• Adelaide; or, The Emigrants (Dublin: Coyne 1814), 8°; Do., as. Adelaide: A Tragedy, in five acts, performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent Garden [2nd edn.] (London: London : Printed for Henry Colburn, 1816), 72pp., 8°.
• The Apostate: A Tragedy, in five acts; as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden (London: J. Murray 1817), x, 83, [2]pp.; 21cm. [Copies at Cambridge UL, Edinburgh UL, V&A Libraries, et al.]; Do. [3rd edn.] (1817), and Do. [5th edn.] (London 1818), 8°.
• Bellamira; or, The Fall of Tunis. A Tragedy, in five acts; as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden (London: J. Murray 1818), xii, 76pp.;, and Do. [2nd & 3rd edns.] (London: John Murray 1818), pp. xii, 76 [78], 8°. [ 21cm.].
• Evadne; or, The Statue: A Tragedy in five acts (London: John Murray 1819), iii, 62, 8°/21cm. [‘The plot of this piece is borrowed ... from The Traytor, a tragedy by Shirley’]; Do. [2nd & 3rd edns.] (London: John Murray [printed by W. Clowes 1819), vi, 86pp.; [‘The author has employed a part of the fable of Shirley’s Traytor in the construction of his plot’, Pref.] [see note]; Do., as. Evadne, or, The Statue: a tragedy, by R. Sheil; with prefatory remarks [Oxberry’s Edition] (London: Published for the Proprietors by W. Simpkin, and R. Marshall, 1821), iii, 62, iipp., ill. [port.], 18cm. [see note]; Do. [5th edn.] (London 1819), 21cm.; Do. [another edn.] The British drama (London: John Dicks 1870).
• with John Banim, Damon and Pythias (London: John Warren, Old Bond-street 1821), viii, 70pp., [verse]; 8°/22cm. [‘This tragedy underwent a most considerable change in Mr. Sheil’s hands, after having been originally written.’ - prelim. page.; but see Carleton’s remarks, infra].

• Thomas Mac Nevin, ed., The Speeches of the Rt. Hon. R. L. Sheil M.P (Dublin: Duffy 1845); Do. [2nd Edn.] (Dublin: James Duffy 1867), xliv, 471pp. [19cm.]. Do. [another edn.] The Speeches of the Right Honorable Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P : with a Memoir, &c., ed. by Thomas MacNevin (London: H. G. Bohn 1847), 2pp. l., [ix]-lxli, 378pp [23cm.];

American edition (R. S. Mackenzie)

• Sketches of the Irish Bar, by the Right Hon. Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P., with memoir and notes by R. Shelton Mackenzie, 2 vols. (NY: J. S. Redfield, 110 and 112 Nassau St. 1854), Vol. I: 388pp.; Vol. II: 380pp.; ill. [1 port. facs. of pen-sketched by S. Catterson Smith of Dublin; 20cm. [available at Internet Archive - online].
• Sketches of the Irish Bar, by R. L. Sheil, [w]ith memoir and notes by R. Shelton Mackenzie, 2 vols. (NY: W. J. Widdleton 1854), 8º [COPAC; BL].
• Sketches of the Irish Bar, by the Right Hon. Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P., with memoir and notes by R. Shelton Mackenzie, 2 vols. in 1 (NY: P. J. Kenedy, Excelsior Catholic Publ. House, 5 Barclay Street DCCCLXXXII [sic, i.e., 1882]), 380pp. [Memoir of Sheil, pp [5]-16; Author’s Introduction pp [17]-18; Sketches of the Bar, p 19ff., Index pp 367-80; 4pp publ list; manufacturer [i e , printed] by Donogue & Henneberry, Chicago]. Contents: Memoir of Mr Sheil [5]; Author’s Introduction [17] (Available at Internet Archive online.)
• Sketches of the Irish Bar, by the Rt. Hon. Richard Lalor Sheil, M.P., with a memoir and notes by R. Shelton Mackenzie [2 vols. in 1] (Chicago St. Louis: Belford, Clarke & Co. 1882), 380pp.; index, 367ff.; ‘printed and bound by Donohue & Henneberry, Chicago’ (t.p. verso) [COPAC; East Anglia UL; copy at Boston College available at Hathi Trust - online].

