D. J. O’Donoghue (1866-1917)

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Bibliographical details
‘Some Minor Irish Poets,’ in Shamrock (vols. 27-28; q.d.), incl. comments on Hercules Ellis, Nicholas J. Gannon, Charles Pelham Mulvany, Charles Doyne Sillery, John Macken, Michael John O’Sullivan, Thomas M . Hughes, George Darley, John Augustine Wade, Mary Balfour and Mary Benn, Edmund O’Rourke [Edmund Falconer], Mrs Mary Downing, Michael Joseph McCann, James McHenry, William Kennedy, Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, Mary Boddington and Jane Emily Herbert, Rev. Michael Tormey, Charles Philips, Frederick W. N. Bayley, Gerald H. Supple, Henry Boyd, Marguerite A. Power, George Nugent Reynolds, Felix McDonagh, John O’Neill, Richard Ryan, Louisa Stuart Costello, Eugenia Roche, Edward Quillanan, The Drennans, William Tighe, Thomas W. Kelly, Elizabeth Ryves.

The Humour of Ireland, selected by D. J. O’Donoghue (London & Newcastle-on-Trent: Walter Scott Publishing Co. [n.d.; 1894), 432pp., ill. Oliver Paque. [Series incl. French, German, Italian American, Dutch, Irish, Spanish & Russian Humour] CONTENTS: Introduction [xi; see attached]; “Exorcising The Demon of Voracity”, From the Irish [I]; “The Roman Earl”, from The Irish [7]; “The Fellow in the Goat”, Skin”, Folk Tale [9]; “Often”, Who”, Came and Seldom”, Who”, Came from the Irish [22]; “The Old Crow and the Young Crow”, from the Irish [23]; “Roger and the Grey Mare”, Folk”, Poem [23]; “Will O’ the Wisp: Folk”, Tale [25]; “Epigrams and Riddles”, from the Irish [32]; “Donald and his Neighbours”, Folk”, ale [34]; “The Woman of Three Cows”, From the Irish [39]; “In Praise of Digressions”, Jonathan Swift [41]; “A Rhapsody on Poetry”, Jonathan Swift [45]; “Letter from a Liar”, Sir Richard Steele [50]; “Epigrams”, John Winstanley [55]; “A Fine Lady”, George Farquhar [56]; “The Borrower”, George Farquhar [60]; “Widow Wadman’s Eye”, Laurence Sterne [67]; “Bumpers, Squire Jones”, Arthur Dawson [70]; “Jack Lofty”, Oliver Goldsmith [73]; “Beau Tibbs”, Oliver Goldsmith [84]; “The Friar of Orders Grey”, John O’Keeffe [93]; “The Tailor and the Undertaker”, John O’Keeffe [94]; “Tom Grog”, John O’Keeffe [97]; “Bulls”, Sir Boyle Roche [101]; “The Monks of the Screw”, J. P. Curran [102]; “Ana”, J. P. Curran [103]; “The Cruiskeen Lawn”, Anonymous [105]; “The Scandal-Mongers”, R. B. Sheridan [108]; “Captain Absolute’s Submission”, R. B. Sheridan [115]; “Ana”, R. B. Sheridan [124]; “My Ambition”, Edward Lysaght [126]; “A Warehouse for Wit”, George Canning [127]; “Conjugal Affection”, Thomas Cannings [130]; “Whisky, Drink Divine!”, Joseph O’Leary [130]; “To a Young Lady Blowing a Turf Fire with her]; “Petticoat”, Anonymous [132]; “Epigrams, &c.”, Henry Luttrell [133]; “Letter from Miss Betty Fudge”, Thomas Moore [134]; “Montmorenci and Cherubina”, E. S. Barrett [137]; “Modern Medievalism”, E. S. Barrell [141]; “The Night Before Larry was Stretched”, William Maher (?) [145]; “Darby Doyle’s Voyage To Quebec”, Thomas Ettingsall [148]; “St. Patrick of Ireland, my Dear!”, ,Dr. William