Francis Sylvester Mahony

Mahony, Francis Sylvester (məhō'nē), pseud. Father Prout (prout), 1804-66, Irish humorist. He was dismissed from the Jesuit order in 1830 for a minor offense. In 1832 he became a parish priest but lived most of his life as a man of letters. His witty essays and poems-all purported to be the work of a priest named Father Prout-contributed to Fraser's Magazine and other periodicals, were collected as The Reliques of Father Prout (1836) and The Final Reliques of Father Prout (1875). His best-known work is the poem "The Bells of Shandon."