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