[2] He developed a 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 parents.
In the period of the Irish Civil War Phelan took part in a post office robbery in Bootle, Merseyside alongside Sean McAteer.
[1] during which a killing 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.
Hayes was injured in The Blitz in 1940 and died following a series of mental health problems which prompted Seumas, in his short story "Naughty Mans", to describe her as "lost in the war".
Seumas Phelan has described Paul Robeson serenading him in a Soho café, and has written memories of sitting on the lap of the artist and model Nina Hamnett.
The glut of pre- and post-war literary magazines edited by the likes of T. S. Eliot, John Lehmann and Cyril Connolly gave him an accessible platform to practice his art and earn a crust at the same time.
[5] In his book Tramping the Toby, Phelan wrote, "...one day Dylan Thomas sat down beside me, to drink black coffee at the Madrid in Soho.