Life
?1830-1903 [née Tracy; pseud. Finola, or Finnuala]; b. Ballymena, Co. Antrim; wrote for The Nation as ‘Finola’, 1850-60; also anonymously for The Irishman; m. poet and editor Ralph Varian, 1871, living in Blackrock, Co. Cork, 1893; PI ATT
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Commentary
Ann Owens Weekes, ed., Attic Guide to Published Works of Irish Women Literary Writers (Dublin: Attic Press 1993), calls Varian an early socialist, and comments that her beliefs are reflected in her poetry. See also an aArticle on her writings in Irishman (16 June 1877).
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References
D. J. O’Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912); Poems (Belfast 1851) [sign. Finola]; Never Forsake the Ship and Other Poems (Dublin 1874) [sign. Finola]; The Political and National Poems of Finola (Dublin 1877).
Christopher Morash, ed. The Hungry Voice (1989), incls. “Lament” from Poems by ‘Finola’ (Belfast: James Henderson 1851); also “Prosletyzing” [p.117].
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