Maginn [160]; “The Last Lamp of The Alley”, Dr. William Maginn [164]; “Thoughts and Maxims”, Dr. William Maginn [166]; “The Gathering of the Mahonys”, Dr. William Maginn [173]; “Daniel o’Rourke”, Dr. William Maginn [175]; “The Humours of Donnybrook Fair”, Charles O’Flaherty [184]; “The Night-Cap”, T. H. Porter [187]; “Kitty of Coleraine”, Anonymous [188]; “Giving Credit”, William Carleton [190]; “Brian O’Linn”, Anonymous [198]; “The Turkey and the Goose”, J. A. Wade [200]; “Widow Machree”, Samuel LIover [202]; “Barney O’Hea”, Samuel Lover [204]; “Molly Carew”, Samuel Lover [206]; “Handy Andy and the Postmaster”, Samuel Lover [209]; “The Little Weaver of Duleek Gate”, Samuel Lover [213]; “Bellewstown Hill”, Anonymous [228]; “The Peeler and the Goat”, Jeremiah O’Ryan [231]; “The Locquacious Barber”, Gerald Griffin [234]; “Nell Flaherty’s Drake”, Anonymous [239]; “Elegy on Himself”, F. S. Mahony (“Father Prout”) [242]; “Bob Mahon’s Story”, Charles Lever [243]; “The Widow Malone”, Charles Lever [253]; “The Girls of the West”, Charles Lever [255]; “The Man for Galway”, Charles Lever [256]; “How Con Cregan’s Father Left Himself a Bit of Land”, Charles Lever [257]; “Katey’s Letter”, Lady Dufferin [264]; “Dance Light, For My Heart It Lies Under Your Feet, Love”, Dr. J. F. Waller [266]; “Father Tom’s Wager with the Pope”, Sir Samuel Ferguson [267]; “The Ould Irish Jig”, James McKowen [271]; “Molly Muldoon”, Anonymous [273]; “The Quare Gander”, J. S. Lefanu [279]; “Table-Talk”, Dr. E. V. H. Kenealy [288]; “Advice To A Young Poet”, R. D. Williams [290]; “Saint Kevin and King O’Toole”, Thomas Shalvey [291]; “The Shaughraun”, Dion Boucicault [294]; “Rackrenters on the Stump”, T. D. Sullivan [298]; “Lanigan’s Ball”, Anonymous [306]; “The Widow’s Lament”, Anonymous [308]; “Whisky and Wather”, Anonymous [310]; “The Thrush and the Blackbird”, C. J. Kickham [314]; “Irish Astronomy”, C. G. Halpine [320]; “Paddy Fret, The Priest’s Boy”, J. F. O’Donnell [322]; “O’Shanahan Dhu”, J. J. Bourke [329]; “Shane Glas”, J. J. Bourke [332]; “An Irish Story-teller”, Patrick O’Leary [333]; “The Haunted Shebeen”, C. P. O’Conor [337]; “Fan Fitzgerl”, A. P. Graves [341]; “Father O’Flynn”, A. P. Graves [343]; “Philandering”, William Boyle [344]; “Honied Persuasion”, J. De Quincey [345]; “The First Lord Liftinant”, W. P. French [347]; “The American Wake”, F. A. Fahy [355]; “How to Become A Poet”, F. A. Fahy [358]; “The Donovans”, F. A. Fahy [368]; “Petticoats Down to my Knees”, F. A. Fahy [371]; “Musical Experiences and Impressions”, G. B. Shaw [373]; “From Portlaw to Paradise”, Edmund Downey [382]; “The Dance at Marley”, P. J. McCall [393]; “Fionn Maccumhail and the Princess”, P. J. McCall [397]; “Tatther Jack Welsh”, P. J. McCall [403]; “Their Last Race”, Frank Mathew [405]; “In Blarney”, P. J. Coleman [409]; “Bindin’ the Oats”, P. J. Coleman [411]; Selected Irish Proverbs, &c. [414]; Biographical Index [423]; NOTES [433]. (See Table of Contents & Introduction in RICORSO > Bibliography > Anthologies - as attached; and see also note on ‘a tear and a smile’ - infra.)