English Edition (M. W. Marmion)

• Sketches, Legal and Political, by the late Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil, ed. with notes by Marmion W. Savage, 2 vols. (London: Published for Henry Colburn by his successors, Hurst & Blackett, 1855), Vol. I: viii, 411pp. [available at Internet Archive - online; see details].

• Bellamira; or, The Fall of Tunis (London: John Murray, 1817), [vi], 82, 74, [vi], 78, [2], viii, 56, xii, 76, [2], vi, [4], 78, vi, 67, [iv], 69pp. [22cm.] - printed with R. C. Maturin’s Bertram, or, The Castle of St. Aldobrand and other works by C. E. Walker [Wallace], Horace Twiss, John Howard Payne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Hart Milman, Henry Summersett.
• Three Tragedies (London: [John Murray] 1818), 82, xii, 76, x, 83pp. [23cm.] [Bertram by R. C. Maturin; Bellamira & The Apostate by Sheil - each with separate, original, title page].
• Bellamira; or, The Fall of Tunis (London: Printed for J. Dodsley [1781]), vi, 88, 67, [iv], 72, xii, 76, viii, [1], 84, [2]pp. [21cm.], with works by Thomas Morton, Philip Massinger, Charles Robert Maturin [Bertram ,, &c.], and Horace Walpole [The Mysterious Mother].

See also Report of the Select Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Laws Affecting Dramatic Literature 1832 [rep. edn.] (Shannon: IUP 1968)

• A Full Account of the Proceedings: with a correct report of the speeches delivered by Mr. O’Connell, Mr. Sheil, &c. at the general meetings of His Majesty’s Catholic subjects, held at the Free Mason’s Tavern, Great Queen Street, on Saturday the 26th February, 1825. [2nd edn.](London: Ambrose Cuddon [1825]) [23cm.].
• Report of the Proceedings of Three Public Meetings, which were held in the City of Cork; containing, the speeches of Mr. O’Connell, Mr. Sheil, and Mr. Bric, and of the Rev. Mr. Falvey, and Mr. England, in opposition to the general use of the Scriptures; together with arguments which were advanced in defence of the same ... Published, with notes, by order of the Cork Discussion Committee (Dublin: Richard Moore Tims 1825), vi, 136pp.
• The Speech of Mr. Sheil, as it was intended to have been delivered at the County of Kent Meeting ... 24th of October, 1828 (London [1828]), 8pp. [8°].
• A Collection of Speeches spoken by Daniel O’Connell, Esq. and Richard Sheil, Esq. on subjects connected with the Catholic question (Dublin: John Cumming, 1828), iv, 508pp. [20cm].
• Mr. Sheil’s speech upon the Irish Church in the House of Commons, on the 23d July, 1835 (London: Henry Hooper 1835), 20pp.
• The Speech of Richard L. Sheil: delivered on behalf of John O’Connell in the court of Queen’s bench, Dublin on saturday January 27th 1844. (London: Chapman & Elcoate [1844]), 15pp. [27cm.; available at JSTOR - 19th c. British Pamphlets, 2009.
• Reports from Commissioners and others on the constitution and management of the Royal Mint and on international weights measures and coinage, 1845-64 [British parliamentary papers - 2. Monetary policy Currency] (ondon: HMSO 1845-64), 3-438pp., ill. [fold. pl., 1 plan; 35cm.], and Do. [facs. rep. (Shannon: IUP 1969), [orig. pag.; quarter leather].
• Marriage Law Amendment Bill. The speeches of the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Justice Campbell [25 Feb. 1851] and of the Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil ... Reprinted from Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates for the year 1851 (London: Vacher & Sons 1858), 16pp. [8°]

• An Irregular Ode for the Drawing-Room ... Written at the command of his Ex[cellenc]y, by Richard Sh[ei]l, Esq. ... (s.n.; n.d.); 3pp.3., 4°.
• Henry Rowley Bishop, The vocal music sung in the new tragedy call’d The apostate : at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, composed & arranged for the organ or piano forte by Henry R Bishop; the poetry by Rich[ar]d Sheil (London: Printed by Goulding, D’Almaine Potter & Co ... & to be had at ... Dublin, [1817]), 1 vocal score, 7, [1]pp. [34cm.]

