boasted [about Antoine Ó Raifteirí]: 'Raftery hadn't a stim of sight. He was the best poet that ever was and the best fiddler. It was always at my father's house, opposite the big tree, that he used to stop when he was in Kilchreest. Though he was blind, he could serve himself with his knife and fork as well as any man with his sight'.
There were many in South Galway who remembered Raftery's biting satires, one of which "withered up a bush" near Rahasne. Many obtained their knowledge of Irish history, forbidden in the schools, from his songs, which were historical, political and religious.
from Galway Advertiser: A blind poet's love for Mary Hynes
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