Daley was born at the
Navan,
County Meath, Ireland, and was educated at the
Christian Brothers at
Devonport in England. He arrived in Australia in 1878, and became a freelance journalist and writer in both
Melbourne and
Sydney. Whilst in Melbourne, he met and became a friend of
Marcus Clarke; later, in Sydney, he became acquainted with
Henry Kendall. He is notable for becoming the first author in Australia who tried to earn a living from writing alone. In Sydney in 1898, he founded the
bohemian Dawn and Dusk Club, and the later Supper Club, which had many notable members such as writer
Henry Lawson. Together with fellow notable poet
Louise Mack, he organised the farewell dinner to Scottish-Australian poet and bush balladeer
Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) in 1901 at the Hotel Australia, Sydney.
Banjo Paterson and
Roderic Quinn were also present at the send-off. He used the
pseudonym Creeve Roe (Irish for
Red Branch, the area next to the Navan where
Cú Chulainn trained as a Red Branch Knight), as well as his own name. Daley died at his home in
Waitara, Sydney of
tuberculosis and was buried in the Roman Catholic section of
Waverley Cemetery.
Legacy His work was not considered particularly
Australian in nature, but quite lyrical, His
Poems (1908) and other collections were published posthumously. Daley's finest Australian work was considered to be
A Sunset Fantasy. When he died, Scottish-Australian poet and bush balladeer
Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) penned: :When 'the little folk' meet by the red rowan tree ::The dance shall be stayed in the ring on the plot :While they twine in his green Irish isle of the sea ::The wreath we forgot. A memoir of Daley by
Bertram Stevens was published in
Wine and Roses. ==Bibliography==