View source for Francis Sylvester Mahony

{{Short description|Irish journalist}}
{{for-multi|the Australian artist|Frank P. Mahony|other people|Francis Mahoney (disambiguation)}}
{{more footnotes needed|date= October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=August 2021}}
{{infobox writer
|name=Francis Sylvester Mahoney
|image=Portrait of Francis Sylvester Mahony.jpg
|birth_date={{birth date|1804|12|31}}
|birth_place=[[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[County Cork]], [[Munster]], Ireland
|death_date={{death date and age|1866|5|18|1804|12|31}}
|death_place=[[Paris]], France
|pseudonym=Father Prout
|occupation={{flatlist|
*Humorist
*journalist
}}
|nationality=Irish
|alma_mater=[[Clongowes Wood College]]<br>[[Abbey of Saint-Acheul]]
|parents=Martin Mahoney<br>Mary Reynolds
}}
'''Francis Sylvester Mahony''' (31 December 1804 – 18 May 1866), also known by the pen name '''Father Prout''', was an Irish [[humor]]ist and journalist.

==Life==
He was born in [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Ireland]], to Martin Mahony and Mary Reynolds. He was educated at the [[Jesuit]] [[Clongowes Wood College]], [[Kildare]], and later in the [[College of Saint-Acheul]], a similar school in [[Amiens]], 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]]'', 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]], [[Greek language|Greek]], 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."{{Quote without source| date=October 2013}} 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 (London newspaper)|''The Globe'']].

Mahony spent the last two years of his life in a monastery and died in Paris reconciled to the Church.

[[File:Shandon bells cork.jpg|right|200px|thumb|The clock tower of St. Anne's containing the Bells of Shandon]]

== ''The Bells of Shandon'' ==
In his native Cork Mahoney is best remembered for his poem "The Bells of [[Shandon, Cork|Shandon]]" and his pen-name is synonymous with the city and the [[Church of St Anne (Shandon)|church of St. Anne's, Shandon]].

{{blockquote| 
With deep affection and recollection<br/>
I oft times think of those Shandon bells,<br/>
Whose sound so wild would in the days of childhood,<br/>
Fling round my cradle their magic spells,<br/>
On this I ponder when'eer I wander and thus grow<br/>
fonder sweet Cork of thee,<br/>
With thy bells of Shandon that sound so grand on,<br/>
The pleasant waters of the [[River Lee (Ireland)|river Lee]].  <br/>
I've heard bells chiming, full many a chime in,<br/>
Tolling sublime in Cathedral shrine,<br/>
While at a glib rate, brass tongues would vibrate,<br/>
But all their music spoke naught like thine;<br/>
For memory dwelling on each proud swelling,<br/>
Of the belfry knelling its bold notes free,<br/>
Made the bells of Shandon sound far more grand on,<br/>
The pleasant waters of the river Lee.  <br/>
I've heard bells tolling Old "[[Adrian's Mole]]"<br/>
in their thunder rolling from the Vatican,<br/>
And cymbals glorious, swinging uproarious<br/>
In the gorgeous turrets of Notre Dame,<br/>
But thy sounds were sweeter than the dome of Peter,<br/>
Flings o'er the Tiber, peelingly solemnly,<br/>
O, the bells of Shandon sound far more grand on,<br/>
The pleasant waters of the river Lee.  <br/>
There's a bell in Moscow, while on tower and kiosk o!<br/>
In [[Hagia Sophia|Saint Sophia]] the Turkman gets,<br/>
And loud in air calls men to prayer,<br/>
From the tapering summit of tall minarets.<br/>
Such empty phantom, I freely grant them,<br/>
But there is an anthem more dear to me,<br/>
'Tis the bells of Shandon that sound so grand on,<br/>
The pleasant waters of the river Lee.'}}

==Publications==
The ''Reliques of Father Prout'' originally appeared in two volumes in 1836 with illustrations by Maclise. They were reissued in [[Henry George Bohn|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 (English writer)|Charles Kent]], was published in 1881.  ''Facts and Figures from Italy'' (1847) was made from his Rome letters to the London ''[[The Daily News (UK)|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".<ref>Chapter 18, p.141</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===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
*{{CathEncy|wstitle=Father Prout}}

==Attribution==
{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}}

==External links==
* [http://www.ballingarry.net/people/fr_prout.html The People of Ballingarry - The Story of Father Prout]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahony, Francis Sylvester}}
[[Category:1804 births]]
[[Category:1866 deaths]]
[[Category:Irish humorists]]
[[Category:Former Jesuits]]
[[Category:Writers from County Cork]]
[[Category:People educated at Stonyhurst College]]
[[Category:People educated at Clongowes Wood College]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish Jesuits]]
[[Category:Irish male journalists]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish journalists]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish male writers]]
[[Category:19th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:Christian clergy from County Cork]]