Justin McCarthy (1830-1912)

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Bibliographical Details
A History of Our Own Times: From the Accession of Queen Victoria to the Berlin Congress (London: Chatto & Windus 1879); From the Accession of Queen Victoria to the General Election of 1880 (London: Chatto & Windus 1881, 1882, 1897); Do., From the Accession of Queen Victoria to the Diamond Jubilee, 1897 (London: Chatto & Windus 1897, 1898, 1900); Do., From the Diamond Jubilee 1897 to the Accession of King Edward VII (London: Chatto & Windus 1905, 1908, 1909, 1911). [Formats vary from 4 vols. to 1 vol. with 567pp.]

Also [U.S. Edn.:] A History of Our Own Times from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the General Election of 1880; a new edition with appendix of events, to the end of 1880; complete in one volume (NY: A. L. Burt [n.d.]), 634pp. [Index, p.589]; engrav. front. port. - available at Internet Archive - online; accessed 23.05.2024 [see A].

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Irish Literature, [gen.] ed. Justin McCarthy, 10 vols. (NY; Bigelow, Smith & Co.; for The Catholic University of America 1904), with Charles Welsh of Notre Dame [as] Mgr. Ed.; editorial board formed by Maurice Francis Egan of the Catholic University Washington, Lady Gregory, Douglas Hyde, Stephen Gwynn, Standish O’Grady, W. P. Ryan, and John Redmond, and others; and with ‘special articles’ and ‘biographical notices and literary appreciations’ by Douglas Hyde, W. B. Yeats, George Sigerson, “AE” [George Russell], W. P. Ryan, T. W. Rolleston, G. A. Greene, J. F. Taylor, D. J. O’Donoghue, Standish O’Grady, Austin Dobson, and Lionel Johnson.. An editorial essay and a tables of contents appear at the commencement of each ‘volume’, e.g., Vol. VII-VIII, pp.[vii]-xxxv, 2465-2878, pp.[i]-xxxii, 2879-3298. The whole series concludes with a Glossary (pp.4031-39) and an Index, listing authors, titles, subject dealt with, source of library extracts by title, first lines of poetry (pp.4041-4126).

[Note: The 10 vols. of Irish Literature (var. edns. 1904) are available at Internet Archive - search. In addition, Irish Literature - Section 2 (?1904) is devoted to the works of Charles Lever.

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Commentary
Stephen Gwynn, Irish Literature and Drama (1936), ‘Justin McCarthy ... gentle nature ... peacably acquired reputation by his History of our Own Time ... suavity and simplicity of exposition which recall Goldsmith’s best hackwork, and his many novels are pervaded by the charm of a very quiet humour. ... forced into prominence that he never desired, as leader of the majority which left Parnell rather than break with Gladstone ... never embittered the savage controversy.’ (p.113.)

F. S. L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine (London: Fontana 1971), notes that Gladstone met McCarthy on 24 Nov. 1890 to tell him that Parnell must retire from politics (p.190). Further, a majority of forty-five went with vice-chairman McCarthy in the split (p.192); McCarthy was replaced in 1896 by John Dillon (p.197). [See further allusions passim.]

James H. Murphy, Catholic Fiction and Social Reality in Ireland, 1873-1922 (Conn: Greenwood Press 1997), Part I: ‘Upper Middle-Class Fiction 1873-1890’, pp.69: that McCarthy’s Mononia (1901) concerns the sister of Maurice Desmond, a Young Irelander, who refuses her hand to the sympathetic Englishman Mr. Woodward because he is ‘a steady Englishman, proud of his country’ while she remains ‘a rebel in her heart’, while Kathleen Fitzgerald throws Desmond over for an English officer’ though milotantly pro-rebellion, the novel, paradoxically, retains the upper middle-class yearning, if not to conciliate, then at least to explain English and Irish differences’; quotes a character opining that if the example of Woodward were followed, ‘there would be little question of conflicting nationalities in these islands of ours.’ (Mononia, 1901, p.367; here p.69.)