Index of publications available at Internet Archive with inks supplied by Clare County Library The Humour of Ireland, selected, with introduction, biographical index and notes by D. J. O’Donoghue Published in 1908, London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co.; New York: C. Scribner’s Sons Contributions: Oliver Paque (illustrator). Statement: by D.J. O’Donoghue: the illustrations by Oliver Paque. Series: Humour series Pagination: xx, 434pp. Available at Internet Archive C L A R E L I B

Geographical Distribution of Irish Ability (1906), End-papers advertise New Songs, a lyric selection made by George Russell [poems of P. McCormac Colm, Alice Milligan, etc.], front. by Jack B. Yeats, 3rd edn. O’Donoghue, Sir Walter Scott’s Tour in Ireland in 1825. C. Lehane, Ireland’s Burden under British Boards. John Mitchel, An apology for the British Govt. in Ireland, new ed., with new port. [Weekly Freeman, ‘scathing book ... in Mitchel’s best style’]. JG O’Keefe and Art O’Brien, Handbook of Irish Dancing, full guide with pract. instruction and an historical, critical and explan. account of Irish dances from the earliest times. Journal of the National Literary Society, contribs. Sigerson, Lord Castletown, J. C. Mangan [facsimile], Mrs Shorter, J. McCall, Jane Barlow, Dr M. F. Cox, Mary Hayden, Eugene O’Curry, D. J. O’Donoghue, Vol. 1. Douglas Hyde, Three sorrows of Story-telling, and The Songs of St Columba. O’Donoghue, The Humours of Ireland, profusely ill., over 400pp. E. R. McClintock Dix, Earliest Dublin Printing, lists of books printed in Dublin in the 17th c., notes by C. W. Dugan, pts. 1, 2, 3, 4. Richard Evans, Bedell’s Irish Bible and Archb. O’Donnell’s Irish Testament, brief historical sketches of both works, biogs., and notice of Bedell as Provost of TCD Gabriel O’Connell Redmond, An Account of the Anglo-Irish Family of Devereux of Balmagir, Co. Wexford. O’Donoghue, Life of W Carleton, incl. his remarkable unpublished autobiography, with ports. O’Donoghue, An Irish Musical Genius, Richard Pockrich, inventor of musical glasses. David Comyn, Irish Illustrations to Shakespeare, a ... learned brochure on Shakespeare’s allusions to Ireland and the Irish. Thomas Boyd, Poems [notices on two sides incl. Sinn Féin, ‘read and re-read’; O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland, biog. dict., with bibl. particulars, new and enl. ed., Parts 1 and 2; containing 1,200 biogs; when complete will contain 3,000 notices [Dublin Daily Express, ‘how one unaided mind, though armed with unflagging industry, and the most perfect health, and stimulated by the most fervent enthusiasm, should have executed this work, is amazing.’] Writing James Fintan Lalor, with intro. by John O’Leary, and a Memoir. Thomas MacDonagh, The Golden Joy, Poems; E. R. McClintock Dix, List of Books Printed wholly or partially in Irish from the Earliest Times to 1820.

Samuel Lover: Introduction & notes to Samuel Lover, Rory O’More [1837] (1897 edn.) [see note, infra]; critical introduction to Lover, Treasure Trove [1832], 1899 edn.; introduction to Lover, Legends and Stories of Ireland [1832], 1899 edn. (NY: Sadlier) [see IF, p.176]; also ‘Irish Popular Poetry’ in Longman’s Magazine, 5 (1885), 697-23, a descriptive account under various categories, domestic, supernatural, revolutionary, etc. [McKenna, Irish Lit., 1974, p. 64].

Thomas Davis, Essays, Literary and Historical, including several pieces never before collected ... ith preface, notes, &c., by D. J. O’Donoghue and an essay by John Mitchel [Centenary edn] (Dundalk, Ireland: W. Tempest/Dundalgan Press 1914), xxiii, 456pp. [3] l. of pls., 19 cm.

Sir Walter Scott’s tour in Ireland in 1825, now first fully described, by D. J. O’Donoghue Published: 1905, Gowans & Gray, limited; &c., &c. (Glasgow) Pagination: 96pp. Subject: Travel — Ireland. Ireland — Description and travel. Available at Internet Archive C L A R E L I B [ Copy held in Univ. of Harvard College Lib.]

