Patrick O’Kelly (1754-1837?)

Life

b. Co. Clare; schoolmaster Co. Galway; publ. Killarney, a Descriptive Poem; The Eudoxologist; The Aonian Kaleidoscope, and Hippocrene; also “The Curse of Doneraile”, a poem of 90 lines; he was appeased by Lady Doneraile with the presentation of a watch to replace the one lost. JMC

 

Works
  • Also [anon., ] An excellant [sic] new song lately composed, intituled, The Pearl of the Irish Nation: To its own proper tune (s;l. s.n.; ?1790), 1 sht. [author’s name is found in the cryptogram in the second column; another edn. printed in New London, Connecticut in 1788; available in Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1991; ESTC & Wing].
  • Killarney: A Descriptive Poem / by Pat. O’Kelly (Dublin: printed for the author by P. Hoey 1791), viii, 136pp., 8° [incls. O’Kelly’s poetical miscellanies’, with a list of subscribers; available on microfilm (Woodbridge, CT: Research Publications, Inc. 1986) [35 mm., 1 reel].
  • Poems on the Giant's Causeway, and Killarney: with other miscellanies / By P. O’Kelly (Dublin 1808), 8° [incls. “Killarney: An Epic Poem” [cp.49].
  • The Eudoxologist: or an ethicographical survey of the western parts of Ireland : A poem ... : to which are prefixed [ie.., affixed] the author’s poems on the Giant’s causeway, and Killarney with other miscellaneous compositions (Dublin 1812) [2 pts. in 1 vol.; 8°].
  • The Aonian Kaleidoscope; or, A Collection of Original Poems (Cork: for the author 1824), [6], 96, [2], 97-110pp. [20.5 cm.; incls. subscribers list with insert page for Waterford subscribers].
  • The Hippocrene: A Collection of Poems, by Patrick O’Kelly [...] (Dublin: T. & S. Courtney [printers ...] 1831), 160pp. [comprising pp.1-128, 105-120, 125-132], [8]p., ill. [1 plate, port.], 8°. [ded. to Henry William Paget, Marquis of Anglesea and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; incls. subscribers’ list.; front. port. “Allen’s Litho” [Fry’s Irish type on [B]4; var.type sizes].
  • History of Ireland, ancient and modern / taken from the most authentic records, by the Abbé Mac-Geoghegan [1702-1763; pub. in Paris 1758] (Dublin: Printed for the author of the translation by T. O’Flanagan 1831-32) [ subscription lists at the ends of cols 1 & 3].
  • Historica descriptio Hiberniæ, seu Majoris Scotiæ, Insulæ Sanctorum. Pars prima metrice potissimum exhibita agit de Hiberniæ insula ... ab universali diluvic ad ... annum M.D.CCIII. ... Hoc opus editum est de nova a P[ Patricio] O’Kelly (Dublinii 1838), 12°. [Another dn. 1844.]
Note: Full COPAC listings at 11.04.2010, inclusive of uncertain attributions by namesake[s].

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Commentary
Claire Connolly, ‘Irish Romanticism, 1800-1830’, in The Cambridge History of Irish Literature (Cambridge UP 2006), Vol. I, writes: ‘bardic practices survived in memory and in stories for authors such as Maria Edgeworth and Sydney Owenson, while poets like Patrick O’Kelly strove to keep the legacy alive [...]’ (p.408.) Connolly goes on to speak of Charlotte Brooke and Charles Henry Wilson, ‘who sought to give expression to a vanishing world by capturing the oral tradition in print.’ (Ibid., p.409.)

 

Quotations
“The Curse of Doneraile”: ‘Aalas! how dismal is my tale, / I lost my watch in Doneraile. / My Dublin watch, my chain and seal, / Pilfered at once in Doneraile / May Fire and Brimstone never fail / To fall in showers on Doneraile ... &c.,]. (Given in Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature, Washington 1904.)

An excellant new song [...] (1790): ‘Hard was my lot, for to be shot.’

 

Reference
Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington 1904); bio-data as supra; O’Kelly is here called absurdly vain, having printed poetical eulogies to himself - viz., ‘ ‘twould take a Byron and a Scott, I tell you, / Combined in one to make a Pat O’Kelly’.

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