• Sketches, Legal and Political [1855], ed., with notes by M. W. Savage, rep. in Political and cultural analyses of Ireland, ed. & intro. by Michael Hurst [Ireland observed, 6 vols. (Bristol: Thoemmes 2002), [2700pp.] - with others, as listed under Select Annal Bibliography, infra.

Sketches, Legal and Political, by the late Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil, ed. with notes by Marmion W. Savage [ed.], 2 vols. (London: Published for Henry Colburn by his successors, Hurst & Blackett, 1855), Vol. I: viii, 411pp. [12pp. publisher’s list]. CONTENTS: The First Volume: Legal Sketches [sect.]: Mr. Bushe [3]; Mr. Saurin [41]; Mr. Joy [65]; Lord Norbury [85]; The Catholic Bar [1[19]; Mr. Bellew [143]; Mr. O’Loghlen [157]; Mr. Leslie Foster and the Louth Election of 1826 [167]; Mr. Leslie Foster, as a Barrister, Scholar, and Commissioner of Education  [183]; Calamities of the Bar [197]; Diary of a Barrister [229]; Burning of the Sheas [253]; Farewell of Lord Manners [275]; The Murder of Holycross [287]; Observations on Agrarian Crime [317]; Notes upon Circuit. [329]; Political Sketches.]; State of Parties in Dublin [365]; State of Parties in Dublin [393]. (Available at Internet Archive - online.)

Preface by the Editor: ‘These volumes consist of the principal contributions of the late Mr. SHEIL to the New Monthly Magazine at a period when that periodical, edited by THOMAS CAMPBELL, was particularly distinguished by the interest and brilliancy of its articles. The Sketches of the Celebrities of the Irish Bar attracted much attention at the time, and were admired, wherever they were read, as well for their fidelity as portraitures, as for the spirit and elegance with which they were written. / The intrinsic merit of the Papers would have been sufficient of itself to justify the republication of a careful selection from them; but the press of New York having recently issued a promiscuous collection of them, the proprietor of the copyright felt that it was a matter of duty not only to himself, but to the Authors of the Papers, to present them to the public in a correct and authentic form. [...]’

W. T .McCullagh, Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. R. L Sheil, 2 vols. (London: H. Colburn 1855); also memoirs by T. MacNevin, R. S. MacKenzie and M[armion] W. Savage, in editions of his works and speeches; Irish Book Lover vols. 3, 13.

See also Connolly, ‘Irish Romanticism, 1800-1839’, in Cambridge History of Irish Literature (Cambridge UP 2006), Vol. I [Chap. 10:] ‘Irish Drama on the London Stage’ [see extract].

[...] Sheil was asked, soon after being called to the Bar, to prepare a petition for the Catholic of Ireland. [The petition makes the statement, that “the constitutionally favoured form of government is not Protestantism, as opposed the Roman Catholic Religion, but the Episcopalian Church of England, as contradistinguished to every other religious description.” This surely will be felt by every one who knows Knox and Sheil to belong most probably to the former. As a fact, the proposition has not the shadow of evidence to support it. [135]

But Sheil was not alone an active member of those political meetings at this time, but a successful writer for the stge. Before being called to the Bar he completed the paly of Adelaide, the fable of which is founded on the distresses of the French who fled from the storms of the Revolution, and embodies much of what he witnessed in Kensington school. What leads a young poet to write it would be in vain to enquire: what leads him to select a particular form of composition is a question of easier solution. Sheil wanted money for all his purposes, for he could not live without it. it was not given reluctantly or churlishly by his relations, but to any one except his father Sheil had no wish to be indebted, and his fatehr could not now supply him. A large sum wa required for his call to the Bar, and a successful draa would give him the best chance of getting it. Miss O'Neil was in the height of her Dublin popularity. She had not yet appeared on the English stage. She acted as the principal character, and the success of his play was at once decided. Sheil soon after married. His wife had not fortune, but was connected with the Irish Master of the Rolls, through whose interest the young barrister formed some expectation of professional advantages. These expectations were disappointed.

