Limerick poet remembered by her daughter as ‘friendly, kind and flamboyant’

A CELEBRATED Limerick poet has been remembered by her daughter as “friendly, kind and flamboyant”.

There is sadness across Limerick’s poetic community following the passing of Mary Fitzpatrick, known to generations as ‘Polly the Poet’. She was aged 94.

One of the favourite daughters of the city’s northside, the prolific writer was a proud ‘Sodacake’ all her life, living in the heart of Thomondgate.

Her daughter Sheila Fitzpatrick O’Donnell said: “She loved life and lived it to the full. She was forever telling stories!”

Indeed, that was the case, and it manifested in her poems which reflected on local life – be it the piece she wrote on the Regeneration of Moyross, where she lived for a time, or the senior hurlers’ All-Ireland winning achievements.

Indeed, her first book collection in 2004 contained no less than 113 poems.

Although born Mary Carroll, she only ever used that name on her passport, said her daughter.

“When she was in the pram, only a baby, her uncle looked in to the crib, and said, ‘ah, look at Polly’. That’s how she got her name – it stuck to her. And she loved it,” she said of her mother, who reared 10 children.

“From a very young age in first class, the teacher had her reading for all the class and the older children. She was way ahead of her years when it came to reading,” Sheila added.

Despite this, Polly was a relatively late entry to the stage, reading her stanzas on Radio Limerick, before the late Barney Sheehan, who ran the poetry revival in the White House pub, invited her to perform before an audience.

“I loved it. I was very impressed when I saw my mum get up at the open mic and read her stuff. She was very nervous, but it was great to see she did it,” said Sheila.

One of the highlights of Polly’s day in her later years was sitting down beside the radio and listening to Joe Duffy on RTE Radio One’s Liveline.

In fact, she wrote a poem about it, and had the chance to read it out to the legendary host on air!

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“Polly wrote about Thomond Park, the Special Olympics, her father. Every subject. She was a topical poet, she wrote about what was happening in the now,” Sheila said.

Out of all of Polly’s poems, Sheila identified Moonbeam and the Man in Black, a stanza she wrote about Johnny Cash as her two favourites.

Despite her passing, Polly’s legacy will live on through the generations.

Sheila has herself become a well-known local poet, and will launch her own collection next month, while Polly’s first granddaughter, Carrie Barrett writes plays. Her second, Sinead Benn is also a talented writer.

“My mum encouraged me to pick up the pen and believe in myself. She encouraged me to write, then my daughter Carrie also read in the White House, so it’s gone full circle,” Sheila explained.

“She was full of confidence, always told us to believe in ourselves and not take a back seat to anyone.”

Asked her fondest memories of her mother, she added: “There are so many. She was a very funny woman.

“I’ll always remember her for her wit and humour. She’d come out to our house and have the Sunday dinner, and say ‘Oh, God, that’s the best dinner I ever had. You wouldn’t get it in the Gresham Hotel!”

Sheila said her mum also had a wonderful sense of mischief.

“She was an awful flirt, she loved the limelight, she loved the diamond chains and earrings. But she saved them for the most important person,” she grinned.

There have been tributes to Polly from across Limerick’s poetic community.

Dominic Taylor of the Limerick Writers Centre, and a former organiser of the White House poetry revival said: “She wrote from the heart and not without humour, and she has passed her gift for writing onto her daughter, poet Sheila Fitzpatrick O’Donnell.

“We all have fond memories of her reading in the White House.”

Mary, Polly the Poet, Fitzpatrick, was laid to rest following funeral Mass at St Munchin’s Church in Clancy’s Strand in the city last Thursday.

She passed away peacefully in St John’s Hospital.

She’s predeceased by her loving husband Gerard also known as ‘Bunny’, and sons Gerard, known as Con, and Kevin.

Polly is also sadly missed by her loving daughter and carer Irene, and family Basel, Simone and Roy; also sadly missed by her other daughters, sons, grandchildren, great grandchildren, family in Britain, other relatives and a large circle of friends.
May she rest in peace.