Mr. T. Callinan writes us: ("Quirindi "Advocate") from "Ayondhu," Murrurundi, on 10th inst. :
"I must say that I am delighted in reading your old-time articles, as they recall pleasant memories
of my boyhood days. I met "Frank the Poet" 47 years ago. His real name was Frank McNamara. He told
me he had put in a lot of his time at the settlement at Segenhoe, near Scone, where I met Frank and
an old Segenhoe friend of his by the name of Mick Furlong.
Mick was well-known by the Campbell family of the Upper Hunter. I put in a few nights with Frank and
Mick, and I will never forget the tale they told of the convict days. I am enclosing a few lines by
Frank when he was up before Denny Day, the P.M. for having imbibed over-well of the "craythur." Day
had given him 14 days for his heinous offence, and Frank said to him:—
You know it's the way with the Irishman
To drink the craythur whenever he can;
And, now, your Worship, if you plaze,
Make it hours instead of Days;
For I'm sure it's well you know it
That they call me Frank the Poet.
And let it be said to Mr. Day's everlasting credit—he straightway reduced the sentence to 14 hours."
This fragment recalls a meeting with Frank the Poet with a variant of a well known epigraph.Notes
From the NSW Newspaper The Scone Advocate 18 Jun 1926 Page 8.
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