“Barney Maglone” – The Life of Robert Arthur Wilson
Who was ‘Barney Maglone?’
Barney Maglone was the pseudonym of the poet and journalist Robert Arthur Wilson. He was an immensely popular figure in his adopted home town of Belfast. Witty, flamboyant and generous, his newspaper articles were enjoyed by thousands and his death in August 1875 was mourned by many more both in Ireland and across the Atlantic.
“Well he was a versifier, for one thing. He was a journalist – and what a journalist! He was a wit and a bohemian. But above all he was a strange, impish and loveable personality, a colourful character, who became a famous and familiar figure in Belfast and commanded considerable influence in the life of the community”
Ruddick Millar Irish Bookman Vol2 No2 1947
Robert Arhur Wilson (Barney Maglone)
Family Background and Education
Robert Arthur Wilson was born around 1820 in County Donegal. His father Arthur, was a Presbyterian from the pretty coastal town of Donaghadee in County Down. Arthur Wilson worked as a coastguard and was described as “a very superior man every way, and a good poet”.
His mother Catherine, daughter of Alexander Hunter, was from Dunamallaght near Ballycastle in County Antrim. Hunter was employed as a gardener for the Boyd family. The couple had 4 children Robert and Alexander and two daughters.
Robert went to the church school in Raymunterdoney parish under the headship of Mr Laffan. He had a great love of learning which lasted throughout his life. He was particularly interested in languages and Irish history and folklore.
“It was his constant delight as a boy to frequent the cottages of the peasantry, drinking in with avidity the legendary lore of the locality and picking up knowledge of the old language from the lips that had never spoken aught else, which he never forgot”
Irish Book Lover Vol 12 1921
His Teaching Career
As a teenager he worked as a school master in Kilmahamogue a few miles from Ballycastle. While here he wrote one of his longest and most admired poems ‘Filian O’Carroll’.
He also taught in the Sunday School at Ramoan Old School. Subsequently he was employed as a teacher in the Methodist school in Portrush. However, his career here ended in dismissal when he composed a sarcastic ballad on the subject of a local clergyman. This was not the only time Wilson’s irreverent nature was to get him into trouble.
Robert Arthur Wilson, Journalist
Boston Republic
Apparently, Robert’s mother Catherine, wished him to become a Presbyterian minister however, Robert had a restless spirit and as a young man he emigrated to America, working his passage. Here he was employed as a reporter on the ‘Boston Republic’. He acquired a knowledge of shorthand and a lasting interest in journalism.
The Nation
Wilson returned to his homeland around 1846. In 1848 he was teaching in the Wesleyan School near Manorhamilton in County Leitrim but it seems Robert had caught the journalism bug, and a few years later he was working as a sub-editor in the capital for the Nation newspaper.
The Impartial Reporter
Subsequently he became the editor of the Impartial Reporter based in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. This was owned by Tyrone-born William Trimble. It was here that Robert began writing as Barney Maglone.
“He was soon a notable character in Enniskillen, and his social habits, no less than his rapidly-increasing renown as a writer, procured him a host of friends”
On one occasion while employed here, Wilson was tasked with writing a review of the book ‘The Black Baronet’. The author, William Carleton, was intrigued and enquired as to the writer of the piece. Trimble replied, describing Robert as
“He is an Antrim-Donegal-American sailor, a preaching-teacher wonder. He has too much heart for his wondrous ribs to contain and could only live with, perhaps, myself for he could not write a trade article for Aladdin’s lamp. He must feel and believe, and be enthusiastic in all he writes”
William Carleton
The Enniskillen Advertiser… and Heartbreak
This suggests that Wilson was more concerned with the literary content rather than the commercial needs of a busy newspaper.
Nevertheless, by 1863 Robert was the editor of the Enniskillen Advertiser, owned and printed by James Hamilton. Carleton and Wilson became firm pals. However, the story goes that Robert had his heart broken by a local milliner and left the Fermanagh town forever.
The Belfast Morning News
After a brief stint at the Derry Journal, Robert arrived in Belfast in 1865. He was employed by the Belfast Morning News, this paper amalgamated with the Irish News in 1892 and is still published today.
The Belfast Morning News was established by the appropriately named brothers Daniel and Robert Read in 1855. The brothers came to the town in the late 1820’s from rural County Antrim. Their elder sibling Patrick had already come to Belfast and set up his own business in Castle Place.
Daniel and Robert became apprentices in the printing trade and worked their way up as printers until they founded the Belfast Morning News at 12 Crown Entry, off High Street. This was the first penny newspaper in Ireland and was hugely popular. It was originally published three times a week but in 1874 became a daily.
It was while writing for this newspaper that Wilson and his column ‘To my cousin in Amerikay’ became a firm favourite. Wilson’s humorous articles contained historic information and a keen insight into current affairs while he employed his wit and ironic view of life to ridicule the establishment.
