John O’Neill

Life
1777-?1860, b. Waterford, shoemaker in Carrick on Suir, from whence he went to London; wrote drama, fiction and verse; his temperance poems such as “The Drunkard” (1840), were illustrated by George Cruikshank; issued a novel, Mary of Avonmore [q.d.]; also Blessings (1851), with a biographical memoir by L. Doxsley, and eight plays. PI IF DIW

 

References
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction (Dublin: Maunsel 1919): chequered life of poverty in London, several vols. of verse on Temperance, and a play called Alva; lists S. C. Hall, ed., Handrahan, the Irish Fairy Man (London 1854); Mary of Avonmore [q.d.] , or The Foundling of the Beach. Note, Mary of Avonmore is not accessible on the British Library or COPAC catalogues.

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