Liam Friel is a poet in the grand tradition of local poets. Long ago in Ireland every parish has their own local bard, who wrote, not just about everyday local people, but also about common and universal issues; topics that concerned the lives of the community in which they lived.  Local poets were admires, even revered. Their words carried weight. Sometimes, they were feared, in the same way that a pejorative report in a local newspaper would be. The written word remains, surely, but the words in a rhyming couplet spoken at a Station Mass or a fair had a force and a power that could make or break many a man or woman.

Liam has that unique, innate skill that trips off the tongue and resonates in the memory. In his case, I feel certain that it is an inherited talent. Liam's maternal grandfather, Patrick Tunney, was a poet and a patriot of high renown whose ballads, songs and poems have been loved, recited and published over many years. His mother, Mairead Friel, was a gifted poet much loved by all who read and recited her lyrical poems and ballads.

- Thomas F. Walsh