Life
1814-1889 [vars. McKowen, M’Kowen]; b. Ulster; became Head of Inland Revenue [ODNB]; Irish songs, e.g. “Ould Irish Jig”; an obituary appeared in Northern Whig (24 April 1889); he was a friend of Francis Davis, acc. Irish Book Lover. ODNB DBIV MKA IF DIW
References
John Cooke, ed., The Dublin Book of Irish Verse (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1909), selects “Bonnie Twinkling Starnies” (‘Sae Gentle and sae bright - /Ye woo me and ye win me / With your soft and silver light’); and, ‘Oh! If I were yon Gossamer’, the latter not in Scots-Irish.
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), cites James F McKeon, son of T. McKeon of Anagharah, Co. Armagh, b. Borrisoleigh, 1858; Superviser of Inland Revenue; author of Ormond Idylls (1901), eight Killarney sketches, ‘pathetic and sad’; also many poems, some in volume form. [Error:] evident from reference to Inland Revenue in ODNB [supra] and this entry that the two are being confused unless the latter is also a descendent of the former and the post hereditary.
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature, 1800-1875: A Guide to Information Sources (Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1978), refers to D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (1912) and an obit. in Northern Whig (24 April 1889) that speaks of ‘one of the oldest contribs. to the political column [and writer of poems] numbers of which were beyond the ordinary range of fugitive poetry.’ No refs to fiction.
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