In a lonely grave in The City Cemetery Lies the boul Robert. A. Wilson Alias Barney MaGlone Whose epitaph reads,..

A tribute to one of the greatest characters and wittiest writers that ever trod the pads of Belfast. By. Joe Graham

Robert, A. Wilson was Donegal born, 1820, he came to Belfast alter having achieved much credibility as a young columnist writing in various country newspapers. Before long he became editor of the Belfast “Morning News”, forerunner to “The Irish News”, in which he wrote under the name of “Barney Maglone”, a name that he soon became totally known as both in his private and public life, and indeed often referred to himself in many of his writings as Barney Maglone”.. so we’ll refer hereafter as “Barney”.

Barney Maglone gave not a shit for any man, their allusions, pretensions, their grafting slavish values or indeed their patronage. He sought not the patronage that other writers craved, he scorned their aim for fame, place, position or wealth. Often enough Barney lived under the threat of libel action.. summons and court cases.. but he suffered all this in the comfortable embrace of his public, those people who, like him, had little in the ways of worldly goods...and what wealth did come the way of Barney Maglone it was a well known fact that Barney handed out it willingly to those who begged on the streets of Belfast in the terrible days of the ‘mid 1800’s. Belfast in 1874 was caught up in the infamous Mill workers labour disputes when workers being left penniless Barney was not content to just to defend he cause of the workers with his passionate pen.. he went out among them distributing what little money he had to help their families, Barney had no regards for material things, not even a home, he had a sparse rented room at Wesley Street, Donegall Road. of this fact he once wrote....

“Other people have homes of their own, Maglone,

share of the world’s to have none, mavrone.

As you have lived you must die, and your last gasp or cry,

Will be heard very likely by none, not one.

You unfortunate divel, Maglone”

Ironically in the end Barney was found lying unconscious in his room and as he foresaw his “last gasp or cry was heard by none” and sadly died on August 10^th 1875.

Although Wesley Street was in Sandy Row and Barney was a Protestant do not het the wrong idea for he loved the green.. and once wrote....

“The Green, O the Green it’s the colour of the true.

To man it far transcends the Orange or the Blue”.

Barney often wrote for “The Nation” when Charles Gavan Duffy was at the helm of that patriotic paper, so there is little doubt what his politics were. Barney in his writings slagged off the best of them, Politicians, Judges and other such like establishment puppets, including those who hired their pen to the highest bidder., slaves to the poison pen.. Barney would be in his glory to be in Belfast today .. but who today would publish his comments.? But for all that Barney was held in the highest esteem by many in Belfast, That memorial in the City Cemetery was paid for and erected by those who enjoyed his talents, wit and sincerity.

Barney was a colourful character as he strode around Belfast with his dark green cloak slung loosely across his shoulders and tied across his chest in the fashion of a Roman’s Toga.. and Barney liked a drink, and playing tricks like the one he done on a County Court Judge in Fermanagh when he was working there for the “Enniskillen Advertiser”. The Judge had taken the wig from his head due to the heat and set it on the bench beside him bur when he went to get it again it had disappeared. It was later retrieved from the window of a nearby pub where it had been put on show for a couple of days...the “crown” of British authority in Ireland was humiliated. .few doubted who was behind the prank ... But thinking is one thing.. proving it is another.. as Barney would say.

He had a love hate relationship for drink, once he cursed it as “the fiend of the still”, in his “Irish Cry”.. he wrote....

“It moans from the roofless untenanted walls,

It shrieks from the soul of the maiden betrayed.”

And later, in more gleeful mood, of Poteen, he wrote the following....

Barney was a Presbyterian of the old mould, like Jemmy Hope and Henry Joy McCracken before him, Barney became more Irish than some of the natives, in his poem, “To Ireland”, he wrote..

So the next time you pass through the rows of graves at the City Cemetery, as you ‘tour guide’ to point out the hallowed spot where lies Maglone, but we know that little of Barney lies in that grave , for the worms will have picked his bones clean., and how do we know this ?..well, Barney told us to expect this when he wrote...

Many years ago, a writer who wrote in the “Irish News” , signing his articles with a simple” C “ , wrote a “Tribute” to Barney Maglone, he sadly left out that patriotic streak that was so evident in Barney’s character... the same character “C” wrote a Tribute to Cathal O’Byrne at the time of Cathal’s death in 1957 and again one can see how adverse “C” was to those who would speak out patriotically of Ireland, sadly, very sadly, this man’s article was repeated, word for word, in a recent publication as a “Tribute” to Cathal O’Byrne..?.. a sad state of affairs, with both poor Barney and Cathal not here to defend themselves., but sure.. who the hell was “C”.. who cares. Cathal wrote very glowingly of Barney in his book, “As I Roved Out”, and here I can’t find words enough to praise these two great oul Belfast writers that I have admired for many years.. and sure if ever you pass through Crown Entry late at night, look close, you may see the swaying ghost of Barney Maglone happily making his way home to his wee garret.