John Power

Works
The Irish Literary Inquirer, or Notes on Authors, Books and Printing in Ireland, Biographical and Bibliographical, Notices of Rare Books, Memorandum of Printing in Ireland, Biographical Notes of Irish Writers, &c., conducted by John Power, Nos. 1-4 (London 1865-66), 12pp. [8o.]; List of Irish Periodical Publications, chiefly literary, from 1729 to the present time, in Notes & Queries (March-April 1866); rep. with adds. & corrs. in Irish Literary Enquirer, No. 4 (1866) [250 copies; Handy Book about Books (London 1870), 8o., pp.xviii, 218, 18pp. [See Crone and Eager - resp. under Commentary and Notes - infra].

Criticism
J. S. Crone, “Our Forerunner” [lead article on John Power], in The Irish Book Lover, Vol. I, No. 1 (Aug. 1909) [infra].

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Commentary

J. S. Crone (1st editorial to The Irish Book Lover, 1909): ‘Our little venture in the field of Irish Bibliography cannot claim to be a Pioneer. That honour must be accorded to a small publication entitled “The Irish Literary Inquirer”, issued in London by John Power, “formerly of Belle-Vue, Youghal’’, as he states on his title-page. Of this only four numbers saw the light, and as it as now become a  “desideratum” among book-lovers, and as little or nothing is now known of its editor and main contributor, a few notes regarding it, and him, may prove interesting to our readers. Of Power himself, little save the dates of his birth and death (1820-1872), can be ascertained, as all his contemporaries have disappeared from he scene, and none of the usual bibliographical works even mention his name. Admiration for his work induced me many years ago to make some enquiries regarding him, which came to nought, and later when I took up the subject again, the difficulties had by no means lessened. The older officials of the Reading-Room of the British Museum remembered, and described him to me as “a tall, thin, gray man with a bad cough”. [...]’ (IBL, No. 1, 1909; quoted in Nicholas Allen, ‘Introduction’, The Irish Book Lover: A Source for Irish Studies, 1909-1957, Princess Grace Irish Library 2004), p.3; see full text of Crone, op. cit., 1909- as attached.)

James Coleman ( MRSAI), “From South to West”, in The Irish Book Lover [Vol. I, No. 2] (Sept. 1909): ‘[...] It may be of interest to note that I have the first copy ever printed of John Power’s “List of Irish Periodicals”, as testified by the following inscription in his rather shaky handwriting: “The Rev. Beaver H. Blacker, as a slight acknowledgement of the valuable assistance received from him both in additions and corrections to these pages, by his most gratefully, and very much obliged John Power, August 11th, 1866.” Note - This is the first copy printed.’

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Barbara Hayley, ‘Irish Periodicals’, in Anglo-Irish Studies, ii (1976) [pp.83-108], writes: ‘Over a hundred and fifty periodicals were launched in Ireland between the Act of Union and the Rising of 1848, less than a quarter of them lasted a year, although many were of a high literary standard’ (p.83) - citing John Power, List of Irish Periodical Publications (chiefly literary) from 1729 to the present time (London 1866), et al., in ftn. ref.)

Elizabeth Tilley, ‘Trading in Knowledge: The Irish Builder and Nineteenth-Century Journalism/Le commerce du savoir: The Irish Builder et le journalisme au dix-neuvième siècle’, in LISA [Litterature, histoire des idees, images et societe du monde Anglophone [e-jourtnal], III, 1 [Histoire des périodiques: Aspects of the Irish Book from the 17th Century to the Present Day] (2005), pp. 110-20: ‘[...] A great deal of our information about Irish periodicals comes from a slim volume on the subject by the nineteenth-century bibliographer John Power. On the first page of his monograph Power sets the tone for what comes after with the following (unattributed) quotation from 1840: “Never was there a more fragile history than that of Irish periodical literature: like that of our ancient monarchs, it comprises little more than a narrative of untimely deaths.” Another quotation, from an 1858 issue of the Irish Quarterly Review, is offered next: “It is melancholy to look back on the mass of brilliant but unsuccessful periodicals which rose and fell in Ireland like meteor lights.” And in case the message has not quite hit home, Power quotes from Thomas Moore’s Diary, at the point where Moore talks about the late eighteenth-century journal Anthologia Hibernica, noting that it ran for two years and then “died, as all such things die in that country, for want of money and - of talent; for the Irish never either fight or write well on their own soil” (Power, n.p.).  Barbara Hayley uses Power as her source for declaring that while “over a hundred and fifty periodicals were launched in Ireland between the Act of Union and the Rising of 1848, less than a quarter of them lasted a year, although many were of high literary standard”. The number of cheap or penny periodicals lasting more than a year is similarly small; even the highly regarded Dublin Penny Journal could not be sustained for more than four years, and its successors were equally short-lived. (Tilley, op. cit., para. 2;

Bibl.: Tilley cites Power, A List of Irish Periodical Publications (Chiefly Literary) from 1729 to the Present Time; reprinted from Notes and Queries, March and April, 1866, and The Irish Literary Enquirer, No. IV, with Additions and Corrections (London 1866); also  Barbara Hayley, ‘Irish Periodicals,’, in Anglo-Irish Studies, ii, 1976, p.83. (Available online; accessed 30.09.2023.)

References
James Coleman, MRSAI: ‘It may be of interest to note that I have the first copy ever printed of John Power's “List of Irish Periodicals”, as testified by the following inscription in his rather shaky handwriting: “The Rev. Beaver H. Blacker, as a slight acknowledgement of the valuable assistance received from him both in additions and corrections to these pages, by his most gratefully, and very much obliged John Power, August 11th, 1866.” Note—This is the first copy printed.’ (See Coleman, “Reviews”, in The Irish Book Lover , Vol. I, No. 2, Sept. 1909, note, p.19.)

C. E. Sayle, Catalogue of Henry Bradshaw Collection of Irish Books in the University Library, Cambridge (Cambridge UP 1916) cites Irish Literary Enquirer, … &c., Nos. 1-4 (London 1865-66) as an authority.

Alan Eager, A Guide to Irish Bibliographical Material ([Lon 1964] rev. edn. 1980), cites List of Irish Periodical Publications, chiefly literary, from 1729 to the Present Time (London 1866), 250 copies printed, which appeared first in Notes & Queries (March-April 1866) and later in Irish Literary Enquirer, No. 4 (1866), with additions and corrections.

Mary Helen Thuente, W. B. Yeats and Irish Folklore (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1980), incls. a brief reference to John Power, List of Periodicals [... &c.] (Thuente, p.52.)

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