Robert Dwyer Joyce


Life
1830-1883 [pseud. “Feardana”]; physician and poet and br. of P. W. Joyce [q.v.], b. Glenosheen, Co. Limerick, initially worked as civil servant and succeeded his br. P. W. Joyce as principal of Clonmel Model School following training at National Commission of Education; his ballad “The Boys of Wexford” (on 1798) appeared in the first issue of The Irish People in 1863; published Ballads, Romances and Songs (1861), containing pieces which had appeared over the name “Feardana” in The Nation and other journals; also wrote the nationalist ballads “The Blacksmith of Limerick” and “The Wind that Shook the Barley” - whence the title of the Ken Loach film which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2006; also trans. Piaras Mac Gearailt’s “Rosc Catha na Mumhan”; his ballad “The Battle of Benburb” celebrates the victory of Owen Roe O’Neill in 1646;
 
he then studied Science and Medicine at Queen’s College, Cork, grad. UCC, 1865; appt. Professor of English at the Catholic University, Dublin, also 1865 but moved to Boston (USA) in 1867 to practise medicine - supposedly disillusioned by the failure of the Fenian Rising; pub. several lyrical collections in America incl. Ballads of Irish Chivalry (Boston 1872) and the longer poems Deirdre: An Epic (1876) and Blanid (1879), both retelling stories from the Ulster cycle; also issued Legends of the Wars in Ireland (1868) and Irish Fireside Tales (1871), collections of historical short stories; composed his epics in his carriage on the way to visit his patients; he lived at 73, Merrion Square, Dublin, while still in Ireland (currently the premises of the ITMA); returned to Ireland in 1883 and d. at his brother’s house in Dublin, 24 Sept. that year. CAB PI JMC DBIV IF IF2 DIB DIW DIH MKA FDA OCIL

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Works
Poetry
  • Ballads, Romances and Songs (Dublin: James Duffy 1861), xii, 10-304pp. [17cm].
  • Ballads of Irish Chivalry: Songs and Poems (Boston: P. Donahoe 1872), 427pp., ill. [see details]
  • Deirdre (Boston: Roberts Brothers 1876), 262 [2]pp., 16.5cm; Longes mac n-Uislenn / Death of the sons of Usnech; vars. Deirdré, Deirdrè and Deidrè [sic]; Do. [rep.] (Lindemann Press 2010, 262pp.]; Do. [rep.] (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey 1992)
  • Blanid [A Poem] (Boston [Mass.]: Roberts Brothers 1879), 249pp. [8°; Aided Conrói maic Dáiri / Death of Curoi mac Daire].
Sheet songs
  • A Much Admired Song Call’d the Drian-naun Don (Dublin: P. Brereton [1865), 1 sh. [attrib. to RD Joyce].]
  • The Boys of Wexford (A song of ’Ninety-eight), written by Robert Dwyer Joyce, arranged with pianoforte accompaniments by J. J. Johnson (Dublin: Pigott & Co. [n.d.]), 5pp.
  • The Winning of Amarac: A Legend, the words taken from Blanid; set to music for reader, mezzo soprano, chorus of women’s voices, and orchestra by Arthur M. Curry ()NY: H. W. Gray [1913), [13]pp.
  • The Wind that Shakes the Barley (air: “Royal Charlie”), poem by Robert Dwyer Joyce, arranged by Herbert Hughes (London: Boosey 1922).
  • Fineen the Rover, music by Charles Wood; words by Robert Dwyer Joyce (London: Stainer & Bell [1912]) [Charles Wood 1866-1926]; Do., as Fineen the Rover: Unison song, music by Charles Villiers Stanford; words by Robert Dwyer Joyce (London: Deane 1924), 1 score (6pp.)

See also The Leaping Leprachaun: poem by Robert Dwyer Joyce (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 2001), ill. by Peter Rutherford [col. ill.]
Short fiction
  • Legends of the Wars in Ireland (Boston: James Campbell 1868), 352pp. [see contents].
  • Irish Fireside Tales (Boston: P. Donaghoe 1871), 376pp., 18cm.

Bibliographical details
Ballads of Irish Chivalry: Songs and Poems (Boston: P. Donahoe 1872), 427pp. [3 unnum. lvs. of pls. being ills by John O’Hea, Dublin, and engraving by P.X. Keating].

]; reprinted as Ballads of Irish Chivalry ([M. H. Gill; London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1908), x, 212pp. [notes by Patrick Weston Joyce] - also listed as Talbot Press, x, 212pp. [COPAC].