There was little doubt that with anything of diligent attendance at the four courts Sheil would have succeeded at the Bar; but the theatrical passion was strong, and he preferred the brilliant but temporary triumphs of the stage. he wrote sone half-dozen dramas with various success, got a good deal of money from the theatres, and sold the copyright to booksellers. Mr M'Cullagh quores some pleasing pasages from them, but for dead plays there is no second life. During this period were also written “Sketches Legal and Political,” - as contributions of his to the New Monthly Magazine, when under Campbell’s management, have been called in Mr. Savage’s late reprint of them. These are, we think, far superior in every way to the dramas, and are papers, many of them, of very great interest. They have a fault and the merit of being party sketches of Irish politics by a very violent partisan. They are more amusing, and not quite so true, as a novel, for novels affect probability; and Sheil in his sketches exaggerates everything, till it no longer resembles real life. His Catholic bishops are not actual saints; the exaggeration is not on the side of ascribing to any men unusual excellence; but the Protestant divines are very devils. His mind is absolutely poisoned by the exclusion of the Catholics from equal civil rights with the rest of the community. To remove evils of this kind, and give fair play to such minds as Sheil’s, is not the least, perhaps is the greatest, benefit of the repeal of the old penal laws. (pp.134-35.)

[...] After the general election of 1826, the Duke of York’s health was proposed at some public dinner. Sheil had to speak in the course of the evening, and he declaimed vehemently against the Duke, ascribing his declaration, or rather oath, against the Catholics to insanity. Sheil’s speech could scarcely be accounted for on any other supposition than that of having been delivered under some strange influence - probably of wine - so little meaning was there in any part of it. This speech, however, and his statement at some meeting of the Association that he had written articles in the French journals, no doubted aided in determining the Government to prosecute him for an address in the Association in which he gave from Wolfe Tone’s memoirs an account of Tone’s negotiating with France for the invasion of Ireland. Reading the speech now, we do not think a conviction could have been possible. The prosecution, however, was fortunately interrupted, for before a trial was had Mr. Canning became Premier. At a meeting of the Cabinet, Canbning read the speech aloud, desiring to be stopped at any passage for which, if delivered by a member of the House of Commons, he could be called to order. There was no such passage in the speech, and the prosecution was discontinued.

Emancipation is at last passed, and we are at the third period of Sheil’s life. It presents nothing which is not creditable to him, but the interest in the story flags. In Mr. M'Cullagh’s book will be found be found most of his parliamentary speeches. If we have any fault to find with this book, it is that it gives us too little of his private life. Sheil himself we would like better is he was less of an advocate. Mere advocacy does well enough when the measures are originated or even adopted in thorough earnest by the person affirming or defending them. Sheil once attached to a party, seemed as if he ceased to think for himself at all. “Keep in the Whigs - keep out the Tories - that is politics,” was his whole political creed. ]

Of Mr. Sheil’s “Sketches” of Irish barristers, the best is an account of Bushe, Chief-Justice of Ireland. A more interesting account of Bushe is, however, given in the last and best book upon our list - Curran’s “Sketches of the Irish Bar”. These, like Sheil’s, were originally printed in the New Monthly Magazine, and are not reprinted with some additional matter not hitherto published, of which that likely to give most pleasure in ireland, is a very beautifully written memoir of the late Chief baron Woulfe [whom Curran visited in Kilkenny in 1836]. (p.137.)

