James Casey (poet-priest)
Father James Kevin Casey was an Irish priest in Ballygar and Athleague and principal of St John's seminary in Sligo. He composed many didactic poems which were popular and published in collections. Their subjects included materialism, devotion, the Irish language and, most especially, temperance. An example is a verse of The Toper and his Bottle,
Father Casey was an inspiration for the "Poet of the Pick", Jem Casey, who was a character in Flann O'Brien's satirical novel At Swim-Two-Birds. Jem Casey was a labourer who wrote "pomes" such as The Workingman's Friend,
