Dublin’s great street entertainer

AROUND the month of March each year we often hear that St Patrick might have been from Wales or England and that his father was a Roman official.
What about the poem which tells us that:-
St Patrick was a gentleman, he came of decent people,
In Dublin town he built a Church and upon’t put a steeple;
His father was a Callaghan, his mother was a Brady,
His aunt was an O’Shaughnessy and his uncle was a Grady.
Similarly, while wholesale drunkenness on St Patrick’s Day is to be deplored maybe we should remember,
No wonder that our Irish boys should be so free and frisky,
For, St Patrick taught them first the joys of tippling the whiskey:
No wonder that the saint himself to taste it should be willing,
For his mother kept a shebeen shop in the town of Enniskillen.
Some people will tell us that St Patrick never came to County Clare but the same poem says, when talking about him banishing the snakes :-
Nine hundred thousand vipers blue, he charmed with sweet discourses,
And dined on them, at Killaloe, in soups and second courses.
Those lines are from the poem St Patrick was a Gentleman composed by a man named Michael Moran, a Dublin street performer of 200 years ago. He was born into a very poor family in the Liberties of Dublin around 1790 and within weeks lost his sight through illness.
Moran had a gifted memory for old songs and recitations and often composed his own. He would go around the centre of Dublin in the evenings reciting his poetry and collecting from passers-by. He had a companion to guide him and collect money. Moran was reasonably successful because his friend was known as “Stonypockets”. He got this name because he kept the collected money in his right-hand pocket and the weight of it caused him to lean over. To counter balance, this he carried stones in his left pocket so that he could stand erect.
Moran was never known by his own name but rather as Zozimus, which he got from an Egyptian priest. One of his most famous recitations was the Baptism of St Mary of Egypt composed by a Bishop Coyle of Raphoe. She had been a lady of ill repute, who saw the error of her ways and after repenting for 47 years in the desert was found by Abbott Zozimus, who administered the sacraments to her before she died. Moran’s recital of the poem was so well received that he became known as Zozimus.
Another of his famous offerings was the Finding of Moses and he also composed poems on contemporary events, such as the election of O’Connell as Lord Mayor of Dublin. In his later years his health deteriorated and his voice suffered from constant use, which left him in poor circumstances.
His great fear was that body snatchers would rob his grave. He arranged that he would be buried in Glasnevin Cemetery because it was the only graveyard in Dublin which had round the clock security to protect against robbers.
Michael Moran, better known as Zozimus, one of Dublin’s great street entertainers died on April 3, 1845 and was buried in Glasnevin on Palm Sunday, 167 years ago this week.