Francis Ledwidge Museum
About
The labourer's cottage at Janeville, a kilometre or so out of the village on the Drogheda road, where the poet Francis Ledwidge was born on 19 August 1887. He worked as a road labourer, wrote for the Drogheda Independent from his teens, and found a patron in Lord Dunsany, who brought him to the attention of Dublin literary circles. His first collection, Songs of the Fields, came out in 1915 while he was serving in the British Army, and he was killed at the third battle of Ypres on 31 July 1917, less than three weeks short of his thirtieth birthday. A local committee bought and restored the cottage in 1981 and it opened as a museum in June 1982. It holds his letters, poems and wartime material, with his life told on wall panels, and a garden behind. The museum's own site gives the 2026 season as open from Tuesday 3 March, Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓The 19th-century labourer's cottage where Ledwidge was born
- ✓Original letters, poems and First World War material
- ✓A quiet garden behind the cottage
Tips
- →Closed Sundays and Mondays. Check the museum's own page, not a listings site, for current days.
- →Coach groups should contact the museum in advance on +353 41 982 4544.
- →There is a Ledwidge memorial plaque at the north end of Slane Bridge, near the cottage.