Legends of the Wars in Ireland (Boston: James Campbell 1868), 352pp. CONTENTS: A Batch of legends; The Master of Lisfinry; The Fair Maid of Killarney; An Eye for an Eye; The Rose of Drimnagh; The House of Lisbloom; The White Knight’s Present; The First and Last Lords of Fermoy; The Chase from the Hostel; The Whitethorn Tree; Rosaleen, or The White Lady of Barna; The Bridal Ring; The Little Battle of Bottle Hill.

 

Criticism
W. B. Yeats, ‘The Poetry of R. D. Joyce’, in Irish Fireside (27 Nov. & 4 Dec. 1886; rep. in Frayne, ed., Uncollected Prose of W B Yeats Vol. 1, 1970, pp.104-14); Mannix Joyce, ‘The Joyce Brothers of Glenosheen’, in Capuchin Annual (1969), [q.pp.]; David James O’Donoghue, ‘The Literature of ‘67’, in Shamrock, 30 (1893). D. J. O’Donoghue has a memoir of him in Irish Book Lover [q.d.]

See also James J. Walsh, Robert Dwyer Joyce, MD (NY [b. pub.] [1900]), 26pp.

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Quotations
“The Blacksmith of Limerick”: ‘... He shod the steed of Sarsfield, but o’er it sang no song, ‘Ochon! my boys are dead’, he cried; ‘their loss I’ll long deplore / But comfort’s in my heart - their graves are red with foreign gore.’ The ballad is set at the Siege of Limerick of 1691 in the Williamite War (1689-1691).


“The Blacksmith of Limerick”

He grasped his ponderous hammer, he could not stand it more,
To hear the bombshells bursting, and thundering battle’s roar;
He said, “The breach they’re mounting, the Dutchman’s murdering crew, -
I’ll try my hammer on their heads, and see what that can do!

“Now, swarthy Ned and Moran, make up that iron well;
’tis Sarsfield’s horse that wants the shoes, so mind not shot or shell.”
“Ah, sure,” cried both, “the horse can wait, for Sarsfield’s on the
wall,
And where you go, we’ll follow, with you to stand or fall!”

The blacksmith raised his hammer, and rushed into the street,
His’prentice boys behind him, the ruthless foe to meet;
High on the breach of Limerick, with dauntless hearts they stood,
Where bombshells burst, and shot fell thick, and redly ran the
blood.

“Now look you, brown-haired Moran, and mark you, swarthy Ned,
This day we’ll prove the thickness of many a Dutchman’s head!
Hurrah! upon their bloody path they’re mounting gallantly;
And now the first that tops the breach, leave him to this and me!”

The first that gained the rampart, he was a captain brave,-
A captain of the grenadiers, with blood-stained dirk and glaive;
He pointed, and he parried, but it was all in vain,
For fast through skull and helmet the hammer found his brain!

The next that topped the rampart, he was a colonel bold,
Bright, through the dust of battle, his helmet flashed with gold.
“Gold is no match for iron,” the doughty blacksmith said,
As with that ponderous hammer he cracked his foeman’s head.

“Hurrah for gallant Limerick!” black Ned and Moran cried,
As on the Dutchmen’s leaden heads their hammers well they plied.
A bombshell burst between them, - one fell without a groan,
One leaped into the lurid air and down the breach was thrown.

“Brave smith! brave smith!” cried Sarsfield, “beware the treacherous mine!
Brave smith! brave smith! fall backward, or surely death is thine!”
The smith sprang up the rampart, and leaped the blood-stained wall,
As high into the shuddering air went foemen, breach, and all!

Up, like a red volcano, they thundered wild and high,
Spear, gun, and shattered standard, and foemen through the sky;
And dark and bloody was the shower that round the blacksmith fell;
He thought upon his ’prentice boys, - they were avengéd well.

On foemen and defenders a silence gathered down;
’twas broken by a triumph-shout that shook the ancient town,
As out its heroes sallied, and bravely charged and slew,
And taught King William and his men what Irish hearts could do!

Down rushed the swarthy blacksmith unto the river side;
He hammered on the foe’s pontoon to sink it in the tide;
The timber it was tough and strong, it took no crack or strain;
“Mavrone! ’twon’t break,” the blacksmith roared; “I’ll try their
heads again!”

He rushed upon the flying ranks, his hammer ne’er was slack,
For in through blood and bone it crashed, through helmet and through jack;
He’s ta’en a Holland captain, beside the red pontoon,
And “Wait you here,’ he boldly cries; “I’ll send you back full soon!

