History
Following on the world-wide tradition of great blind storytellers, the Liberties area of Dublin produced Ireland's very own 19th century Homer, a man who went by the name of Zozimus. Once described by P.J. McCall as the last Gleeman of the Pale, Zozimus was born Michael Moran in 1794 in the Blackpits area of the Liberties, one of the oldest parts of Dublin, just South of the River Liffey.
His family, typical of many in Ireland during the late 18th century, were desperately poor, and this, coupled with an illness suffered very early in his life, caused Zozimus to lose the sight of both eyes when he was only two weeks old. During those poverty-stricken days in Dublin, a blind person would have had a very difficult time indeed surviving on the streets of Dublin, but Zozimus was able to earn a healthy living due to the fact that he possessed an exceptional memory for old poems, songs and stories, as well as an enormous talent for composing and reciting his own.
It is from this that he received his unusual nickname, for Zozimus was the name of the priest who administered the Holy Sacraments to St. Mary of Egypt in the 5th century AD. Michael Moran was fond of reciting the verses composed by Bishop Coyle regarding this incident, and so came to be called by the same name as the priest.
In order to assist in the collection of his "wages", Zozimus was characteristically accompanied through the streets of Dublin by a companion called Stonypockets, so called because the weight of the money building up in his right-hand coat pocket caused him to lean over in that direction, thus requiring that a handful of stones be placed in his left-hand pocket in order to help him maintain his balance.
Zozimus spent the last few years of his life in 14 1/2 Patrick Street, not far from St. Patrick's Cathedral, and was frequently to be seen plying his trade around Wood Quay, Church St. and Bloody Bridges, as well as Henry St., Dame St., Grafton St., and Capel St.. He was last seen in public on what is now South Great George's Street. during the winter of 1845. By that time, he was 51 years of age and had fallen into bad health.
His voice, one of the essential tools of his trade, had all but deserted him, thus depriving him of an income. He only survived a few short months beyond this cold time, spending most of the period feeble and bedridden. He died on Friday, April 3rd 1846, and was buried two days later, on Palm Sunday.
During the period when Zozimus lived, the remains of the dear departed of Dublin were frequently disturbed by a group of busy grave robbers called "sackemups", so called because they collected corpses from their resting places and carried them off in sacks. Stonypockets himself was taken, not once, but twice, by these vagabonds. Zozimus himself had an immense fear of the same thing happening to him, so he made arrangements in advance to be buried in Prospect Cemetery, Glasnevin. At the time, this was the only graveyard in Dublin with 24-hour security and watchtowers, and was thus protected from the interests of the sackemups. He rests in the "Poor Ground" and can be located using the co-ordinates AG 30 South, not far from Daniel O'Connell's burial site.
His grave remained unmarked until the late 1960's when the famous traditional Irish musical band 'the Dublin City Ramblers' erected a tombstone in his memory. Needless to say, many of his trademark poems have been adapted to song by numerous Irish musicians.