Aussie historian, author & entertainer Jim Haynes joins Overnight each week for his unique knowledge of the not-so-famous characters from Australia’s history. This week Jim shines the spotlight on Roderic Joseph Quinn – A Pleasant Minor Poet.

Roderic Joseph Quinn (1867-1949), was born at Surry Hills, the seventh of nine children of Irish parents Edward Quinn, letter-carrier, and his wife Catherine, née McCarthy.

In an era in our literary history when bold stirring ballads were all the rage, Rod Quinn wrote the most beautiful reflective, soul searching and humble verses about the human condition and human spirit. Yet, today, he is unknown to the vast majority of Australians, even keen students of our verse tradition.

By 1900 Quinn was regarded as one of the leading poets in Australia. Quinn was a painfully shy and reticent man. He never married and his personality was very restrained and proper.

He spent the last twenty years of his life boarding in the house of a Mrs Cassidy at Waverley and, after his death in 1949 at the Sacred Heart Hospice in Darlinghurst, he returned to Waverly where he still lies, all but forgotten in Waverley cemetery.

Download this podcast here