The dock of an Irish county-court is quite a study. From the character of the crimes to be tried, as appearing on the calendar, I expected to find there a collection of the most villanous faces in the community : it was the very reverse. I would even say that, as a general rule, the weightier the charge, the better the physiognomy, and more prepossessing the appearance of the accused. An ignoble misdemeanant, or sneaking petty-larcenist, may look his offence pretty accurately ; but let the charge amount to a good transportable or capital felony, and ten to one but the prisoner will exhibit a set of features from which a committee of craniologists would never infer a propensity to crime. In fact, an Irish dock, especially after a brisk insurrectionary winter, affords some of the choicest samples of the peasantry of the country — fine, hardy, healthy, muscular looking beings, with rather a dash of riot about the eye, perhaps, but with honest, open, manly countenances, and sustaining themselves with native courage amid the dangers that beset them; and many of them are in fact either as guiltless as they appear, or their crimes have been committed under circumstances of excitation, which, in their eves at least, excuse the enormity. As regards the [32] former, there are one or two national peculiarities, and not of a very creditable kind, which account for their numbers.
 The lower orders of the Irish, when their passions are once up on the right side, are proverbially brave, disinterested, and faithful ; but reverse the object, give them a personal enemy to circumvent, or an animosity of their faction to gratify, and all the romantic generosity of their character vanishes As partisans, they have no more idea of “fair play,” than a belligerent Indian of North America. In the prosecution of their interminable feuds, if they undertake to redress themselves, armed members will beset a single defenceless foe, and crush him without remorse; and in the same spirit of reckless vengeance, when they appeal to the law, they do not hesitate to include in one sweeping accusation, every friend or relative of the alleged offender, whose evidence might be of any avail upon his defence ; and hence, for the real or imputed crime of one, whole families, men and women, and sometimes even children, are committed to prison, and made to pass through the ordeal of a public trial. [...]

‘I am disposed to think the young women of the lower class in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, even more graceful and feminine than the most lively of the English peasantry, whom I have ever had occasion to notice. Their eyes are of deep and tender blue, their foreheads are high and smooth, their cheeks have a clear transparent color, and a sweetness of [293] expression sits on thieir full fresh lips, wliich is united with perfect modesty, and renders them objects of pure and respectful interest. They take a special care of their persons, and exhibit that tidiness and neatness in their attire, for which their English kindred are remarkable. I have often stopped to observe a girl from the barony of Forth, in the market of Wexford, with her basket of eggs or chickens for sale, and wished that I we're an artist, in order that I might preserve her face and figure. Her bonnet of bright and well-plaited straw just permitted a few bright ringlets to escape upon hei oval cheek: over her head was thrown a kerchief of muslin tc protect her complexion from the sun. Her cloak of blue cloth, trimmed with gray silk, hung gracefully from her shoulders. Her boddice was tightly laced round a graceful and symmetrical person. Her feet were compressed in smart and wellpolished shoes; and as she held out her basket to allure you into a purchase of her commodities, her smile, with all its winningness, was still so pure, that you did not dare to wish that she should herself be thrown into the bargain.
 It is clear that the peasantry of these districts are a superior and better-ordered tribe. Industry and morality prevail among them. Crime is almost unknown in the baronies of Forth and Bargy. The English reader will probably imagine that they must be Protestants. On the contrary, the Roman Catholic religion is their only creed, and all efforts at proselytism have wholly failed. It has often been considered as singular that the Irish rebellion should have raged with such fierceness among this moral and pacific peasantry. Some are disposed to refer the intensity of their political feelings to their attachment to the Catholic religion; but I believe that the main cause of the temporary ferocity into which they were excited, and in the indulgence of which they for a while threw off all their former habits, had its origin from the excesses of wliich a licentious soldiery were guilty, and that the dishonor of their wives and daughters impelled them to revenge and blood.’

[Cf. the similar observations about the inhabitants of the same district in of Walks Through Ireland (London: Sir Richard Phillips 1819) by John Bernard Trotter [q.v.]; especially Letter XIII concerning the baronies of Bargie and Forth: ‘The Catholic religion prevails universally through Forth, These descendants of the English, who have never changed, their ancient faith, [135] retain their honest simplicity, and manly characters. They are an excellent people in Forth ...’ (pp.134-35) - as attached.