Margaret Kelleher, ‘Prose Writing and Drama in English; 1830-1890 [...]’, in Cambridge History of Irish Literature, ed. Kelleher & Philip O’Leary (Cambridge UP 2006), Vol. 1 Chap. 11], notes that McCarthy critical account of the Fenian movement in A Fair Saxon (1873). (Kelleher, op. cit., p.479.)

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References
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912), notes that wrote verse in the Irishman, 1849; also Cork Magazine, 1847; Con Amore, collection of essays, containing translations of Freiligrath, eight of which appear in the Tauchnitz edition of Freiligrath (Leipzig 1869) which was edited by McCarthy’s dg., Mary Stanislaus McCarthy, author of Songs of Zion (Dublin 1897), ed., ‘Birthday Book of our Dead’, &c.; also Michael Francis McCarthy, f. of Justin, and ed. of Poems of J J Callanan, and much verse in Cork papers. [BIOG as above].

Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), supplies biog.: b. Cork, 1830; MP and Chairman of the IPP, 1890-96; A Fair Saxon (1873; US title, Maurice Tyrone); Mononia (1901). See also Irish Book Lover 1, 2, 4.

Donald Torchiana, Backgrounds for Dubliners (1986), cites the Story of Gladstone’s Life (Toronto 1898) [sic for England under Gladstone?], prob. by Justin McCarthy.

Roy Foster, Modern Ireland (London: Allen Lane 1988), biog, joined Cork Examiner, 1847; Liverpool-based Northern Daily Times, 1859; contrib. Westminster Review; ed. Morning Star, 1864-8; considered settling in America; Home Rule MP for Longford, IPP vice-chairman, 1879; led majority in split of 1890; remained friendly with Parnell; retired 1900; civil list pension 1903; a leading popular novelist, biographer, and historian of his day [p.367].

Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography [rev. edn.] (Gill & Macmillan 1988), give biog.: b. near Cork 22 Nov. 1830, legal plans frustrated by poverty, journalism, Cork Examiner; joined Northern Daily Times, Liverpool, 1854; ed. London Morning Star, 1864; novels; returned from US in 1871; leader-writer Daily News and Parnell supporter; History of Our Own Times (1879); MP Co. Longford 1879; vice-chairman IPP; led anti-Parnell group at split, but avoided personal recriminations; almost blind in 1897; dictated novels in retirement after 1900 till 1911; civil pension list £300, at instance of Balfour; d. Folkestone, 24 April 1912; Dear Lady Disdain (1875) and Mononia (1901) depict Munster life in his youth.

John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Longmans 1988; rep. 1989), cites The Waterdale Neighbours (1867); Dear Lady Disdain (1875), with an unpromisingly scornful heroine, and Miss Misanthrope (1878), on the same lines, stand out as superior works; Mononia (1901), heroine-title, retrospective and autobiographical; Lady Judith, melodrama of London 1851; A Fair Saxon (1873), his best Irish novel, chronicles the love of an English girl for a radical Irish MP, Maurice Tyrone, with Fenian sub-plot; wrote three novels with Mrs Praed, e.g., The Right Honorable (1886) [sep. entry, infra]; The Ladies Gallery (1888), enjoying considerable popularity.

See also Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (1989 rep. edn.) - separate entry on The Right Honorable (1886): written in collab. with Mrs Campbell Praed, a novel set in Australia and England which broadly hints at a sexual relationship between its authors; deals with the love between Sandham Morse, a rising politician, and Koorali Middlemist, a politician’s dg; they re-encounter one another after her marriage when he has become leader of a radical party on the verge of power, they admit to loving one another but resolve to the ‘whiteness’ of their relationship; here husband attempts to blackmail them; Morse offers to elope and she returns to England rather than risk the destruction of his career.

