William Bulfin
Encyclopedia
William Bulfin was the fourth son in a family of nine boys and one girl, the children of William Bulfin, of Derrinlough, Birr, County Offaly, Ireland
, and Ellen Grogan of Croghan, County Offaly
.
He attended the Classical Academy and the Presentation Schools in Birr
, and the Royal Charter School at Banagher
when it was under head-mastership of Dr. King Joyce.
His maternal uncle, Father Vincent Grogan, was Provincial for the Passionist Fathers of a province that included a monastery in Buenos Aires
, Argentina
. William Bulfin, the younger, emigrated to Argentina in 1884, with his elder brother, Peter. But they turned their backs on the city, and moved on out to the pampas.
Hundreds of Irish emigrants from Counties Longford
and Westmeath
had already settled the Argentine. They had with them letters of introduction to the Passionist Fathers in Buenos Aires. The Bulfins went to the ranch (estancia) of one of these, Juan Dowling, a native of County Longford
. There he met the woman whom he would eventually marry, Anne O’Rourke (originally from Ballacurra, Ballymore, Westmeath
.
Out on the pampas his preference was for the company of either the gauchos or the Irish, and observing both his own fellow-countrymen and the hard-riding Spanish-Indian cowboys he began to write homely sketches and stories about their lives for The Southern Cross, a weekly paper in Buenos Aires, owned and edited by Michael Dineen from Cork
.
Years later, he wrote in The Southern Cross about the vanishing gaucho in a way that showed how closely he had observed and been attracted by the vivid pattern of life on the Argentinian grasslands. He had his ranch, and his horses and his work at trooping or marking or herding sheep, and he drank his anis or cana, and took his mate under his own fig tree, and gambled with bone or cards or on horseracing at the pulperías of all the camps from the Arroyo Luna to the Medano Blanco, and along the frontier from Gainza to Melincue.
In 1902, relocated to the city he had initially rejected, Buenos Aires
, he wrote: It was a train brought me back to Buenos Aires from the camp. I mean it was the train which gave me the call ... [I]t happened that I had not seen a train for four years ... I went to a certain railway station one afternoon to send a telegram to Buenos Aires, and while I was there the train came in. I do not know whether it was the engine, or a look at the passengers, or the roar and rattle of the wheels, or all of these things together, that set the wheels of memory revolving. The city life of student days came back, the city began to call. As I galloped home it struck me that the camp was not meant for me, after all. It was telling me to clear out. ‘You are not good enough for me’, it seemed to be saying. ‘Go away, go back to your cities, and fair weather after you; don’t be afraid that I’II miss you or a thousand like you.’ And what the city said was this’ Come back. For four and twenty years at home and abroad you have been keeping away from me. But it’s no use. You cannot help yourself. You were born in the open country....but you are mine. You must come. I am the hag that men call the spirit of city life-ugly, selfish, corrupt, insincere, but I call you and you must come.
He also wrote Rambles In Eirinn in 1902: a well-regarded account of his travels around the island of Ireland by bicycle.
A year after his arrival in the city he was sub-editing on The Southern Cross, and shortly afterwards he was both proprietor and editor of that paper. The sketches he wrote were published in The Southern Cross and also, due to his friendship with Arthur Griffith
, in the United Irishman
and Sinn Féin
. Eventually they reached the New York Daily News
. They were published in book form in 1907 by Gill Publishing.
He died in 1910; his children were Eamon Bulfin
, an Irish republican and political activist following the Irish Civil War
, and Catalina Bulfin who would marry Sean MacBride
, the son of Irish nationalist icons Major John MacBride
and Maud Gonne
. His brother Patrick (d. 1916) was Lord Mayor of Dublin
in 1870 and was father of the British General Sir Edward Bulfin
.
Birr
Birr is a town in County Offaly, Ireland. Once called Parsonstown, after the Parsons family who were local landowners and hereditary Earls of Rosse. It is also a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe....
, and Ellen Grogan of Croghan, County Offaly
Croghan
Croghan may refer to:In Ireland:* Croghan , County Offaly, Ireland* Croghan, County Roscommon, Ireland* Croghan Hill, County Offaly, Ireland* Croghan Mountain, Wicklow Mountains, IrelandIn the United States:...
.
He attended the Classical Academy and the Presentation Schools in Birr
Birr
Birr is a town in County Offaly, Ireland. Once called Parsonstown, after the Parsons family who were local landowners and hereditary Earls of Rosse. It is also a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe....
, and the Royal Charter School at Banagher
Banagher
Banagher is a town in Ireland, located in the midlands on the western edge of County Offaly in the province of Leinster, on the banks of the River Shannon. The name Banagher comes from its Irish name which translates to English as "the place of the pointed rocks on the Shannon"...
when it was under head-mastership of Dr. King Joyce.
His maternal uncle, Father Vincent Grogan, was Provincial for the Passionist Fathers of a province that included a monastery in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. William Bulfin, the younger, emigrated to Argentina in 1884, with his elder brother, Peter. But they turned their backs on the city, and moved on out to the pampas.
