He had a reputation as a talented hurler in his younger years, and the local Callan hurling team, John Locke's GAA, was named in his honour when it was federated in 1902.
[4] Whilst still in his teens, he became involved with the Fenian movement writing articles and poems for the Irish People newspaper critical of British rule in Ireland.
Standing on the deck, his weary eyes beheld a vision of beauty as the emerald green of the Kerry coastline came into view.
As an exile and one destined never to see Ireland again, Locke was deeply moved by the man's emotional account of his return to the Emerald Isle.
The resulting poem has been quoted at parties, conferences, patriotic rallies and in thousands of pubs and hotels over the past 120 years.
This one short hour pays lavishly back For many a year of mourning; I'd almost venture another flight, There's so much joy in returning— Watching out for the hallowed shore, All other attractions scornin; O, Ireland!
The alien home may have gems and gold, Shadows may never have gloomed it; But the heart will sigh for the absent land Where the love-light first illumed it
upon Cliodhna's shelving strand The surges are grandly beating, And Kerry is pushing her headlands out To give us the kindly greeting!
For thirty Summers, a stoir mo chroidhe, Those hills I now feast my eyes on Ne'er met my vision save when they rose Over memory's dim horizon.
And doesn't old Cobh look charming there Watching the wild waves' motion, Leaning her back up against the hills, And the tip of her toes in the ocean.
often upon the Texas plains, When the day and the chase were over, My thoughts would fly o'er the weary wave, And around this coastline hover; And the prayer would rise that some future day- All danger and doubting scorning— I'd help to win for my native land The light of young Liberty's morning!