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2 , notes, Justin McCarthy, the first leader of the anti-Parnellites, 1-6 Nov 1890 [sic; but recte 26 Nov-6 Dec, being the inclusive dates of the meetings in Committee Room 15], 311; On 28 Nov 1890 Parnell read a manifesto to a number of his loyal followers at a London apartment. Justin McCarthy, whom Parnell had expressly invited to the meeting, objected as soon as the document had been read. Challenged by Parnell to specify what exactly made it ‘all objectionable ... offensive to our English allies’ in McCarthy’s eyes, the latter instanced the phrase ‘English wolves’. According to R. Barry O’Brien ... Parnell was equally insistent that these words were not removable [Seamus Deane, ed.], 312; Michael Davitt, The Fall of Feudalism (1904), McCarthy quoted Grattan in his fine expression, ‘No man can be lavish with his honour, or woman with her virtue, or country with its liberty’ [Speech of 1 April 1780], to which Parnell’s contemptuous rejoinder was ‘You elected me unanimously ...’, 320; Gladstone informed McCarthy that Parnell was no longer acceptable to the Liberal[s] ... McCarthy could not persuade Parnell of this and when Gladstone published an account of his position, McCarthy ... led the withdrawal of the members of the party from Committee Room 15, 320n.; Substantial accounts of events at the Split, on Dec 6, 1890, McCarthy led out 44 members, leaving Parnell with 27 (from T. P. O’Connor, Memoirs of an Old Parliamentarian, 1929); McCarthy characterised in Tim Healy’s view [by ed.] as the best representative of the very gentlemanly set, and endlessly civil and boring (acc. Tim Healy); ‘At six o’clock, Parnell having refused to put any question touching his disposition, Justin McCarthy rose to announce our wthdrawal. Forty-four colleagues followed him out. Many of us shook hands with those from whom we were separating ... (Healy, Letters and Leaders of My Day, 1928); [322-333 passim]; Douglas Hyde regards the revival of spoken Irish as more important than whether Mr Redmond or Mr McCarthy lead the largest wing of the Irish party at the moment, in The Necessity, &c (1892), 532-33.

Libraries & Booksellers

Belfast Public Library holds Comet of a Season (1871); The Daily News Jubilee (1896); Doom! An Atlantic Episode (1886); A History of Our Own Times (1897); Ireland and Her Story (1903); Irish Recollections (n.d.); Modern England (1899) My Enemy’s Daughter (1869); Our Book of Memories: Letters to Mrs Campbell Praed (1912); Reminiscences (1899); A Short History of Our Times (1908); Sir Robert Peel (1891); The Story of an Irishman (1904); Wearing of the Green (n.d.). MORRIS holds Irish Literature, 10 vols. in 5 (1904). NOTE mixed titles therein for the two authors above under McCarthy, J.

Eggeley Catalogue (No 44) holds Julian Revelstone (London: Chatto & Windus 1909), 2nd imp. (viii), [1]-316pp. [not listed in COPAC].

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Quotations
‘Irish Literature’ [introduction], in Irish Literature, gen. ed. Justin McCarthy (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), pp.vii-xvi: ‘Ireland was occupied or colonised in the early parts first by an invasion, or perhaps it might better be called a settlement, from the Far East, an afterwards by an adventurous visitation from the shores of Greece. One of the names given to the Irish people as it developed from this later settlement carries with it and must every carry the proclamation of its Greek original. There is indeed in the early literature of Ireland much that still illustrates that Hellenic character.’ (viii.)

‘No conqueror ever made more resolute attempts to suppress and to extirpate this national sentiment than have been made by the Normans, by the Anglo-Saxons, and by the English masters who have held possession of Ireland since the birth of Christianity.’ (viii). ‘Ever effort was made at one time by the English conquerors to stamp out the use of the Gaelic tongue, but no efforts and no power could change the mould of the Irish mind.’ (ix.)

‘[N]o such pertinacity of effort on the part of the ruling power was ever made to suppress the language of Wales as that which was employed, even up to comparatively modern times, for the suppression of the language of Ireland. Yet ... the literature of Ireland remains from first to last distinctively Irish.’ (xv.)

On EDMUND SPENSER: ‘[S]ome of the finest passages of his poems seemed to have caught their inspiration from the scenery and atmosphere of that noble river ... Avondhu, which of the Englishmen is called Blackwater ..’ (ix).