“Those editions containing this amusing and irreverent column, which poked fun at councillors, JP’s and local dignitaries, were said to sell 5000-6,000 copies more than other editions”
Bridget Hourican Dictionary of Irish Biography 2007
Ulster Weekly News
Wilson in 1873 also took on the editorship of another Read-owned newspaper the Ulster Weekly News, where he continued writing as Barney Maglone:
He also contributed to other papers under the names ‘Young Ireland’, ‘Erin Oge’ and ‘Jonathan Allman’. Robert was well-educated, articulate, passionate and patriotic.
“A cultured Gaelic scholar, he learned Irish at home in Donegal “Barney Maglone” was no provincial; he was an Irishman first and last, and all the affection of his generous and affable nature was given to the land of his birth”
Cathal O’Byrne As I Roved Out, 1946
Love of Poetry
For all his success as a columnist, Wilson’s first love was poetry. In 1871 he published a book of poems. The title reflects his self-deprecating nature – ‘Almeynack for all Ireland, or whoever wants it’. This was a collection of humorous verse.
While renowned for his comic wit and often hilarious take on the doings of the local hierarchy, Wilson also had a deeply emotional and empathetic side. This is reflected in a number of poems such as ‘The Lost Emigrants’, ‘On An Infant’s Death’ and ‘In Memoriam’ composed after the drowning in Lough Erne of 18-year-old Frederick Steele son of the Rev Dr Steele, headmaster of Portora School.
A poem by Barney Maglone
“Why did I not die young?” by Barney Maglone:
Oh! Would that I had died when young,
Nor lived till sin and care
The darkness of their shadows flung
Across Life’s promise fair.If I had only sunk to sleep
While Hope’s sweet song was sung,
Before my heart had learned to weep,
Would that I had died young !The time has been when gushing joy
With hot tears filled my eyes,
When life was to the bounding boy
A flow’ry paradise.Why was I not then laid to rest
The green old graves among,
Ere agony had swept my breast-
Why did I not die young?The blight had not then mark’d my soul,
And all its young warmth chilled;
My heart had not then mourn’d the whole
Of being’s bright flow’rs killed.Oh! wherefore did I not depart
Barney Maglone
Before despair had wrung
To dryness this once gushing heart!
Would God I had died young!
The Belfast Morning News was to describe Maglone as:
“A man of giant intellect, he was yet tender as a child in many ways, and over a piece of poetry or at a play in the theatre we have frequently seen the big tears well up in his eyes and flow down his cheeks”
Belfast Morning News 11th August 1875
Life in Belfast
Robert A Wilson became a well-known and loved figure in Belfast, mainly due to his gregarious nature but also due to his distinctive style of dress. He was always to be seen wearing a broad-brimmed black felt hat, a dark green voluminous cloak and a brightly coloured cravat.
An amusing anecdote is that once while travelling from Ballyshannon to Bundoran, Robert was able to shelter five folk under his cloak during a downpour.
Wilson, as his easy-going writing suggests, had a good-humoured approach to life which sometimes involved getting into ‘scrapes’. In a letter to his friend William Carleton, he described how he and a companion found themselves without accommodation while visiting the Lammas Fair at Clogher. The pair managed to clamber over the wall of the Poor House and presented themselves as destitute.
“Audacity triumphed and we were lodged like princes!”
On another occasion, with a group of friends, Robert was stranded for three weeks on Tory Island, off the north-west coast of Donegal, due to inclement weather. The islanders were (are?) a fiercely independent bunch with their own king.
“It is the one spot that English law has never invaded; its rocky soil has never been profaned by the foot of a bailiff or process-server; it is still sacred to freedom and consecrated to the glories of the past”
Patrick Sarsfield Cassidy, Barney Maglone, A Remarkable Irish Genius
Wilson through his wit and loquacious good humour charmed the Tory king so much that he was appointed the royal bard!
One of the public spectacles performed on holidays at Belfast’s Botanic Gardens was the ascent of a hot air balloon (see link to Botanic Gardens post below). On one Easter Monday, Wilson secured himself a flight. Unfortunately, the balloon lost its mooring ropes and was nearly swept out to sea. Luckily it eventually landed on Cushendall beach, where a bedraggled and chastened Robert was rescued.
Social Conscience
Robert Arthur Wilson was a man with a highly developed social conscience. He literally ‘put his money where his mouth was’. During the linen strike of 1874 he donated all his income to the striking mill girls.
