Life
1908-1997 [Eugene Welply]; b. Dublin, 23 Aug.; ed. Belvedere, and in Bonn,
Germany, during his teens, where he was studying painting at 14; befriended
there by Dr. John Ryan, later Prof. of Ancient Irish History at UCD, and
thereby acquainted with Myles Dillon, also studying in Bonn; graduated
from UCD; worked in Irish civil service for 14 years [1934-48]; plays
incl. Alarm among the Clerks (1940); The Lady in the Twilight
(Abbey 1941), and The Shadow (1945); and was then found employment
at Radio Éireann [RTE] by Francis MacManus; critic of fatuities
of the new Irish State; created The Unfortunate Fursey (1946),
caught between the devil and the devious rogues of the Irish hierarchy,
becoming in time a cult figure and the subject of a musical at the Dublin
Theatre Festival, 1964; The Return of Fursey (1948); programme
asst. Radio Eireann, 1948; m. Frances Feehan, 1950, fou children (one
son); sec.-gen. of Irish Arts Council, proposed by Sean O’Faolain,
from 1957-1973, remaining in that post until retirement; Leaves for
the Burning (1952), concerning the alcoholic and never-accomplished
journey of a group of friends towards Yeats’s burial in Sligo, voted
best European novel of the year in Denmark; No Trophies Raise (1956),
is a study of the civil service world of Dublin highlighting the role
of the Knights of Columbanus; A Flutter of Wnigs (1975), short stories;
The Garden of Echoes (1982) and Hermitage (1982), children’s
books; long-term swimmer at forty-foot, Sandycove; supplied names of 150
artists and 27 writers to John redmond, chairman of Revenue commissioners,
on the head of Charles Haughey’s tax exemption scheme for creative
artists; d. 23 May; obit. Telegraph, 24 May, 1997. IF2 DIW DIB
DIL OCIL
Works
Novels, The Unfortunate Fursey (London: Pilot 1946; NY:
Crown 1947; Dublin: Helicon 1965; Dublin: Wolfhound Press 2000), 240pp.;
The Return of Fursey (London: Pilot 1948); Leaves for the Burning
(London: Methuen; NY: Devin-Adair 1952; rep. London: Millington 1973);
No Trophies Raise (London: Methuen 1956); Hermitage (Dublin:
Wolfhound Press 1982) [first serialised in Journal of Irish Literature,
Vols. VII, No.3 and VIII, Nos.1 & 2 (Sept. 1978; Jan. & May, 1979)];
The Complete Fursey (Dublin: Wolfhound Press 1985). Short fiction,
A Flutter of Wings (Dublin: Talbot 1974). Drama, Alarm
among the Clerks (Dublin: Richview 1940); The Lady in the Twilight
(Abbey 1941; Newark: Proscenium 1971).
Miscellaneous, Forty Foot Gentlemen Only (Dublin: Allen Figgis 1962), pamph. [local history]; ‘A Pilgrimage to St. Mac Dara's Island’, Éire-Ireland, 4, 2 (Summer 1969), pp.26-30; Interview with Michael Smith, ‘Some Questions about the Thirties’, Lace Curtain, 4 (1971), pp.79-80; two initial chapters of work in progress, provisionally entitled Odious Generation, appeared in Agnes Birnelle, ed., Decantations, A Tribute for Maurice Craig (Dublin: Lilliput 1993), pp.233-39; contribution to Dermot Bolger, ed., Letters from the New Island, 16 on 16: Irish Writers on the Easter Rising (Dublin: Raven Arts 1988), 47pp., pp.11-12.
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Criticism
Michael Smith, ‘Some Questions about the Thirties’, [interview
with Wall], Lace Curtain, 4 (1971), cp.79-80; Robert Hogan, Mervyn
Wall (Lewisburg: Bucknell UP 1972).
Patrick Rafroidi, ‘A Question of Inheritance: The Anglo-Irish Tradition’, in Rafroidi and Maurice Harmon, eds, The Irish Novel in Our Time (Université de Lille 1975-76), pp.13 & 19.
‘Mervyn Wall Special Issue’, Journal of Irish Literature, XI, 1&2 (Jan.-May 1982) [incl. interview, address in Delaware in capacity as Director of Arts Council; children’s story; and funeral oration for Arland Ussher, 29 Dec. 1980].
Fergus Linehan, ‘The Monk’s Progress’, review of The Complete Fursey, in Irish Times (22 Feb. 1986), p.4.
James Cahalan, The Irish Novel (1988) [notices of The Complete Fursey; Hermitage, Leaves, for the Burning; No Trophies Raise, and The Return of Fursey].
Augustine Martin, Bearing Witness: Essays on Anglo-Irish Literature (UCD Press 1996).
John Jordan writes on Mervyn Wall’s Hermitage, in Hibernia ([?]15 Jan. 1980).
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Notes
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction [Pt II] (Dublin: Gill
& Macmillan 1985), lists The Unfortunate Fursey (London 1946);
The Return of Fursey (London 1948); Leaves for the Burning
(1952; rep. 1973); No Trophies Raise (London: Methuen 1956); also
Hermitage (Wolfhound 1982); Abbey plays, Alarm among the Clerks
(1940); The Lady in the Twilight (1941).
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, cited with other authors whose literary image of the provinces has been a caustic reply to the extravagant Revival love of Ireland [JW Foster, ed., 937 & 938].
Julia Carlson, Banned in Ireland (Georgia UP; London: Routledge
1990), footnotes and allusions to Mervyn Wall interview by Julia Carlson,
6 Oct. 1987, Dublin.
Home Rule: Wall reiterates without qualification Myles Dillon's view: ‘[Home Rule] would have brought about a united Ireland under one government, and independence in the course of time. But the 1916 Rising had fastened partition on to the country, and divided North and South beyond all hope of unity.’ ([‘Mervyn Wall’], in Dermot Bolger, ed., Letters from the New Island, 1988, pp.11-12; p.12.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)