Remembering a Ballyshannon Character, An Unusual Claim and a Famous Remark

A view of Bachelor's Walk from Allingham Park  ( Sorcha)

Remembering a famous Ballyshannon character who had an unusual claim to fame. Townspeople like my old neighbour Tommy "Fingers" Gallagher and old bandsmen regularly repeated a handed down claim for this man.
Tuesday 28th April 2020. The Great Fire of Ballyshannon and More.

The person with the most occupations listed after his name in the Census of 1901  was undoubtedly local poet Francis (Francie) Daly who lived at Bachelor’s Walk and listed his occupations as house and landscape, coach scene and herald painter, letrographer, sculptor, decorator, guilder, engraver, surveyor and maffer, botany painter, civil engineer and poet!!
He lived on his own in No. 1 Bachelor's Walk and was aged 54. The houses in Bachelor's Walk today were rebuilt in the 1940s.

I can confirm that Francie Daly was a painter and artist in brass and used to do ornamental brass plates and door knockers for the well to do, whatever about his imaginative range of occupations which he posted in the Census form in 1901. Francis (Francie) Daly lived in Bachelor's Walk in the town and was not married. Local people pronounced the name as Dawley (Dalley)  a version of the Irish name. 

Who wrote Allingham’s Poems?! 

Francie Daly wrote poetry often about the local area like Hallow Eve's Night below.

Local anecdote would claim that Daly wrote some of Allingham’s poems. No substance has ever been provided for the claim or no specific poems identified as having been written by Francie Daly. In talking to old-timers the topic always came up-“You know Allingham didn’t write all those poems?”

In the oral history in Ballyshannon the claim was handed down to at least the 1980s. I can recall Tommy Gallagher my old neighbour in Bishop Street (and now in Cluain Barron) talking about him and old bandsmen who said that Daly was the author of  some of Allingham's poems. 

William Allingham did say that he collected ballads at the fairs and perhaps this led to the suggestion that Francie Daly wrote some of his poems. The work Allingham did on completing ballads may have given rise to this impression but his poetry was, one feels, his own work? 

Famous Two-Liner

William Allingham's birthplace on the Mall 1824

Ballyshannon was never lacking in witty comment. Local lore suggests that Francie Daly was walking down the Mall one day and as he passed William Allingham’s house, a voice from an upstairs window said:

“There goes a poet if he only know it.”

Daly turned around but couldn’t see anyone and replied:

   “Only you’re an ass you’d let the poet pass!”

An Erratic Genius

John Downey editor of The Donegal Democrat described him as “an erratic genius and very few recognised the talent hidden by the somewhat peculiar exterior”. He composed a number of pieces of poetry few of which were ever published. He was a simple, unassuming person who was a familiar sight on the streets of Ballyshannon for many years. As an old man he read his poems and sung his own compositions to local youth in his home at Bachelor’s Walk.  Francie Daly died circa 1919.

Hallow-Eve Night’s Dream

The following is an extract from a poem entitled, “Hallow Eve’s Night Dream” by Francie Daly. The background to the poem is believed to be, that in 1885 Daly was infatuated with Lily Harris a tightrope walker from “West Bromwich” and in the poem he talks of waking up in the morning and seeing the track a snail makes on a wall-it had made the initials L.H.  

Lily Harris had been touring the country with a theatrical company and performed in Ballyshannon where Daly saw her as a young man and she remained the girl of his dreams. The poem makes use of placenames which gives it a local flavour and the artist referred to is Daly himself as he was a house-painter and sculptor of a kind. Daly’s Fort on the Hills of Tullymore was where the Daly family resided before coming to live in town.

In eighteen hundred and eighty-five, the date being true and right,

Many colleens fair and young played “tricks” on Hallow Eve Night,

Twas gathering weeds round corn-stacks that many took a turn,

Pulling the yarrow, throwing reels, and more had nuts to burn.

There was one among them who was both fair and tall,

She says,” Now each has played a ‘trick,’ but I played none at all,

I have two nuts here in my hand from yonder hazel line

I shall burn them in my lover’s name to see if he’ll be mine.”

They only saw her when she spoke and at her they did gaze,

A blazing brand she lifted up, and set the nuts to blaze,

She watched the flames as they did unite, and to them there she said,

“A ring I see in the ruddy glow, my trick is truly played,

I must away my love to see, he rests by some bright stream,

And place these nuts beneath his head, perhaps on me he’ll dream,”

She quickly turned away from them, these maidens all in fright,

Saying fare ye well, I wish you joy, and “A Merry Hallow Eve Night.”

They all followed with their eyes, but she soon left their view,

Not knowing where she came from, nor where she was going too.

Says one on to another, “I’ve seen her once before,

She was coming down from Daly’s Fort on the hills of Tullymore.”

A bedroom door was on the lock; a fire was in the grate,

The artist he lay fast asleep when Morpheus showed his fate,

For a vision bright, all clad in white, and ornaments so rare,

With red-rose cheeks, coral lips, and yellow-golden hair,

She glided up to his bedside, and o’er him she did stand,

The gold ring off her finger she held it in her hand,

She says, “This is our marriage token I truly tell to thee,

 For when we are two in one you must come with me.

Limited edition quality hardback with dust jacket as above available when things return to normal in A Novel Idea and Local Hands Ballyshannon and Four Masters Bookshop Donegal Town. Also available for postage from anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

Topics include: How to go about Tracing your Roots/The first settlers in the area/ Newly researched history of the town of Ballyshannon and the townlands in Kilbarron and Mágh Éne parishes/ Records of the first travellers and tourists to Ballyshannon, Bundoran, Belleek, Rossnowlagh and Ballintra/An aerial guide to place names along the Erne from Ballyshannon to the Bar/Flora and Fauna of the area/ A history of buildings and housing estates in the locality/Graveyard Inscriptions from the Abbey graveyard, St. Joseph’s and St. Anne’s /Rolling back the years with many memories of the Great Famine, Independence struggle, hydro-electric scheme, Gaelic games, boxing, handball, Boy Scouts, soccer, mummers, characters, organisations, folklore and lots more.