Kickham contributed, when he was 22 years old, ""The Harvest Moon"" sung to the air of ""The Young May Moon"," to "The Nation" on 17 August 1850. Other verses were to follow, but the finest of Kickham's poems according to A. M. O’Sullivan, appeared in other journals. ""Rory of the Hill"," ""The Irish Peasant Girl"," and ""Home Longings"" better known as ""Slievenamon"" were published in the "Celt". ""The First Felon"" (John Mitchel) appeared in the "Irishman". ""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.