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Commentary
W. P. Ryan, The Irish Literary Revival (1894), a members notebook records, 1886, January 17th; first appearance at the Club of the renowned D. J. O’Donoghue and brother [Griffin O’Donoghue]; so awe-stricken at the learned looks of the members, that they did not dare to venture inside.’ Mr O’Donoghue, though at first so retiring, was soon a force in Southwark [25]. Member of provisional committee attempting to launch an Irish library with Gavan Duffy - or without - along with Ryan, Thomas Boyd, Fahy, J. T. Kelly, et al. [34]. ‘Mr W. B. Yeats ... discussed various questions connected with the Irish Literary Society [and esp. re. New Irish Library, whether to publish reprints or original works] with Mr D. J. O’Donoghue in the congenial shadow of the British Museum. ... Yeats was decidedly of the opinion, too, that the work might be attempted upon a more ambitious scale.’ [36]. [Unspecified biographies by him to appear in New Irish Library, 70.] Further, of Dictionary of Irish Poets: ‘The work was, in truth, a history in effect of Anglo-Irish literature - literature not only of the book and the anthology, but of the magazine, the periodical and the newspaper. ... When the third part appeared in 1893, several thousand Irish poets had found the light again ... has indeed made marvellous use of his years ... master of self-study of half the languages and literatures of Europe ... anything but merely bookish ... thoroughly Irish and possessed of a strong sense of humour ... now and then he affects a delicate cynicism and is master of a happy art of characterisation.’ [103-05].

W. B. Yeats: relates how O’Donoghue was thrown out of a tombstone-maker’s house for slandering Thomas Moore’s name. (‘Ireland After Parnell’, in Autobiography, Macmillan 1950, p.140; quoted in John Frayne, Uncollected Prose, Vol. I, 1970, p.37.)

C. L. Falkiner, Papers relating to Ireland (1909):‘The dissent which Dr. Madden’s exaggerated apologetics tend to provoke even in those whose approval of the aims and ideals of the men of ’98 is cordially and unreserved appears plainly enough in Mr O’Donoghue’s attempt to give an unrhetorical account of the life of Robert Emmet.’ (p.40.)

“Sean Ghall”, [pseud.], ‘A Dictionary of Irish Biography’, in The Irish Book Lover (Feb. 1910), advocates compilation of an Irish national dictionary, a proper successor to Alfred Webb’s compendium (p.84). Note that the author calls on an editor such as D. J. O’Donoghue to organise the work on the same principle of commissioned authorship as the British DNB.

F. S. L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine (1971), calls O’Donoghue ‘that indefatiguable bibliographer’; part of a group of regular contributors to J. S. Crone’s Irish Booklover, and proposed the creation of an index with each volume [See Vol. II].

Russell Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798 (Penn. UP 1959), illustrates the poverty of eighteenth-century Irish verse in relation to the first five pages of O’Donoghue’s Poets of Ireland [1919] which lists anonymous Irish poems and books of poetry ‘all have been long forgotten - save by the curious’ out of sixty or more belonging to that century. (p.56.)

James Cahalan, Great Hatred, Little Room, The Irish Historical Novel (Syracuse UP/Gill & Macmillan 1983): D. J. O’Donoghue, Sir Walter Scott’s Tour of Ireland in 1825, Now First Fully Described (Dublin: O’Donoghue & Gill 1905), a slim volume complete with frontispiece of Scott kissing the Blarney Stone. O’Donoghue notes that ‘naturally, some of the great novelist’s views will hardly appeal to the majority of Irishmen, but they are worthy of consideration as coming from one who has a good friend of Ireland and the Irish people.’ Scott laments the ‘bigotry of the Catholic religion’, and observes the excitability of the Irish natives (‘they will murther you on slight suspicion, and find out next day that it was all a mistake, and that it was not yourself they meant to kill at all, at all’, 93). Scott betrays a bias in favour of the Scots-Irish of the North, whom he regards as ‘a very fine race’ (74). He notes the general difference, ‘It is rare to see the Catholic rise above the position he is born in. The Protestant part of the is as highly improved as many parts of England’ (74). He visits the field of the Boyne Battle, and comments on the tenacity of the Orange principal in Ireland. O’Donoghue draws largely on Scott’s biography Lockhart, but also uses Scott’s correspondence with Thomas Moore. O’Donoghue also documents the circumstance of Scott’s hearing the stories of the Irish outlaw Redmond O’Hanlon, and seeking material for a novel about him, but finding the information available too scanty; and William Carleton’s later attempt to make the legendary rapparee a character in a novel, ‘Carleton did eventually write a novel, called Count Redmond O’Hanlon, the Irish Rapparee, but it does not really treat of the historical personage of that name, the nero being a creature of his own imagination.’ (10-11). Further details of the background of Carleton’s novel - including the chapbook on the topic by J. Cosgrave called ‘The Lives and Actions of the Most Notorious Irish Highwayman &’ are given in Kiely, The Poor Scholar, p.178.

