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Life4
| ?1891-1977; [Dorothy Grace; m. Hartnett; pseud. Dorothy Gainsborough Waring]; b. Co. Cavan, to a Protestant upper-middle class family; m. St. Clair Harnett and lived in Licenser House, Co. Antrim, which was burnt down 1964, for which the owners later received £30,000 compensation; Waring issued a number of romantic novels written from a strongly Unionist standpoint and dealing with political and matrimonial strife, often intertwined, chiefly in an Irish big-house setting but involving wartime themes; all were published by John Long, and some reprinted by Mellifont Press in 1944; |
| Grace] appears to have been associated with the Londonderrys and has been accused of Nazi sympathies [see NDNB] but her family have asserted that her involvement with British fascists was occasioned by her duties as a member of the Forces, which rhymes with the plots of her novels; in Fortune Must Follow (1937), for instance, Neill McCrane is an anti-German agent who return to Northern Ireland and breaks up local cattle-smuggling on the border; in Against My Fire (1941), an evacuated couple reveal themselves as emotional wreckers and finally as Nazi agents in Co. Down [see Clarke, infra]; she died on 24 Oct. 1977; there are cuttings about her in the Linen Hall Library collection. IF2 |
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Works
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References
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. 2] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985) lists eight novels, giving tongue in cheek summaries of each, Nothing Irredeemable (London: John Long 1936) [Sir Desmond Loughlin, ex-Tans, dispossessed, separates from wife in London; finally reunites]; Out of Evil (London: John Long 1937) [visitor’s romance among Anglo-Irish gentry in Co. Down; Orange viewpoint but entertains idea that if Orange and IRA stand together against Ireland’s common enemy her troubles will end]; Deep Malice (London: John Long 1939) [Anita Etheridge creates mischief through séances and occultism in Co. Down]; The Fortune Must Follow (London: John Long 1938) [retired anti-German agent Neill McCrane breaks up a cattle-smuggling gang in Newcastle, Co. Down]; This New Corn (London: John Long 1940) [Kevin Magowan, back from fighting for Franco, sorts out matrimonial problems in Co. Down]; And If I Laugh (London: John Long 1940) [B Specials Officer and people of Co. Down village in wartime; anti-Catholic and anti-Irish viewpoint]; Against My Fire (London: John Long 1941) [unmarried couple evacuated to Co. Down reveal themselves as emotional wreckers and finally as Nazi agents]; Not Quite So Black (London: John Long 1948) [Barry Loughran returns from 8th Army to find wife having an affair; after complications involving the ‘not so black’ step-mother Lucile, wife Eva and her lover Rupert drive drunk off cliff; Barry marries Maeve, cousin of Rupert - for whom he has been working in the big house as chauffeur].
New Dictionary of National Biography: Dorothy Grace Waring [m. Harnett; pseud. D. Gainsborough Waring (1891–1977, fascist campaigner and author. The ODNB article is by Gordon Gillespie. (Access by password online.)
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Notes
Hatred There With (1942), is billed as a ‘thrilling story of Nazi conspiracy’ on the front dust-jacket. Naomi Doak (UUC), who writes on Ulster women authors, informs us that the author is said to have had British fascist associations [BS].
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