James Owen Hannay wrote under the nom de plume of George A. Birmingham. Born in Belfast on 16th July 1865, he was educated at Haileybury and Trinity College, Dublin. Hannay entered the Church of Ireland ministry, and became Rector of Westport, Co. Mayo in 1892. He is famed for his statement, ‘I was born in Belfast and brought up to believe that like St Paul, I am a citizen of no mean city’.

His first few novels received little attention, but this changed in 1908 when he published Spanish Gold, which featured a curate called Meldon. This brand of humour appealed to the public and he wrote a ‘George A. Birmingham’ novel almost every year.

His novel General John Regan was produced as a play in Westport in 1913. When the local people discovered their rector was the author, there was a riot and a boycott ensued. Hannay left Westport and served as an army chaplain to the British Embassy in Budapest. He then went to France as army chaplain during the First World War, before settling at Mells Rectory in Somerset in 1924. Later, he took charge of a small parish in London. Besides his novels, Hannay also published some religious works and travel books under his own name, such as A Padre in France and biographies as Isaiah and Jeremiah. He published his autobiography in 1934. He died in London on the 2nd of February 1950.

An extract from the Appletree Press title Celebrated Citizens of Belfast by John Bradbury.