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Life
?1820-1875 [Robert Arthur Wilson; pseud. “Barney Maglone”]; b. Falcaragh, Donegal, 1820; emigrated to America, 1840; contrib. to The Nation on his return; established role as humorous writer under pseud. of ‘Barney Maglone’; leader writer to Morning News and editor for 14 months before his death; poems Reliques of Barney Maglone (1894); d. 10 aug., in consequence of ‘too vigorous participation in the O’Connell centenary celebrations in Dublin’ (O’Byrne). PI ODNB DIL MKA OCIL DUB
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Works
Barney Maglone’s Almeynack for all Irelnd (London 1871); John S. Crone, ed., The Reliques of Barney Maglone, with preface by D.
J. O’Donoghue (Belfast: T. Dargan 1894).
Criticism
Robert McGahan, Life of Barney Maglone [n.d.]; Cathal O’Byrne, ‘Barney Maglone of the old ‘Morning News’, in As I Roved Out (Dublin: Three Candles 1946), pp.115ff.
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Commentary
D. J. O’Donoghue, preface to J. S. Crone’s edition of The Reliques of Barney Maglone (Belfast: T. Dargan 1894), gives the biographical data from which DIL is compiled, b. Dunfanaghy, Donegal; a Presbyterian; teacher at Ballycastle; journalist on American Boston Republic, settled in Enniskillen in 1847; sub-ed. the Nation, 1849; Impartial Reporter, Enniskillen; Fermanagh Mail, commenced Barney Maglone articles; Morning News, Belfast, 1865; Almeynack for all Ireland, an’ Whoever else wants it (1871); author of
temperance poems and poems praising poteen; O’Donoghue admits that his poetry was damaged by carelessness.
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature (1978), cites Crone, in Irish Book Llo 12 (1921); and Ruddick Millar, in Irish Bookman 2 (1947), giving affectionate picture. SEE ALSO Life, by R. McGahan (n.d.); Reliques, ed. Crone, J. S., with memoir by D. J. O’Donoghue.
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References
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912), cites Reliques of Barney Maglone, ed. F. J. Bigger & John S.
Crone, with memoir by D. J. O’Donoghue [1894].
Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (1904), gives ‘The Irish Cry’.
Ulster Libraries: Belfast Central Public Library holds R. A. Wilson (pseud. Barney Maglone) ed. F J Bigger and J S Crone (1894); also, Belfast Linen Hall Library, cuttings: ‘Maglone Minor, Antrim v. McMullen’, in Ulster Weekly News.
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Quotations
Poems incls., “Father O’Carroll, a Legend of Ballycastle, Co. Antrim”; “To Ireland” [‘Of all the lands the sun shines on/Ireland is the fairest one / though not so grandly splendid.’; “Bee and the Flowerlet” is pleasantly indecent [‘He kissed her, he teased her, he rumpled her too’; some Burns poems, ‘I wann, maunna, canna change / In my fond thoughts of thee, lass’. “Potheen” includes the lines, ‘I love the tender crayther / All in her punchy dhress / And when she’s mother naked / I love her none the less’; also a piece on the death of G[ustavus]. V[aughan]. Brooke, who went down in the SS London; “The Green” shows him a patriot, ‘The orange lily rears its head the pride of many a walk, / And bends its lady head above its proud and splendid stalk; / But what’s the colour of the stem, itself and earth between? / The stalk that bears the lily up is still the glorious green. ... When Earth and Faction cease for us, and we are all alone, / The mantle that our Mother spreads above our grave / Is still the colour of our land, our own sad, lovely green!’ (From Poetry of Barney Maglone.)
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Notes
Gay attire: Wilson dressed fancifully with slope hat and coloured scarves, and died
of drink. (J. S. Crone, Pref. to Reliques.)
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