""Patrick Sheehan"," the story of an old soldier, was published in the "Kilkenny Journal", and became very popular as an anti-recruiting song, according to O’Sullivan.Kickham began to write for a number of papers, including "The Nation", but also the "Celt", the "Irishman", the "Shamrock", and would become one of the leader writers on the "Irish People", the Fenian organ, in which many of his poems appeared.