Mahony, Francis Sylvester (1804–1866)

Irish humorous writer and poet. Born in Cork, he was educated at Clongowes Wood, where he later taught while training as a Jesuit priest. Expelled for taking the boys on a drunken outing, he was ordained as a secular priest in Italy in 1832, but left the church and took up writing on his return to Ireland. His contributions to Fraser's Magazine were collected in Reliques of Father Prout (1836), and he is remembered for his poems ‘The Bells of Shandon’ and ‘The Lady of Lee’.