Ellen Forrester - A Monaghan poet about Manchester

Times Past

Jonathan Smyth

Denis Carolan Rushe, that well known historian and author of Monaghan histories has preserved many a fascinating fact in his writings. Nowhere more so can they be found, than in his ‘History of Monaghan for Two Hundred Years: 1660 - 1860.’ Recently, while delving deeper into the story of the poet Ellen Forrester, I noticed that Rushe records that ‘both Clones and Clontibret claim her birthright.’ At the time of her death in 1883, the Kerry Independent said she was a Clones woman.

Clones sound like a fine starting place for a poet to begin their journey. It was in that town, twenty-six years ago, that I had my first experience of working for the Public Library Service. Joe McElvaney was then County Librarian and I mind that Clones was a lovely, friendly town to work in where I got to know many of the locals during those fondly remembered days in the old County Library. Anytime I am in that part of Monaghan I think of the town’s great local historian Mr George Knight whom I had the pleasure of hearing during an informative tour some years ago. Equally, I recall conversations with another knowledgeable local historian, the late Dermot McCabe who was always enthusiastically exploring something new and exciting about Clones.

The village of Clontibret is the other contender with a claim on Ellen’s birth. I remember it was in the late 1970’s and my father brought us to Clontibret to collect a machinery part. Oddly, it was in Clontibret where for the first time, as children, we witnessed a woman driving a tractor. I later learned that Clontibret was the site of a famous battle in 1595 between Hugh O’Neill, the Earl of Tyrone and the English forces under Generals’ Seagrave and Norris. The Generals were leading forces to join the English garrison in Monaghan when they encountered O’Neill’s forces. O’Neill was pulled to the ground from his horse by Seagrave.

Next upon grabbing a dagger, O’Neill killed Seagrave. So shocked by their leader’s death were the English soldiers that they were said to have fled the field. Even though both locations lay claim to Ellen Forester, it is interesting to note that at the time of her death in 1883, the Kerry Independent recorded her as a native of Clones, Co. Monaghan.

Ellen was called ‘a sweet and popular poetess’ by the Kerry Independent who reported she had been living in Pendleton, Salford, Manchester. Several London periodicals recognised her talents and regularly published her work.

Mr Henderson of London, the proprietor of the Weekly Budget published many of her poems. Later, Henderson produced a volume of her poetry, titled ‘Simple Strains.’ Afterwards, a collection of Ellen’s poems which included her son A. M. Forrester’s poetry was published under the title ‘Songs of the Rising Nation.’ Contemporary accounts described Ellen as a poet with nationalist views. However, her poems had better success in English and Scottish publications.

Ellen was born in 1828, and her father was the master of a local school, most likely at Clones. Her mother was a Presbyterian Lady who later converted to Catholicism.

At 17 years’ old, Ellen moved to Liverpool to work as a governess before settling in Manchester where she met her husband to be Michael Forrester. The Forresters had five children, but life was not plain sailing because Michael had a drink problem and his earnings as a stonemason were spent in the public houses. To compensate for the lack of money coming into the house Ellen began submitting her poetry to publications who paid for her writing.

An essay in the Dictionary of Irish Biography by Frances Clarke states that Ellen was an enthusiastic nationalist who helped Caroline Douglas, the Marchioness of Queensberry, with a ‘defence fund’ for the ‘Mancht Millbank prison he asked her to visit him. But the jail refused the request on the grounds that she was a ‘notorious Fenian-sympathiser.’

Fanny Forrester

Another of Ellen’s children attained a reputation for poetry writing, too. She was Fanny Forrester and the Nation newspaper in July 1889 recorded that, ‘Miss Forrester belonged to a family that has given more than one member of the confraternity of singers... Her mother, the late Mrs Ellen Forrester; her uncle, Mr Magennis, and her sister, Miss Mary Forrester, being more or less widely known for their poetical talents in Irish literary circles.’ Fanny, born in 1851, joined the staff of Brierley’s Magazine at an early age as ‘a writer’.

The magazine was described as an organ of the working class in which she penned poems for the poor of her home city of Manchester, - poems that were said to be full of feeling and sympathy. Her work soon entered the pages of Chambers’ Journal, the Argosy, Cassell’s Magazine, and others which the Nation said were ‘high class journals.’

Her Irish themed poetry, like her mother’s, was ‘intensely National’. Fanny Forrester died in July 1889 and was interred in the Catholic Cemetery, Salford, Manchester, alongside family members including her mother, Ellen Forester.