Song—writer and Nationalist

The Mantle Vol 11, No. 2, p.p. 19—20

by T. Donnellan, N.T. F.A.

Introduction

"I am glad of this opportunity — the first in my life — to pay a tribute to my father, a man I greatly honoured and deeply, loved; a great Irishman who fully deserves this commemoration you give him here today." Thus spoke Mr. Dermot Fahy of Cambridge, during the unveiling of a plaque to the memory of his father, Francis A. Fahy, at Kinvara on October 8, 1967.

The local guild of Muintir na Tire undertook the provision of this plaque, and it was fitting that they should do so. A nation perpetuates the names of its illustrious sons, and so too should a parish, for as the late Canon Hayes, founder of Muintir, used say: "The parish is the nation in miniature, and if we are parish—proud we will become nationally—minded".

Francis A. Fahy was born in Kinvara, in the house now occupied by the "Greene family, on September 29, 1854, one of a family of seventeen, only eight of whom lived to adult life. His father, Thomas Fahy, came from the Burren district, while his mother, whose maiden name was Celia Marlborough, was born near Gort.

When he was fifteen he wrote a play called "The Last of the O'Learys", which he produced in Kinvara in aid of a fund for the families of Fenian prisoners. The following year his first printed poem, In Exile, appeared in the The Nation. By 1873 the flood of emigration from Kinvara, which began in the famine years, was at its height (In 20 years the number of families was reduced from 1,800 to 700), and in that year young Fahy went to London where he took up a position as a civil servant with the Board of Trade. Immediately, he set about improving his own education. He read widely and had a voracious appetite for books about Ireland.

Irish—Ireland

Soon he embarked on his Irish—Ireland activities, to which he devoted his spare time for fifty years. He founded the Junior Irish Literary Club for the purpose of giving an Irish education to the children of Irish parents in London. He taught classes on Sunday afternoons and provided Anglo—Irish song—books suitable for children. He published an Irish newspaper, Erin, the first of its kind in England. He helped to establish the Home Rule Confederation and the Irish Literary Society. He was a tireless worker in the Gaelic League as organiser, teacher, lecturer and writer and he acted as President for many years. He was a fluent Irish speaker and contributed articles in Irish to Irish periodicals, as did his fellow—workers in the British Civil Service at the time — P. S. O'Hegarty, Art O'Brien, Fionnan Mac Colum and others.

In 1891 he published his 'Irish Songs and Poems', and included in that collection were: 'Irish Molly O', 'Galway Bay', 'The Queen of Connemara', 'Little Mary Cassidy' and 'The Donovans'. The fact that songs such as these have always been popular is proof that there is something in them of permanent value. They are part of our heritage, and in the dark days of the last century, when that heritage was in grave danger of being suppressed, it was the songs and writings of ardent nationalists like Fahy that helped to preserve our character as a nation.

Had he written only 'The Ould Plaid Shawl', his name would be cherished in the place of his birth, for that song has made Kinvara known far and wide. On the day of the unveiling ceremony, a tourist told us that as a boy he heard the song for the first time sung by his father in a remote part of Canada.

"Francis A. Fahy never forgot his native district. In 1924, at the age of 70, he wrote thus: "I left Kinvara in '73, a youth of 19. Its scenes, its people, their customs, sports, recreations, their kindliness and affections, their good humour and light—heartedness, their abiding faith in God, are as fresh in my memory, after fifty years of exile, as things of yesterday and have been ever the inspiration of my songs".

Fahy died at his residence in Clapham, London, on April 1, 1936 and his possessions were buried at Putney Vale Cemetery.