Hundreds of Irish emigrants from Counties Longford
County Longford
County Longford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford.Longford County Council is the local authority for the county...
and Westmeath
County Westmeath
-Economy:Westmeath has a strong agricultural economy. Initially, development occurred around the major market centres of Mullingar, Moate, and Kinnegad. Athlone developed due to its military significance, and its strategic location on the main Dublin–Galway route across the River Shannon. Mullingar...
had already settled the Argentine. They had with them letters of introduction to the Passionist Fathers in Buenos Aires. The Bulfins went to the ranch (estancia) of one of these, Juan Dowling, a native of County Longford
County Longford
County Longford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford.Longford County Council is the local authority for the county...
. There he met the woman whom he would eventually marry, Anne O’Rourke (originally from Ballacurra, Ballymore, Westmeath
Ballymore
Ballymore may refer to:*Ballymore , an Irish property company*Ballymore, County Cork, village on Great Island, Cork Harbour, Ireland*Ballymore, County Donegal, Ireland*Ballymore, County Westmeath, Ireland*Ballymore, County Wexford, Ireland...
.
Out on the pampas his preference was for the company of either the gauchos or the Irish, and observing both his own fellow-countrymen and the hard-riding Spanish-Indian cowboys he began to write homely sketches and stories about their lives for The Southern Cross, a weekly paper in Buenos Aires, owned and edited by Michael Dineen from Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
.
Years later, he wrote in The Southern Cross about the vanishing gaucho in a way that showed how closely he had observed and been attracted by the vivid pattern of life on the Argentinian grasslands. He had his ranch, and his horses and his work at trooping or marking or herding sheep, and he drank his anis or cana, and took his mate under his own fig tree, and gambled with bone or cards or on horseracing at the pulperías of all the camps from the Arroyo Luna to the Medano Blanco, and along the frontier from Gainza to Melincue.
In 1902, relocated to the city he had initially rejected, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, he wrote: It was a train brought me back to Buenos Aires from the camp. I mean it was the train which gave me the call ... [I]t happened that I had not seen a train for four years ... I went to a certain railway station one afternoon to send a telegram to Buenos Aires, and while I was there the train came in. I do not know whether it was the engine, or a look at the passengers, or the roar and rattle of the wheels, or all of these things together, that set the wheels of memory revolving. The city life of student days came back, the city began to call. As I galloped home it struck me that the camp was not meant for me, after all. It was telling me to clear out. ‘You are not good enough for me’, it seemed to be saying. ‘Go away, go back to your cities, and fair weather after you; don’t be afraid that I’II miss you or a thousand like you.’ And what the city said was this’ Come back. For four and twenty years at home and abroad you have been keeping away from me. But it’s no use. You cannot help yourself. You were born in the open country....but you are mine. You must come. I am the hag that men call the spirit of city life-ugly, selfish, corrupt, insincere, but I call you and you must come.
He also wrote Rambles In Eirinn in 1902: a well-regarded account of his travels around the island of Ireland by bicycle.
A year after his arrival in the city he was sub-editing on The Southern Cross, and shortly afterwards he was both proprietor and editor of that paper. The sketches he wrote were published in The Southern Cross and also, due to his friendship with Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:...
, in the United Irishman
United Irishman
The United Irishman title has been a very popular newspaper title in Ireland and a number of newspapers have been published under the title.*...
and Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin (newspaper)
Sinn Féin was a weekly Irish nationalist newspaper edited by the Dublin typesetter, journalist and political thinker Arthur Griffith. It was published by the Sinn Féin Printing & Publishing Company Ltd. between 1906 and 1914, and replaced an earlier newspaper called the United Irishman which was...
. Eventually they reached the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
. They were published in book form in 1907 by Gill Publishing.
He died in 1910; his children were Eamon Bulfin
Eamon Bulfin
Eamon Bulfin was an Argentine-born Irish republican. He was the son of writer William Bulfin of Birr, King's County . William Bulfin emigrated to Argentina at the age of 20 and was a writer and journalist who became the editor/proprietor of The Southern Cross.Eamon Bulfin was a pupil at Patrick...
, an Irish republican and political activist following the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
, and Catalina Bulfin who would marry Sean MacBride
Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride was an Irish government minister and prominent international politician as well as a Chief of Staff of the IRA....
, the son of Irish nationalist icons Major John MacBride
John MacBride
Major John MacBride was an Irish republican executed for participation in the 1916 Easter Rising.-Early life:...
and Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne MacBride was an English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats. Of Anglo-Irish stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars...
. His brother Patrick (d. 1916) was Lord Mayor of Dublin
Lord Mayor of Dublin
The Lord Mayor of Dublin is the honorific title of the Chairman of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The incumbent is Labour Party Councillor Andrew Montague. The office holder is elected annually by the members of the...
in 1870 and was father of the British General Sir Edward Bulfin
Edward Bulfin
Lieutenant General Sir Edward Stanislaus Bulfin KCB CVO was a British general during World War I, where he established a reputation as an excellent commander at the brigade, divisional and corps levels...
.