Mervyn Wall

Mervyn Wall was an Irish writer who was born in Dublin in 1908. He attended Belvedere College, a Jesuit school for boys in Dublin, and obtained his B.A. from the National University of Ireland in 1928. He worked in the Irish civil service from 1934 to 1948 and later for Radio Éireann as Programme Officer. In 1957 he became Secretary of the Arts Council of Ireland, a post he held until his retirement in 1975. His wife, Frances Feehan, was a theatre and music critic. Wall published novels, short stories and plays, and wrote for a short-lived literary magazine, Ireland Today. Wall is best remembered for his two comic fantasies centering on the medieval monk Fursey, which have been republished several times and praised by critics such as E. F. Bleiler and Darrell Schweitzer. Wall also wrote serious fiction, such as Leaves for Burning, which depicts the Irish society under the Emergency Powers Act during World War II. Wall died in 1997 at the age of 88.