William Percy French was an Irish songwriter, author, poet, entertainer and painter.
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31 Facts About Percy French
2.
Percy French's younger sister, Emily later Emily de Burg Daly was a writer.
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3.
Percy French was educated in England at Kirk Langley and Windermere College before going to Foyle College in Derry and wrote his first successful song while studying at Trinity College Dublin in 1877 for a smoking concert.
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4.
Percy French claimed responsibility for the restoration of the royalties in the 1980s.
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5.
Ettie Percy French gives a different account of how the royalties were restored in her book Willie about her father's life.
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6.
Percy French claimed the royalties were restored in the 1940s to the family.
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7.
When Percy French died, not at all wealthy, he was owed a fortune in unpaid royalties.
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8.
Percy French graduated from TCD as a civil engineer in 1881 and joined the Board of Works in County Cavan as an Inspector of Drains.
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9.
Percy French painted: he was a prolific painter of watercolour landscapes and, during this period, considered art to be his true vocation.
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10.
The volcano Krakatoa erupted in 1883 while Percy French was in Cavan, and the particles of volcanic ash caused dramatic sunsets all over the world.
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11.
Percy French painted some of his finest landscapes in this period as he captured the spectacular skies.
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13.
Percy French famously wrote to his friends when he moved there: "We have come to live by the canal, do drop in".
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14.
Percy French was renowned for composing and singing comic songs and gained considerable distinction with such songs as Phil the Fluther's Ball, Slattery's Mounted Foot, and The Mountains of Mourne.
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15.
Percy French wrote many sketches and amusing parodies, the most famous of which is The Queen's After-Dinner Speech, written on the occasion of Queen Victoria's visit to Dublin in 1900, in which Percy French drolly suggests "There's a slate off Willie Yeats".
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16.
Percy French was a regular contributor to The Irish Cyclist, a weekly comic journal.
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18.
Percy French's grave is in the churchyard of St Luke's Church, Formby, Merseyside.
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19.
Sculpture of a park bench and plaque depicting his likeness by Brid Ni Rinn was installed on the spot where Percy French was inspired to write "The Mountains of Mourne" in Red Island Park, Skerries, County Dublin, in 2008.
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20.
Statue of Percy French sitting on a park bench in the town centre of Ballyjamesduff honours him and his song Come Back, Paddy Reilly, to Ballyjamesduff.
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21.
In March 2020, a memorial to Percy French was unveiled in Newcastle, County Down, in sight of the Mountains of Mourne, to mark the centenary of his death.
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22.
Percy French had been contributing comic pieces to The Irish Cyclist all through his Cavan years.
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23.
Percy French married Ethel Kathleen Armitage Moore in June 1890 on the strength of his income from The Jarvey.
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24.
Percy French identified for the first time in 80 years since the publication of the indecipherable novel, the critical reference to French's death in Liverpool in a key chapter of Finnegans Wake, a crucial discovery, unlocking much of Joyce's impenetrable novel in her landmark new book Sounds of Manymirth on the Night's Ear Ringing: Percy French His Jarvey Years and Joyce's Haunted Inkbottle.
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25.
Percy French is the subject of the reference in Finnegans Wake "the troubadour who mangled Moore's melodies" because he parodied so many of them in The Jarvey and in The Irish Cyclist.
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26.
Percy French wrote his own version of the song for his comic opera The Knight of the Road.
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27.
Percy French's first wife, Ettie Armitage Moore, was born in 1871, second daughter of William Armytage-Moore, brother of the Countess of Annesley.
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28.
Four years after Ettie's death, Percy French married Helen Sheldon from Warwickshire, whom he met when she visited Dublin to sing in the chorus of his opera Strongbow.
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29.
Comprehensive biography of Percy French, focusing on his paintings, Lead Kindly Light, was produced and written by Oliver Nulty of the Oriel Gallery in 2002, the culmination of his life's work promoting Percy French at a time of official neglect.
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30.
Percy French had been an antiques dealer and noticed that Irish visual art was neglected.
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31.
Percy French once witnessed the auctioneer fail to sell a George Russell painting for 2 shillings, until a coal scuttle was added to the lot.
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