Life
1854-1935
[F. A. Fahy; pseud. ‘An Dreolín’[the Wren]]; b. 29 Sept. Kinvara,
Co. Galway; ed. national school; London civil service, 1873; contrib.
to Nation, Weekly News, United Ireland, Young Ireland, and
Weekly Freeman; author of "The Ould Plaid Shawl", first
printed in Shamrock, "The Irish Lullaby" and "Little
Mary Cassidy"; fnd. Southwark Junior Literary Club, 1881, for children,
and fnd. member and first President of Southwark Literary Club for adults,
4 Jan. 1883, with support from Charles Gavan Duffy, John O’Leary,
John Redmond, R. Barry O’Brien, D. P. Moran, Justin McCarthy, Dr.
Mark Ryan, and W. B. Yeats; from it grew the Irish Literary Society in
1892, publishing poems of J. F. O’Donnell; collaborated with D. J.
O’Donoghue on biographical series on Irish authors in London for
the Daily Telegraph; authored a history of Ireland for children
in verse [q.d.], and a play, The Last of the O’Learys [q.d.];
there is a public house called The Old Plaid Shawl in Kinvara and a plaque
on the house where he was born. PI JMC DBIV DIB DIH OCIL
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Works
Poetry, Prose and Dramatic Works
Irish Songs and Poems (Dublin: M.H. Gill and Son; London: Simpkin,
Marshall and Co. 1887), iv, 2-126pp.; The Irish Language Movement
(London: [1901]), 20pp.; The Ould Plaid Shawl, and Other Songs,
preface by P. S. O’Hegarty (Dublin: At the Sign of the Three
Candles [1949]), xii, 98 pp. port.; The Last of the O’Learys [q.d.]. Miscellaneous, with D. J. O’Donoghue, et al., Ireland in London (1889), 172pp.
Translations & Scored Musical Arrangements
Walter Battison Haynes, The Ould Plaid Shawl: Song, words by F. A. Fahy, arranged by W. B. Haynes (London: Novello 1896), 7pp.; Alicia Adelaide Needham,The Coolin: Song From The Ancient Irish, trans. Francis A. Fahy, [ancient Irish air] arranged by A. A. Needham (London: Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew [1909]), 1score, 7pp.; Henry Coleman, The Wild Hills Of Clare: Old Irish Air, words by F. A. Fahy, arranged [as part song for T.T.B.B.] by H. Coleman [Choral library B Series, No. 74] (London: Cramer [1957]), 8pp.; Havelock Nelson, Kitty Magee: Irish Folksong, words by F. A. Fahy, arranged [in two-parts] by H. Nelson (London: Ascherberg [1964]), 8pp.; The Fiddler: S.S.A. and Piano, words by F. A. Fahy, [Irish air] arranged H. Nelson (London: J. Curwen & Sons [1964]), 1 score, 4pp.
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Notes
W. P. Ryan, The Irish Literary Revival,
Its History, Pioneers and Possibilities [facs. of 1894 first edn.]
(NY: Lemma Publishing Corp. 1970), pp.11, 12, 14, 52, 102, 141; recounts
that Francis A. Fahy, a young civil servant, born in Kinvara, Co. Galway,
was author at an early age of an Irish drama [The Last of the O’Leary’s],
and, with a few enthusiastic friends, began an Irish revival which led
to many such awakenings in Great Britain [p.11] ... ‘Francis Fahy
himself, and his young friends, were, I must admit, as ardent politicians
as any. But they had far-reaching literary and educational projects as
well’ [p.12]; Founded Southwark Junior Irish Literary Club, c.1880,
Surrey Rooms, Blackfriars Road [p.14]; wrote child’s rhyming Irish
history [p.14]; Fahy and Thomas Boyd prevented from attending [at Yeats’s
house, 28th Dec. 1891, to initiate the Irish Literary Society] by insufficient
notice [p.52]; Francis Fahy ‘not quite continued upon his Southwark
lines. The sooner he is tempted to leave his poetic ‘Castle of Indolence’;
the better for the racy element in our native literature’ [p.102];
quotes Fahy’s poetical rendering of Irish hospitality, ‘The
cream of kindly welcome and the core of cordiality’. [p.141]
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co. 1912), lists Irish Songs and Poems (1887); Pres. of London Gaelic League, and other Irish Lit. Societies in London; collaborated with D. J. O’Donoghue on Ireland in London; author of "The Auld Plaid Shawl", "The Irish Lullaby", the former appearing in Shamrock; contributor to Nation, Weekly News, United Ireland and Young Ireland and Weekly Freeman; pseudonym ‘Dreoilin [the Wren]’; described by D. J. O’Donoghue as being ‘one of the raciest of Irish poets’.
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), selects prose, "How To Become A Poet" [ironically contesting ‘born, not made’; defines poetry in terms of rhyme, ‘the chief and only feature in modern poetry’; ‘get your endings to rhyme and you need trouble about little else’]. Also selects, "The O"Donovans"; "Irish Molly, O"; "The Ould Plaid Shawl", and "Little Mary Cassidy"; McCarthy notes that he wrote a play, The Last of the O’Learys, which was performed in his native town, and says that whereas A. P. Graves sings of the pastoral and out-door life of the people, Fahy deals with their home-life.
John Cooke, Dublin Book of Irish Verse (Dublin: Hodges & Figgis; London: OUP 1909) selects "The Old Plaid Shawl"; "Little Mary Cassidy". See also Irish Book Lover, Vol. VI, p.162.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)