James McKeown, after a brief schooling, went to work in Barbours, the thread-manufacturers, in Hilden, County Antrim. He contributed poems to the Nation using the pen-name `Curlew' and `Kitty Connor'. He became known as the Bard of Lambeg. For forty years he worked at Richardson's Glenview Bleachworks and received a pension. It was said that he frequently walked from Lambeg to Belfast to attend the theatre. His poems were written in Ulster Scots dialect and appeared in The Harp of Erin; a book of ballad poetry and native song, collected, arranged and annotated by Ralph Varian, in 1869.

Born:	11 February 1814
Died:	23 April 1889