A
Ballina Poet and Gael
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WHO WAS JAMES WALLACE MELVIN?
James Wallace Melvin was born, we are told,
in that awful famine year of 1847, and as no known records exist of his birth
in parochial records (records for the years 1836 to 1851 don’t exist), and the
census of 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851, were destroyed in the Public Records
Office during the Four Courts fire of 1922. 1861 and 1871 were destroyed by
Government Order. Jimmy, although working for a time in the machine room of the
“Western People”, also worked as a cobbler. While straightening out his awl
with a hammer, the awl broke and a piece of it went into his right eye,
blinding him. He always wore, from then on, a black patch to cover the damaged
eye. Although he was a poet, athlete, patriot and Gaelic enthusiast he is best
remembered for his part in the founding of the Ballina Stephens’ club, and the
rallying song of the club, which he wrote, is still sang with gusto whenever
the Stephenites’ play. James Wallace Melvin, aka “Larry Doolan” died on the 21st
April, 1913, aged 66 years in the Workhouse Infirmary Hospital on Workhouse Row
(now Lord Edward Street), Joseph’s
Hospital, Ballina, after a long and painful illness. His funeral to Leigue was
one of the biggest ever held in the town.
It is a pity that copies of the “W.P.” do not
exist before 1889 as I am sure that he had a number of poems in them, because
in the story “The Stephenites of 1889” a scribe wrote: “And like other
victories it brought out once more immortal words”. This, to me, indicated that Larry had put pen to paper.—(P.J.C.)
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