Life
1845-1894; b. Galway; commissioned in 5th Royal Lancashire Militia, 1867-81; living at Dundrum, 1863-87, moved to later at Clontarf; prop.-ed. Shamrock in which he launched Mick McQuaid (‘Mick McQuaid the Evangeliser’); also contrib. Irish Emerald, and Weekly Freeman; wrote prolifically for comic magazines, including notably his long-running ‘Mick McQuaid’ serial; unsuccessfully launched ‘Dan Donovan’ as alternative to ‘Mick’. IF DIB DIW MKA SUTH
Works
The Adventures of Mick McQuaid (Shamrock Office 1875); Darby the Dodger, comedy in 4 acts (Dublin 1877).
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References
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature, 1800-1875: A Guide to Information Sources (Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1978), cites D. J. O’Donoghue, ‘The Author of Mick McQuaid’, in Irish Book Lover, 3 (1911), pp.4-7, with addendum p.9.
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919) lists ‘some of the series [of Mick McQuaid] that appeared’, beginning in pages of Shamrock, 19 Jan., 1867, up to Mr McQuaid Removable, 1890; author himself tired of Mick McQuaid and tried to introduced Dan O’Donovan, Corney Cluskey, Japhet Screw, Sir Timothy Mulligan, and so on; series was worth circulation of 60,000; illustrations by Harry Furniss (his first).
John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Longmans 1988; rep. 1989), queries birth-date, ?1845-94; prop. and ed. the Shamrock, weekly; invented “Mick McQuaid” series, concerning a devious schemer, begun in 1867, and continued by other hands; rep. in 1d. serial format; his efforts to replace Mick with Dan Donovan and others caused fall in circulation. BL 1.
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