SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR

Item 366. [MAHONY, Rev. Francis] The Reliques of Father Prout (The Rev. Francis Mahony), Late P.P. of Watergrashill, in the County of Cork , Ireland . Collected and arranged by Oliver Yorke, Esq. Illustrated by Alfred Croquis, Esq. Two volumes. London : James Fraser, 215 Regent Street , 1836. pp. (1) xvi, 324, (2) [x], 323. Signed presentation copy from the author. From the collection of John Paul Haverty, Domestic Prelate, with his bookplate. Bound in cont. half morocco. Spine divided into five compartments by four raised bands, title, author and date in gilt in the second, third and fifth. Half-titles in red and black. T.e.g. Very good. Scarce. €575

Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866), also known by the pen name Father Prout, was an Irish poet, wit and eccentric. He was born in Cork to Martin Mahony and Mary Reynolds and was educated at the Jesuit Clongowes Wood College , Kildare, and later in Amiens , Paris , and Rome . He joined the Society of Jesus and taught briefly at Clongowes Wood College (1830). He ministered in Cork for a while but left the order, although he remained a priest under special dispensation from the Holy See. Mahony then went to London , and became a leading contributor to Fraser’s Magazine, Bentley’s Miscellany, and The Cornhill Magazine under the pseudonym of Father Prout. He travelled widely throughout Europe and Asia , becoming fluent in several languages. His friend Charles Dickens persuaded him to become the Rome correspondent of The Daily News and his articles appeared under the pseudonym ‘Don Jeremy Savonarola, Benedictine Monk’. Politically a conservative, he opposed the Repeal Association and Daniel O’Connell. One form which his humour took was the professed discovery of the originals in Latin, Greek, or mediæval French of popular modern poems and songs, many of which were collected and published in Reliques of Father Prout.

He died at Paris reconciled to the Church and his body was returned to Cork and buried in the family vault in Shandon.