James Kevin Casey (1824–1909) was an Irish priest in Ballygar and Athleague and principal of St John's seminary in Sligo. He composed many didactic poems which were popular and published in collections. Their subjects included materialism, devotion, the Irish language and, most especially, temperance. An example is a verse of The Toper and his Bottle,
Casey was an inspiration for the "Poet of the Pick", Jem Casey, a character in Flann O'Brien's satirical novel At Swim-Two-Birds. Jem Casey was a labourer who wrote "pomes" such as The Workman's Friend,
Works Gladstone and the Vatican Decrees, 1875 Tyndall and Materialism, 1875 Intemperance, 1877 Our Thirst for Drink : Its Cause and Cure, 1879 Verses on Doctrinal and Devotional Subjects, 1882 Paddy Blake's Sojourn Among the Soupers, 1884
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