Our Casualty & Other Stories

James Owen Hannay was born in Belfast in 1865. After an education that included Haileybury and Trinity College Dublin, he was ordained as a Church of Ireland minister in 1889.

Whilst serving as rector in Westport, County Mayo, he became involved both in the Gaelic League and the revival movement for Irish cultural life.

His literary career, written with the aid of the pseudonym George A Birmingham to help separate his fiction from church duties resulted in some controversy. His 1913 play, ‘General John Regan', famously caused a riot in Westport because locals felt it satirised Irish life too sharply, and his work was for a time boycotted.

Many of his short stories deal with the difficult times of Irish nationalism and its attempts to separate from England. But his work also included light-hearted, satirical novels that captured the humour and kindness of Irish society.

Over a prolific career, he wrote some 70 books, ranging from comic fiction and detective stories like Wild Justice to serious theological works and travel memoirs.

After losing the battle to separate the church from overseeing education he moved to England where he served as a vicar in Somerset and London until his death in 1950.