“Belfast in 1874 was caught up in the infamous mill workers labour disputes when workers were left penniless, Barney was not content to just defend the cause of the workers with his passionate pen… he went out among them distributing what little money he had to help their families”
Joe Graham, Rushlight online magazine
In 1875 a newspaper colleague wrote
“He was always eager to do battle in their cause; and during the millworkers dispute last year he expressed the deepest sympathy for the girls, both publicly and privately, and to our knowledge contributed freely from his own private purse towards their temporary relief. Indeed – we need not hesitate to say it – we knew him to go among them on the Falls and quietly and unostentatiously, as if in fear of offending by offering, slip pieces of silver into the girls laps where they sat in the open air”
Robert himself wrote:
Wilson was also a firm favourite with local children. He always had a pocketful of sweets which he would distribute to the youngsters who trailed behind him through the city centre streets.
‘Anything but a teetotaler’
Robert was ‘fond of a wee drop ’as we say in Ireland and could often be found in the local hostelries. In fact, most of his writing was composed in public houses.
“’Barney Maglone’ was anything but a teetotaler. His social habits and his fame as a writer procured for him hosts of convivial friends, and while he was not a hopeless inebriate, his liking for liquor, during his years in Belfast succeeded in establishing an ascendancy over him”
Cathal O’Byrne, As I Roved Out, 1946
However, Wilson was well aware of his failings as we can see from his temperance poems when he cursed “the friend of the still”. In another, more cheerful mood, he penned:
Of all the navigations that ever left our shore, I tell this mortal nation ‘Tis poteen I adore’
One of his favourite haunts was the snug in the Crown Tavern. He wrote in the parlance of the ordinary people in a ‘devil-may-care’ style which was easily accessible yet often quoted by those of all ranks and shades of opinion.
“He wrote easily and fluently, turning out a couple of columns in as many hours – or in less if his cronies were waiting for him at the ale-house”
Ruddick Millar, Irish Bookman, Vol 2 No2 1947
The Passing of ‘Barney Maglone’
Despite his journalistic success and his immense following, Wilson led a frugal lifestyle. He resided in lodgings at 4 Wesley Place off the Dublin Road in Belfast.
On 5th August 1875 Robert travelled to Dublin to partake in the centenary celebrations for Daniel O’Connell. However, it appears he ‘celebrated’ too much for he passed away a few days later.
Robert Arthur Wilson was found unconscious in his rented rooms on 10th August. Although attended by Dr Thomas S Corry, he never regained consciousness. He was only 55.
In a sadly prophetic poem, Robert had written
Other people have homes of their own, Maglone,
But your share of the worl’s to be ‘lone, Maglone;
As you lived, you must die,
An’ your last gasp or cry
Will be heard, very likely, by none
– not one –
You misfortunate divil, Maglone.
Great crowds attended Robert’s funeral on 11th August. He was buried in Belfast City Cemetery (Plot B49). A large number of personal friends escorted the funeral cortege and a eulogy was delivered by Mr M Irvine of St Stephen’s Church.
Tributes to Robert A Wilson
Robert Wilson’s passing was keenly felt throughout the north of the island. For many of his readers he felt like a close friend.
“Tidings of his death reached Enniskillen by telegram immediately after the sad event; and very few have passed away at whose decease there has been expressed grief so profound. His death is not a personal but a national loss”
Fermanagh Reporter
“Whenever the sad intelligence was circulated on Wednesday morning of the sudden death of ‘Barney Maglone’ Irishmen, no matter of what religion or politics, who appreciated sparkling wit, the true ring of poetic fire, and a sarcasm that could poise its darts between the extremes of adulation or offense, felt that the Destroyer had snatched away one whose talents were of no mean order”
Londonderry Sentinel
“In the death of Mr R A Wilson (Barney Maglone) editor of the Belfast Morning News, the Irish Press has lost one of its most distinguished members… For better than twenty years the name ‘Barney Maglone’ has been familiar to the people of the North of Ireland as a household word, and in thousands of homes today his death will be lamented as a personal loss”
Newry Reporter
“He was not only a humourist possessing infinite drollery of the richest and most original flavour, but he was a poet of highly exalted as well as boundlessly diversified genius, while as a prose writer he had a cultivated and elegant, flowing style of composition, characteristic at once of thought and refinement”
Derry Standard
“There was no more vigorous, trenchant, original, or versatile pen in Ireland than that of the gifted writer whose death will be felt as a blank in the newspaper literature for many a day, especially in those myriad homes where his letters were read weekly with all that unmixed delight they were so well calculated to create”
Fermanagh Mail
“Robert Arthur Wilson, the poor man’s friend, the tyrants fear, metaphysician, patriot and poet, is dead! None can say an evil word of him. He was his own worst friend. What a wealth of mind has the Press of Ireland lost? Of what an unswerving advocate have the poor been deprived?”
Belfast Morning News
In Conclusion
Such was the respect and admiration that Robert evoked that a large monument was erected at his grave in his honour. This was funded by public donations The inscription could not be better
“An able journalist, a gifted poet, a fearless and unflinching advocate for the rights of the people”
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