“Dost see this gory hammer? It cracked some skulls to-day,
And yours ’twill crack if you don’t stand and list to what I say:
Here! take it to your curséd king, and tell him softly too,
’twould be acquainted with his skull if he were here, not you!’

The blacksmith sought his smithy, and blew his bellows strong;
He shod the steed of Sarsfield, but o’er it sang no song.
“Ochone! my boys are dead,” he cried; “their loss I’ll long deplore,
But comfort’s in my heart, - their graves are red with foreign gore!”

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed., Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes: Vol. V: Ireland (1876-79), available at Bartleby - online [accessed 02.12.2016]; also in Gill’s Irish Reciter: A Selection of Gems from Ireland’s Modern Literature, ed. J. J. O’Kelly [Seán Ó Ceallaigh] (Dublin: M. H. Gill 1905), pp.102-04 [available at Internet Archive - online;accessed 02.04.2024].

“Fineen the Rover”: ‘‘Fineen O’Driscoll the free ... The Saxons of Cork and Mayallo / They harried his lands with their powers ... The men of Clan London brought over / Their strong fleet to make him a slave; / They met him by Mizen’s wild highland, / And the sharks crunch their bones ‘neath the waves!’

“Crossing the Blackwater, AD 1603”: ‘We stood so steady, / All under fire / We stood so stead / Our long spears ready / To vent our ire: / To dash on the Saxon, / Our mortal foe / And lay him low / In thebloody mire ... Till the flight began ... Our dead freres we buried ...’

“The Wind that Shakes the Barley”: ‘I sat within the valley green, / I sat me with my true love ... the new [love] made me thin on Ireland dear / While soft the wind blew down the glade, / And shook the golden barley ... But blood for blood without remorse / I’ve ta’en at Oulart Hollow / I’ve placed my true love’s clay-cold corse / Where I full soon will follows; / And round her grave I wander drear, / noon, night, and morning early / With breaking heart where’er I hear / the wind that shakes the barley!’

[See John Mitchel, Jail Journal [1854;. 1913 ed. with Continuation], ed. Arthur Griffith (Dublin: M. H. Gill 1913) - speaks of Stonington, a Puritan town in America: ‘No creature is on the streets; nobody looks out of any window. They never issue out for a ramble or for a drive on Sunday evening; and I believe that if a piano were heard in one of those wooden houses rattling out “The Wind that Shakes the Barley,” or if there were a sound of dancing feet, the inhabitants would be in as great commotion as they were when[398] a British fleet opened its broadsides.’ (pp.397-98).]

“Naisi Receives his Sword” (from Deirdre): ‘No in the lonely hour when with her ray / The moon o’er te ocean trailed a shaimmering way ... A voice struck Naisi’s ear and bade him wake.’

“The Exploits of Curoi” (from Blanid): ‘There man a man’s dim closing eye was cast / In wonder at the strange Knight’s glittering form ... Mid showers of bolts and darts, like Crom the God / Of Thunder, towards the magic wheel he trod ... Raised high the spear that form his right hand sped / Down crashing through the monster’s burnished head ... Twin Dragons ... From the bright Mount of Monad ... No minstrel’s tongue ... could tell ... How ... amid the heaps of slain the old King fell ... the Bloom-bright One forlorn / And her fair maids were brought froth from the hold / With all the treasures of bright gems and gold.’

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References
The Green and the Red or Historical Tales and Legends of Ireland (Glasgow 1870), contains R. D. Joyce’s stories, ‘Galloping O’Hogans’, ‘Whitehorn Tree’, ‘Rose of Drinnagh’, ‘A Fair Maid of Killarney’ [IF2, under anon.].

Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), gives bio-data: br. of Patrick Weston; Legends of the Wars in Ireland (1868); Irish Fireside Tales (1871); lived in US as a doctor, works publ. in Boston; b. Limerick 1830, d. Dublin 1883. See also FDA3, 625.

Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. 2] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), Joyce, Robert Dwyer, Galloping O’Hogan, or the Rapparee Captains (Dublin, Gill, n.d.), apparently a reprinted of the four Joyce stories in the Glasgow collection.

John Cooke, ed., Dublin Book of Irish Verse 1728-1909 (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis 1909), gives bio-dates 1830-1883; selects ‘Finneen O’Driscoll the Rover’; ‘The Drynán Dhun’; ‘Margréad Bán’; ‘Song of the Forest’.

Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University of America 1904), gives six pieces, incl. extracts from Deirdre, and Blanid; biog. notice: b. Glenosheen [village], Co. Limerick; entered service of Commissioners of national Education, then became student at Queen’s College, Cork; grad. Sci., Hons; MD, 1865; emig. US 1866, settled in Boston, practised medicine; freq. contrib to The Nation, also articles on Irish literature in other periodicals; Ballads, Romances, and Songs (Dublin 1861); Legends of the Wars in Ireland (1868), prose stories founded on traditions of peasantry in northern counties; Irish Fireside Tales (1871), same sort; Ballads of Irish Chivalry (1872); Deirdre (1876), free poetical version in rhyming heroic verse [of Longes mac nUislenn]; Blanid (1879), also tragedy of real life in ancient days, period of Red Branch Knights, 1st century of the Christian era, and death of the champion Curoi, King of S. Munster, and his captive, ‘the bloom-bright Blanid’; notes resemblance to Tennyson’s Princess; d. Oct. 1883 [sic]; selects ‘The Blacksmith of Limerick’, ‘Crossing the Blackwater, AD 1603’, ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’, ‘Naisi Receives his Sword’, from Deirdre; ‘The Exploits of Curoi’, from Blanid, in terza rima [all as supra].

Ulster Libraries: Belfast Public Library holds Ballads of Irish Chivalry (1908); Blanid (1879. University of Ulster Library, Morris Collection, holds Ballads of Irish Chivalry (1908); Blanid (1879).

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Notes
Fr. Charles Meehan administered religious consolation to Robert Dwyer Joyce on his deathbed in the house of his brother P. W. Joyce, who speaks of his ‘intense love for of Ireland and Ireland’s lore / [...] as well as the ‘vigorous nationality [and] simple and transparent style’ of his poems.

W. B. Yeats: John Frayne writes: ‘In spite of writing on him at considerable length, Yeats did not rate Joyce highly, holding him to be a “bard”: ‘he was like a great orator, who only when he feels all hearts beat in unison with his, rises to his best, and becomes alone with the universe and his own voice. Therefore the bardic work ever human and living [...] the poet of all external things [...] in no way a singer.’ (Frayne, ed., Uncollected Prose of W. B. Yeats, 1970, Vol. 1, p.114). Note that Yeats did not include P. W. Joyce in his lists of essential Irish books.

Longer poems: Deirdre (1876) a free poetical translation of The Fate of the Children of Usna, and and Blanid (1879), set in the first era of the Red Branch Knights and dealing with the deaths of Curoi, champion and king of S. Munster, and his captive the ‘bloom-bright Blanid’. The poem bears some resemblance in its construction to Tennyson’s Princess: and the short lyrics interspersed contain, like those in the great work of the poet-laureate, beautiful fancies in exquisitely melodies verse. (See Cabinet of Irish Literature, Vol. 4; cited LibraryIreland, ed. T. P. O’Connor - online; accessed 21.11.2018.)

Kith & Kin: Robert Dwyer Joyce was a son of Garret and Elizabeth (née O’Dwyer) Joyce, living in the northern foothills of the Ballyhoura Mountains, west of Ballyorgan. His father claimed descent from one Seán Mór Seoighe (fl.1680), a stonemason from Connemara, Co. Galway. The four sons of their union were Patrick, Robert, Michael, and John. A plaque in Irish and English marks the house in Glenosheen where the family lived. (See Wikipedia - online.)

Robert Dwyer Joyce, ‘Anatomy of the Ear’, in Henry Macnaughton Jones, ed., The Practitioner’s Handbook of Diseases of the Ear, &c. (1902) - poss. a nephew and namesake. [See COPAC.]

Alice Dwyer-Joyce, The Price of Inheritance (London: Robert Hale 1963), 191pp.; Dr. Ross of Harton (London: Robert Hale 1966), 191pp. Dial Emergency for Dr. Ross (London: Hale 1969), 191pp.; The Silent Lady (London: Hale 1964), 189pp.; Verdicts on Dr. Ross (London: Hale 1968), 188pp.; Cry of the Soft Rain (London: Hale 1972); Lachlan’s Women (1979); House of the Jackdaws (London: Hale 1980); The Penny Box (London: Hale 1980); The Cornelian Stand (London: Hale 1982), 189pp.; The Swiftest Eagle (1997). [Hale with NY: Macmillan; num. titles rep. in Ulverscroft large print format.]

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