Page 7 - The 17th Percy French Festival: The Quest for Authenticity

in Cavan inspired some of his !nest paintings, as well as
two of his best-known songs: Phil the Fluther’s Ball, pub -
lished in %&&) ‘although it had probably been sung at
many a party and concert before that’, and the nostal gic
Come Back, Paddy Reilly, to Ballyjamesdu(, written in %)%#..4

The Jarvey years
After he lost his job with the Board of Works, due to
a marked decrease in the number of loans applied for
by farmers in Cavan,.5 French went to Dublin to visit
Richard James Mecredy (%&+%–%)#(), editor of the Irish
Cyclist, (Illus. () to which news paper French had previ ously
contributed some humorous prose and verse. He asked for Illus '. R.J. Mecredy, Health’s Highway (Dublin:
a job on the Irish Cyclist and was surprised to instead be Mecredy, Percy & Co., %),)), frontispiece.
o3ered the position of editor of a new comic news paper
which Mecredy was about to launch, The Jarvey. French
edited this newspaper from January %&&) to December
%&),. (Illus. ') The Jarvey ccasionally contained some
sharp social commentary, but its con tents mostly con -
sisted of comic observations on the social world of fash ion -
able Irish society, a kind of Irish version of Punch. French
produced a prodigious and varied amount of mater ial for
The Jarvey: limericks; com ical short stories, including paro -
dies of the works of pop ular novelists such as Walter Scott,
Rudyard Kipling, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and H. Rider
Haggard; humorous verse and songs, including material
that paro died the work of well-known authors such as
Thomas Moore, Henry Wadsworth Long fellow, Alfred Illus $. Percy French at the editor’s desk of The Jarvey.
Tennyson, and Edgar Allen Poe; and whimsical observa - Detail from drawing by Ettie French.
The Jarvey, #*th December %&),.
tions on Irish life. Many of the cartoons in the news paper
were drawn by French’s friend Richard Caulfeild Orpen
(%&+$–%)$&), (Illus. +) with whom he had already collab o -
rated on several comical treatments of tennis in Dublin,
including Fiztwilliam Square, a Lawn Tennis Lay (%&&'),
The Tennis Worshippers, a lawn tennis special supplement
of the Irish Cyclist and Athlete (%&&*) and Racquetry Rhymes
(%&&&). Despite the best e3orts of French and his small
team of permanent sta3 and occa sional contribu tors, The
Jarvey was not a !nancial success. French later claimed that
the news paper failed for a number of reasons, including
its title, which French felt was ‘not a good one’. Indeed, in
Oct ober %&), he "oated the idea of changing the title, but
his was rejec ted by the readers and the publication contin -
ued as The Jarvey. French also felt that Dublin shop keepers Illus &. One of Richard Caulfeild Orpen’s drawings
were hostile to a local comic newspaper and much in The Jarvey. The Jarvey, %&th October %&),.

THE QUEST FOR AUTHENTICIT Y •8•