Rolf & Magda Loeber, with Anne Mullin Burnham, A Guide to Irish Fiction, 1650-1900 (Dublin: Four Courts Press 2006) - Introduction: ‘O’Donoghue believed that “an Irish writer publishing in London does not cater solely for his countrymen at home, who are necessarily more exacting in the manner of the right sort of national sentiment”.’ (Citing their own [as R. Loeber & M. Stouthamer-Loeber,] ‘Literary absentees: Irish women authors in nineteenth-century England' in The Irish novel in the nineteenth century, ed. Jacqueline Belanger, Dublin 2005, pp.167-86; p.183; here p.lxv.)

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Quotations
‘The Literature of ’67’, in Shamrock, 30 (1893); includes comments on John Campion, Thomas Caulfield Irwin, Robert Dwyer Joyce, John Francis O’Donnell, Charles Kickham, Fanny Parnell, George Sigerson, and John Walsh. McKenna (Irish Lit., 1974) quotes, ‘It is time to show that ‘48 has not been the only movement of the century which has been the parent of Irish literary production’ and that ‘Fenianism was the cause of a body of literature which is remarkably large and generally admirable.’ Other authors treated are Ellen Downing, Matthew Francis Hughes, and Ellen O’Leary.

‘Irish Wit and Humour’, in Irish Literature, gen. ed. Justin McCarthy, (Washington 1904), Vol. 6: ‘The deservedly great reputation of the Irish people for wit and humor is one of the things upon which there is universal agreement. This humor is no recent growth ... a naturally joyous turn; for sadness generally comes with civilization and knowledge ... Life suddenly became tragic for the bards and the jesters ... Sheridan is an admirable example of a wit, while Lover represents humor in its most confiding aspect ... Men like Lover (who has never been surpassed, perhaps, as a comic love-poet) usually confined their humor in that groove; others like Maginn, held religiously to the tradition that liquor is the chief attraction in life ... Few nations, it may finally be said, could have produced such a harvest of humor under such depressing and unfavorable influences as Ireland has experienced.’ (q.p.) Further: ‘not easily defined but easily recognizable there is so much bouyancy and movement in it, and usually so much expansion of heart’; ‘Irish humour, properly speaking, is, one may venture to say, more imaginative than any other.’ (p.viii; also printed as Introduction to The Humour of Ireland (1894), as infra.)

The Geographical Distribution of Irish Ability (Dublin: O’Donoghue/Gill; London: Simpkin, Marshal 1906), 333pp., with index and end paper adverts. incl. “O’Donoghue & Co, 15 Hume St.” Large biographical index, pp.200-333, gives general birth-place, title, dates, and reference pages. [For further advertisements, see file end.] Preface, [sel.] ‘Even Webb’s Compendium &c does not contain one-third of the men and women named in this book [v] ... I may say that the theory of heredity as a chief cause of genius does not strike me as worthy of much consideration. The vast number of clever people whose progeny are undistinguished, and the acknowledged fact that it accounts for only about forty per cent of the talent of, say, Great Britain and Ireland, seem to be factors destructive of that theory. Havelock Ellis [Study of British Genius - which O’Donoghue berates for inadequate summary of Irish ability].. regards the birth-place of a man as immaterial ... but the remarkable fertility of certain localities in genius is nevertheless a factor which has to be explained either by heredity or environment ... I certainly think that locality has some influence on the quality or direction of genius, and there I have given birthplace or place of immediate origin a preponderating share in the production of ability. [vi] [He remarks that Ellis’s source, ODNB, gives far less than proportionate space to Irish lives, instancing the omissions of Wallace and Field. vii-viii] Notes that Monaghan, with Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim, and Fermanagh are 0 in Ellis. D. J. O’D. gives 12pp. to Dublin, 13 to Cork, 5 to Slgo, 3 to Longford, 3 to Cavan, 2 to Fermangh, 5 to Waterford, 5 to Galway, and - exceptionally, I page only to Leitrim; 2 to Monaghan [128-130]. O’Donoghue quotes at length from the letter of a ‘very-well informed friend of mine’ who produced a table of his own for Irish counties based on proportion of genius to population, involving 1,165 names under respective counties; he averaged the decennial periods as give in Thom’s directory census reports, including the Famine period; expressing talent as a decimal factor of 10,000, he produced such results as these [listed fully by O’Donoghue, Dublin, 6.3; Waterford, 3.33; Limerick, 2.74; Cork, 2.44; of the remaining, Meath, Kilkenny, Queen’s Co., Antrim are in the 2.0-.3 range; Louth, Kildare, tipperary; Wicklow, Exford, Carlow, Westmeath; King’s Co., Galway; Donegal, Sligo, down, Roscommon, Tyrone; Fermanagh; Clare, Kerry [1.073] and Longford are 1.-1.93; Monaghan [0.85] Leitrim, Mayo, Cavan, Armagh [0.75] are below 1 per 10,000. By province, Leinster, 3.18; Munster, 2.13; Ulster; 1.32; Connaught, 1.17. [viii-xi] [Cont.]

