred years ago as it is today. This anonymous composition written in the first person and partly in the vernacular is an amusing commentary on the integrity of the members of the council. The names used in the song are fictitious but it would be no secret as to who the composer was referring to. It was composed circa 1908 and signed Jackeen.
The verses below were composed by Daniel O’Neill of Old Road, Cahersiveen sometime around 1954. He was encouraged by friends to commit his memories of Cahersiveen and its characters to paper. The result was a pamphlet published in 1958 titled “My Cahersiveen Memories” containing stories and verse with a foreword by Sigerson Clifford, cost three shillings. He wrote numerous witty and satirical verses. The one below is an example of many that didn’t appear in the publication mentioned above.