Hugh Porter was born around 1780 in the townland of Moneyslane, near Rathfriland. A weaver by trade, he had been encouraged to write by a local rector, the Rev Thomas Tighe.

It was through Tighe that Porter mingled with the glittering literary circle of the time, meeting men such as Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore, Henry Boyd, translator of Dante, and Patrick Bronte, father of the famous Bronte sisters.

Such encounters undoubtedly stimulated Porter’s own literary aspirations. His verses – a collection of which was first published in Belfast in 1813 – are a vivid description of the life of a poor weaver, as well as being an evocative reminder of an era long since past.