The Geographical Distribution of Irish Ability (1906) - Cont.: ON THE IRISH CHARACTER, ‘It is quite clear that the Anglo-Norman strain is a quite remarkable one ... the Norman-Irish blend is also most distinguished. However, I have no doubt that Irish blood predominates. It is to be observed that the Anglo-Irish strain is most notable when the junction occurred in Ireland. ... Mrs Oliphant coolly claimd Sheridan as an English cognomen ... the unmixed Saxon is marked by ‘mental mediocrity’ [quoting Ellis, p. 43]; the bright little isle has more than justified its existence. It might be specially notd that political reform everywhere owes much to its success in Ireland.’ [xiii.] ‘Criminals are generally the first born. ... children born of young parents (under 26) or elderly (over 41) are mostly abnormal - that is to say, very able, or very good, or the exact reverse. Late parentage is most favourable for the production of genius. The mothers of exceptionally clever people are rarely, if ever, young - they are generally nearer forty than thirty.’ [xiii-iv] ‘Genius is essentially sane’ ... often associated with TB ... gout; stammerers incl. Curran, William Maginn; Robert Boyle, R. L. Shiel; J. W. Croker, and George Darley ... connected with rapid brain growth; smaller people incl. tom Moore, Sam Lover, Lady Morgan, Crofton Croker, all quite diminutive; Tom Moore said that Irishmen neither fight well nor write well on their own soil [xvi] Mr Ellis’s final word on the comparative results is that Scotland has produced more than her fair share of ability in proportion to her population. Wales less, and Irland stiff less. ... Gaelic Ireland, of whose civilization some faint idea has been given in these pages, is naturally unknown to the modern student of scientific biography. in any case, comparative merits, as between different countries, are of little value. The important point is tht a nation should live its own life, and preserve its own individuality at whatever cost. [end; P.S.] (Cont.)

The Geographical Distribution of Irish Ability (1906) - cont.: Survey by counties, - e.g., Co. MONAGHAN. Prof. J. B. Bury and Sir Charles Gavan Duffy. Poets, Mrs Ellen Forrester; her son Arthur S Forrester. Rev A Murray, distinguished Cath theologian and essayist;. James Tighe, friend of Mangan, did good service as temperance poet. John Hand. Dr TCS Corr, patriot Irish physician, wrote a book on Ireland; Rev. Canon Robinson, grammar and works connected with Hausa language; Prof. Thomas W. Dougan, QUB; Bishop JR Darley, classical scholar; Rev. John anketell, prob. Monaghan, 18th c. poet and divine; Rev Archibald Maclaine, divine; Rev Anketell M. Henderson, notable Wesleyan of Australia; James Maclaine, brother of the former, was one of the most notorious highwaymen of that day; Richard Poekrich [Pockeridge]; Rev. William Maxwell, friend of Dr Johnson; Arthur Moore, 18th c. statesman; Lord Blayney, soldier; Admiral Sir George D. Morant, navy; Sir William Whitla and L-Col. William temple, VC, medicine; Henry Macmanus, pop. painter and teacher; Francis A Tarleton, mathematician; Cath. divines are Most Rev Patrick N. Lynch, Bish. of Charleston, US, Heber MacMahon, 17th c. bishop; Hugh Oge MacMahon, rebel. Endpaper ads. include The Humours of Ireland, profusely ill., over 400pp.; Prose Writings of Mangan, now first collected, and edited by DJ O’Donoghue, with an essay by Lionel Johnson, and a new port., nearly 400pp. ; O’Donoghue, Sir Walter Scott’s Tour In Ireland in 1825 [n.d.]; D. J. O’Donoghue, contrib. to Journal of the National Literary Society; O’Donoghue, Life of W Carleton, incl. his remarkable unpublished autobiography, with ports. O’Donoghue, An Irish Musical Genius, Richard Pockrich, inventor of musical glasses; O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland, biog. dict., with bibl. particulars, new and enl. ed., Parts 1 and 2; containing 1,200 biogs; when complete will contain 3,000 notices [Dublin Daily Express, ‘ho one unaided mind, though armed with unflagging industry, and the most perfect health, and stimulated by the most fervent enthusiasm, should have executed this work, is amazing.’]

