Hester Sigerson

Life
1828-1898; b. Cork, dg. Amos Varian and s. of Ralph Varian; m. George Sigerson, 1865; contrib. poetry to various magazines incl. The Harp (ed. M. J. McCann, 1859); Irish Fireside, Cork Examiner, Boston Pilot, The Gael, Young Ireland, and Irish Monthly; pieces in anthologies of Ralph Varian, The Harp of Erin (1869), et. al.; one novel, A Ruined Place [ &c.] (1890) [var. 1889]; d. 15 April, Dublin; bur. Glasnevin; Dora Sigerson Shorter was her dg. JMC SUTH IF

References
D. J. O’Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912), cites A Ruined Place without publishers’ details as ‘A Ruined Race’ (D"Donoghue, p.457).

Query: A Ruined Race, or The Last MacManus of Drumroosk (London: Ward & Downey 1889) was formerly listed under Hester Varian.

Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), lists A Ruined Place, or The Last Macmanus of Drumroosk (London: Ward & Downey 1890) [gloomy view of Ireland; mid-19th c.; misfortunes of once prosperous couple of well-to-do peasant class; girl dies in workhouse; man takes to drink, killed in accident; aims at picturing sufferings of peasantry under old land system].

Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University of America 1904); selection from A Ruined Place is a cabin death-scene, with a priest, Fr. Mat, and a good deal of courage, sentiment, and piety.

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Notes

John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Harlow: Longmans 1988) lists Dora Shorter [details as above].

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