George A. Birmingham

George A. Birmingham was the pen name of James Owen Hannay (1865–1950), an Irish clergyman and novelist. Born in Belfast and ordained in the Church of Ireland, he was rector of Westport in County Mayo for over twenty years, and his early novels about Irish nationalism and religion caused such offense locally that he took a pseudonym. Spanish Gold, published in 1908, established the light comic manner of his best work, in which clergymen, sailors and resourceful young women pursue absurd schemes along the west coast of Ireland; Priscilla's Spies is in the same vein. His play General John Regan provoked a riot in Westport in 1914.