J. M. Synge, The Playboy (Freeman’s Journal, Mon., 4 Feb. 1907): ‘As presented at first, I regarded it as a seriously meant contribution to the drama. It now appears as an extravaganza, and is played as such. And yet it lacks the essentials of an extravaganza. The continuous ferocity of the language; the consistent shamelessness of all the characters (without exception), and the persistent allusions to sacred things make the play even more inexcusable as an extravaganza than as a serious play. I prefer to regard it in the latter sense, in justice to Mr Synge’s undoubted power as a writer. As a serious play it offends many people; as an extravaganza, it is made peculiarly vile by the many serious allusions to things which Catholic and Protestant hold sacred. (Quoted in Thomas Kilroy, The ‘Playboy’ Riots, p.76; and cited in Weldon Thorton, JM Synge and the Western Mind, 1979, p.136.)

Poets of Ireland: A Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of Irish Writers (1912) - Preface

The very imperfect work issued by me under the same title twenty years ago, although brought out under many disadvantages, met with such success that from the first I was encouraged to contemplate an improved edition in a form more worthy of its subject. Originally published in parts, and from the author’s private residence, never: advertised or pushed in any way, conceived and carried through in London, away from the most fruitful sources of information, nevertheless, not only did the original parts go quickly out of print, but for some years hardly a week passed which did not bring its batch of interesting and suggestive correspondence from well-wishers and subscribers in the United Kingdom, America, and Australia con- cerning the book. It was warmly praised by the Press, which recognised its utility to all interested in Irish literary effort, and appreciated what it not unfairly described as the enthusiasm of the author. But, if the work was received far more generously than I had expected, still, I, at least, never failed to observe its many defects and shortcomings. The information was too loosely strung together, it was often too vague and general, and occasionally the bibliographies lacked directness and method. I realised the want of a book of the kind on a more comprehensive plan. No sooner was the original publication issued than I commenced to glean additional information from all available sources, and I continued that unwearying research which had become such a hobby with me that no occasion for increasing my rapidly accumulating material was allowed to slip. From friendly correspondents in three Continents I gained many valuable items of information. To such an extent did the work grow, that the edition which I am nov, by the enterprise of a Dublin publisher, enabled to offer to the public, may almost claim to be an entirely new book. Twenty years ago Irish biographical literature was in a rather bad way. There was no publication in existence to which one could confidently turn for information about an Irish writer. Alfred Webb’s Compendium of Irish Biography was excellent as far as it went, but it was too restricted in scope to include many names which never- theless have their interest to students of literature. There was no Who’s Who. The Dictionary of National Biography had not long been launched, and such biographical works as were available were edited and managed by people to whom Ireland and its literary achievements meant nothing. With this general ignorance and indifference to Irish writers, it is not surprising that the most absurd mistakes were made every day by editors of anthologies, and writers of literary matter for the press, and naturally the field of selection from Irish poets was narrowed down to a very small space. It was not the least of its merits, if I may say so, that the original issue of this work cleared up innumerable mysteries of authorship, and gave the right author the credit (or other- wise) of his literary effort. A close and persistent following of clues in Irish literary journals, a patient tracking of the nom-de-guerre to its true owner, afforded for the first time a true insight into the nature and extent of a particular author’s activity. I spared no pains in attempt- ing to unravel any doubtful ma,tter, and the elucidation of the smallest point often entailed real and prolonged trouble. I have been asked why I did not enlarge the scope of the work — why I restricted it to poetical writers, and even of these only the Anglo-Irish. To which I may reply, that to record one section of Irish authors has proved sufficiently onerous. It has necessitated constant research for many years, and has not precluded anybody, with the