Francis Sylvester Mahony (31 December 1804 – 18 May 1866), also known by the pen name Father Prout, was an Irish
humor
Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...
ist and journalist.
Life
He was born in
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, to Martin Mahony and Mary Reynolds. He was educated at the
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College SJ is a voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814, which features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Yo ...
,
Kildare
Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 8,634 making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. The town lies on the R445, some west of Dublin – near enough for it to have become, despite being a regional cen ...
, and later in the
College of Saint-Acheul
The Abbey of Saint-Acheul (french: Abbaye de Saint-Acheul) was a monastery of Canons Regular in the Saint-Acheul district of Amiens, France.
It was founded in the 11th century on the site of an ancient church, and was suppressed in 1790 during the ...
, a similar school in
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
, France and then at Rue de Sèvres, Paris, and later in Rome. He began teaching at the Jesuit school of Clongowes as master of rhetoric, but was soon after expelled. He then went to London, and became a leading contributor to ''
Fraser's Magazine
''Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country'' was a general and literary journal published in London from 1830 to 1882, which initially took a strong Tory line in politics. It was founded by Hugh Fraser and William Maginn in 1830 and loosely directe ...
'', under the signature of "Father Prout" (the original Father Prout, whom Mahony knew in his youth, born in 1757, was parish priest of Watergrasshill, County Cork). Mahony at one point was director of this magazine.
He was witty and learned in many languages. One form which his humour took was the professed discovery of the originals in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
,
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, or mediaeval French of popular modern poems and songs. Many of these ''jeux d'esprit'' were collected as ''Reliques of Father Prout''. He pretended that these poems had been found in Fr. Prout’s trunk after his death. He wittily described himself as "an Irish potato seasoned with Attic salt." Later he acted as foreign correspondent to various newspapers, and during the last eight years of his life, his articles formed a main attraction of
''The Globe''.
Mahony spent the last two years of his life in a monastery and died in Paris reconciled to the Church.
''The Bells of Shandon''
In his native Cork Mahoney is best remembered for his poem "The Bells of
Shandon" and his pen-name is synonymous with the city and the
church of St. Anne's, Shandon.
Publications
The ''Reliques of Father Prout'' originally appeared in two volumes in 1836 with illustrations by Maclise. They were reissued in
Bohn's Illustrated Library in 1860. Another volume, ''Final Reliques'', was edited by Douglas Jerrold and published in 1876. ''The Works of Father Prout'', edited by
Charles Kent, was published in 1881. ''Facts and Figures from Italy'' (1847) was made from his Rome letters to the London ''
Daily News''.
Graham Greene reference
The protagonist of Graham Greene's '' Travels With My Aunt'' mentions regretfully his life's unfulfilled ambition "to be recognised as an English Mahony and celebrate Southwood as he celebrated Shandon"
[Chapter 18, p.141]
References
General references
*"Mahony, Francis Sylvester" ("Father Prout") ''British Authors of the Nineteenth Century.'' H.C Wilson Company, New York, 1936
*''The Cabinet of Irish Literature'' Volume III, Blackie & Son Limited London, 1880
*https://web.archive.org/web/20070929090727/http://www.shandonbells.org/poem.htm
*
Attribution
External links
The People of Ballingarry - The Story of Father Prout
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahony, Francis Sylvester
1804 births
1866 deaths
Irish humorists
Former Jesuits
People from County Cork
People educated at Stonyhurst College
People educated at Clongowes Wood College
19th-century Irish Jesuits
Irish journalists
19th-century journalists
Male journalists
19th-century male writers
19th-century pseudonymous writers