Forging a name for himself in Paradise

THE anvil was singing away on the first afternoon I was stopped in my tracks by the sight and sound of Tom O’Sullivan’s roadside forge in Ballinacally, Co Clare.

Incredibly, there was a spreading chestnut tree curved like a whispering umbrella over the forge. Just like the poem. Tom O’Sullivan, though, then in his middle age, was not like the mighty brawny smith in the lyrics. He was a wiry, handy class of a man, with a bright intelligent face, and a quick gait. A lovely man.

That meeting was well over 30 years ago. They buried him, at the age of 87 years, in the local Kilchreest graveyard last Saturday. He worked in his forge until a few months ago. He was by far the oldest practicing traditional blacksmith in Clare.