necessary qualifications, from doing a similar work for, say, the Gaelic poets. An old friend of mine and an excellent Gaelic scholar — under whom I studied Irish when I was thirteen years of age — told me my title was a misnomer, and reproached me for incompleteness, and forgetfulness of the ancient time when “a third of the men of Erin” were poets. The criticism was sufficiently alarming to decide me to keep to my original plan, which was in itself likely to be fairly comprehensive. Has not Dion Boucicault told us that every Irishman carries a harp in his breast? So I confined myself to the Irish men and women who used the English language, and found the record of achievement no small one. At first I was disposed to deal only with those who had published volumes, but I soon saw that this would exclude many notable Irish singers who had never taken the trouble to collect their verses, and I never expected to see their insouciant countrymen do it for them. Therefore all those poets who had found an anthology wide enough to take them in, under whatever pretext, were eligible to some extent, while the search through scores of Irish newspapers and magazines for biographical and bibliographical information, revealed some hundreds of writers who were quite well worth recording and who in any country but Ireland would have been corralled long ago by some conscientious editor within the bounds of an anthology. And if the reader thinks I have not been critical, I would remind him that not every contributor to a “Poet’s Corner” could be admitted. Only those fugitive writers who had a genuine poetical gift came within my survey. As the proportion of people who write verse in Ireland is enormously greater than an Englishman would believe, considerable discrimination has been necessarily observed. But I am confident that one will never look for an Irish writer of real talent, even though he may have written only one pleasant song, and fail to find him. I have, of course, never refused admission to the author of a volume, if only for bibliographical reasons. To shut out those who had been so indifierent to their fame as to let their verses remain buried in forgotten or inaccessible periodicals would have been to exclude Michael Doheny, Joseph Brenan, John Walsh, Charles Kickham, Charles Gavan Duffy, and a host of others whose names speak eloquently to many an Irish reader who has kept the files or treasured cuttings of verse from his favourite periodical. One of the first things I did was to make an exhaustive index of the poems which appeared in the immortal Nation newspaper over a long period, and all its contributors who seemed to me to have any claim had that claim allowed. Generally speaking, I did not press into service those who were only partly or remotely of Irish blood, though Mrs. Hemans, Edgar Allan Poe, the Brontes, and many others, had strong claims. At the same time, English writers who made their homes in Ireland and identi- fied themselves with it have been considered admissible. It only remains for me to thank the many friends who very kindly helped me with information within their special reach. To the late Joseph Glynn, of the Downs, Mullingar; the late John McCall, of Dublin; the late John Tarpey Kelly, the late Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, snd the late John O’Leary, I am deeply indebted for much of the matter [iv] contained in the earlier work, Dr. John S. Crone, editor of the invaluable Irish Book-Lover, Francis J. Bigger, editor of The Ulster Journal of Archaeology; and the Eev. M. P. Hickey, P. J. MeCall, W. J. Lawrence, Eev. Matthew Eussell, S.J. (from the rich stores of whose Irish Monthly I have drawn very largely); B. E. McC. Dix, J. De L. Smyth (all of Dublin); Daniel Crilly, F. A. Fahy, and Frank McDonagh, of London; A. A. Campbell, J. J. Marshall, David Ken- nedy, and the Rev. W. T. Latimer, of the Northern, and James Cole- man and the late C. G. Doran, of the Southern Province. Mr. Francis Nugent, of Pebody, Mass., U.S.A., deserves special thanks for his invaluable help in tracing the Irish-American poets. To all these, and to the many poets, living and dead, who kindly gave me particulars about their own work, I have privately expressed my acknowledgments.

D. J. O’DONOGHUE.

[ See Poets of Ireland at Internet Archive [online] or download an unedited copy in Word - attached. ]

RICORSO acknowledges an immense debt to David James O’Donoghue’s Poets of Ireland (1912) considered as a founding document of modern Irish bio-bibliography - much of which is copied to this electronic dataset. The above copy has been slightly re-paragraphed for screen viewing. [BS]

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