When Padraic Colum was seventeen years old, he finished going to school. He got a job writing down where many trains went and what they carried to each place. He worked at this job until 1903. While Padraic worked at this job, he also started to write stories. Padraic read a lot of books about Ireland at the National Library of Ireland. Padraic made friends with a writer called James Joyce at the library. Padraic Colum and James Joyce were always friends after that. Padraic was also friends with a man called Herbert Hughes. Herbert studied music. Herbert and Padraic talked to a lot of people who knew old folk songs that people in Ireland had sung for many years. Herbert and Padraic wrote down the songs. Herbert wrote down the music and Padraic wrote down the words. Some of the songs were in the Irish language, so Padraic wrote English words for them. He did this so that more people would sing them. An American man named Thomas Kelly gave Padraic money to go to school some more. Padraic went to school for five years at University College Dublin with this money.