On JONATHAN SWIFT: ‘Swift never, to my way of thinking, developed in his own ways of thought and feeling any of the genuine characteristics of Ireland’s national temperament.’ (x.)

On CHARLES LEVER: ‘[...] with his broad, bright, comic humour, his rattling descriptions of the drolleries and the contrasts of Irish life among the landlord and the peasant class alike. I do not desire to say a word of disparagement [... &c.]’ (xii.)

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Notes
Michael Davitt: In his foreword to Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Michael Davitt, Revolution-ary, Agitator, and Labour Leader (London: T. Fisher Unwin 1908), speaks of his friendship with Davitt, and identifies his policy as ‘the restoration of the Irish people to the right of national self-government as a will partner in the Imperial confederation’ [xix].

History of Our Own Times, comments [inter al.] on Isaac Butt; Sir Charles Napier [of Sinde]; Darwin, Spencer, and Tyndall; Froude, Meredith, Lorna Doone, &c.1st vols. 1 & 2 appeared in 1875; completed by additions, 1897 [cf. supra 1879-80], and intermediate vols. 3 & 4, incl. an account of Committee Room 15; the last vol. shows satirical animus against English taxation in Ireland, which rested disproportionately on tobacoo and whiskey.

W. P. Ryan, The Irish Literary Revival (1894). notes that Justin McCarthy lectured to the Irish Literary Society in London on 21st Sept 1887, addressing the topic ‘The Literature of ’48’, [with] Sir Charles Gavan Duffy in the chair (Ryan, op. cit. p.26.). Ryan further notes that he was a member of the Irish Society of East Anglia, est. Aug. 1890.

McCarthy v Yeats: Justin McCarthy praised Griffin’s Collegians as ‘the real masterpiece of Irish Romance’ though spoiled by Boucicault’s successful drama’ (Irish Literature, 1904, Vol. 1, Introduction, p.xiii). For W. B. Yeats in his Introduction to Representative Irish Tales (1891), this is the mark of a class whose ‘main hindrances are a limited and diluted piety, a dread of nature and her abundance, a distrust of unsophisticated life.’ (See Representative Irish Tales, ed. Mary Helen Thuente, 1979 edn., p.31; also under Griffin, q.v.)

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MP Derry: On winning a seat in Derry/Londonderry (1886-92), McCarthy declared that he ‘did not despair by any means’ of having Protestant and Orange friends even yet on their [the Nationalist] side’, claiming that his election victory showed that ‘they were very near levellling the old walls of ascendancy in Derry’ and that ‘the time was approaching when the city of Derry would be given to the Irish cause’. (Longford Independent, 10 July 1886; quoted in D. George Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland, London: Routledge 1982; 1991 Edn., p.220-21.)

Sir James Caldwell, A Brief Examination of the Question Whether It Is Expedient ... to Pass an Act to Enable Papists to Take Real Securities for Money Which They May Lend (1764), instances a rich Catholic in Cork called Justin McCarthy who, he alleges, had so many Protestants debtors that the popery laws had not been put in force for several years (p.2-3). (See Maureen Wall, Catholic Ireland in the 18th c., ed. Gerard O’Brien (1989), p.189, n.47.)

Mononia (recte, and so cited in Brown, Ireland in Fiction, 1919; ditto Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (1988). The title is given as ‘Monomia’ [sic] in Irish Literature, gen. ed. Justin McCarthy (Washington & NY 1904) suggesting that the editorial work was conducted by Charles Welch or Maurice Egan rather than the nominal editor and author of the poem, McCarthy himself.

Donald Torchiana, Backgrounds for Dubliners (1986), lists also Life of Leo XIII (London: Bliss [q.d.]), which indicates that Leo expressed public distaste for the physical reaction against landlords like Captain Boycott (Torchiana, op. cit., p.215).

Caveat lector: Library catalogues (viz., COPAC) commonly list this author as Justin Huntly McCarthy (1830-1912) presumably confusing him with Justin Huntly McCarthy (1860-1936).

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