Happy St. Patrick's Week!
Alfred Perceval Graves was born July 22, 1846, in Dublin, Ireland. Alfred was educated both in England, at Windermere College, Westmorland, and in Ireland, at Trinity College Dublin. His first poem appeared in the Dublin University Magazine in 1863, and he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1869.
He is the author of the comedic songFather O'Flynn, as well as many other songs and ballads. He published Songs of Old Ireland (1882) and Irish Songs and Ballads (1893), the airs of which are taken from the Petrie manuscripts. He published a collection of Irish folk songs in 1897, followed by the Songs of Erin in 1901.
Graves also had a keen interest in the Welsh language and the culture of Wales; he was elected as a Welsh bard in 1902.
He published an autobiography, To Return to All That, in 1930, as a response to his son Robert's World War I memoir, Good-Bye to All That.
Alfred Perceval Graves died on December 27, 1931 in Harlech.
