Jim Phelan (Irish writer)
| Jim Phelan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
 Ireland 1895 |
| Died | 1966 |
| Occupation | Writer, tramp |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Genre | Prose, poetry |
| Notable works | Tramp at Anchor, Lifer, Tramping the Toby |
| Spouse | Dora Mary Brien, Jill Constance Hayes, Kathleen Newton |
| Children | Catherine Mary, Seumas |
James Leo Phelan (1895–1966) was an Irish writer, political activist and tramp who wrote several books on tramp life and prison life.
Phelan was born in Ireland in 1895 and spent his early years in the village of Inchicore in Dublin. He developed a strong wanderlust at a young age, which he attributed to living near a busy port city, and growing up with a father who had travelled extensively and a mother who constantly recited fairy stories. From an early age Phelan escaped from home repeatedly, attempting to stow away beneath a tarpaulin, only to be discovered, disembarked at the nearest convenient point and returned to his despairing parents by equally despairing policemen.
At eighteen, under the fear of a "shotgun wedding", Phelan left Cork for Galveston, Texas aboard a Texan oil tanker. He later wrote, in his autobiography Tramp at Anchor, that his propensity to walk away at the slightest provocation and from any commitment led him to conclude that instability is what makes a man a tramp and, in doing so, he laid down the philosophy that was to shape the remainder of his life.
Phelan eventually returned to Ireland and pursued various trades, but his republican views soon found him involved with the revolutionary movement as an activist with the Irish Citizen Army. Later, in the period of the Civil War Phelan took part in a post office robbery in Bootle, Merseyside during which a murder took place; although the judge agreed that Phelan did not commit the act, he was legally culpable simply by virtue of having been involved and present at the robbery. He was sentenced to death by hanging and sent to Manchester Prison.
On the eve of his execution in 1924, the Home Secretary commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. He remained in prison for another 13 years before he was released, serving time in prisons including Maidstone, Parkhurst and Dartmoor. He would later draw on these experiences for his several books on prison life.
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