Life
1830-1912; b. 22 Nov., Cork; ed. priv.; journalist connected with
Cork Examiner before he moved to Liverpool, 1853; worked on Liverpool
Northern Times; worked for Morning Star as parliamentary
reporter, then foreign editor, and finally editor in chief, 1864-69; politician,
historian and novelist; well-received on American visit; leader writer
Daily News from 1871; Longford MP, 1879, unopposed; Derry City
MP, 1886-92; acted as intermediary in meeting of Parnell and Carnavon,
arranged by C. G. Duffy, 1885; chairman anti-Parnellite nationalist party,
1890-96, yet said to have retained Parnell's friendship and made no enemies
within Parliament; History of Our Times (1877); also novels, Dear
Lady Disdain (1875), Miss Misanthrope (1878), Donna Quixote
(1880), Mononia (1901), and others, some including verses;
best known for his immensely successful History of Our Own Times
(1879-80); left public life in 1900, but wrote by dictation until 1911;
set his name as editor to Irish Literature, 10 vols. (1904), with
Charles Welch, Maurice Francis Egan et al. acting as the real editors;
d. 24 April, Folkestone; a sister, Ely McCarthy, translated George Sand
for a London journal; his son Justin Huntly, sometimes confused with him,
also author. DNB PI DIB DIW DIH SUTH FDA OCIL DIL
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Works
Fiction, The Waterdale Neighbours (1867); My Enemy’s
Daughter (1869); Lady Judith (1871); Comet of a Season
(1871); A Fair Saxon (1873); Linley Rochford (1874); Dear
Lady Disdain (1875), Do., [another edn.] (1910); Miss Misanthrope
(1877); Donna Quixote (1880), and Do. [another edn.]
2 vols. (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz 1881) [imperfect copy in TCD Library];
Doom! An Atlantic Episode (1886); Maid of Athens (1883,
1884); Camiola: A Girl with A Fortune (1885); Red Diamonds (1893);
Mononia: A Love Story of the ’Forty-Eight (Boston: Small,
Maynard 1901).
Non-Fiction, ed. and intro., The Settlement of the Alabama Question: The Banquet Given at New York to Her Britannic Majesty's High Commissioners by Mr. Cyrus W. Field: A Report (1871); A History of Our Own Times 4 vols. (London: Chatto & Windus 1879); The Life of Sir Robert Peel (1891); The "Daily News" Jubilee: A Political and Social Retrospect of Fifty Years of the Queen's Reign (1896); Pope Leo XIII [Public Men of Today : An International Series] London: Bliss, Sands, & Foster 1896), 260pp., with port. [Leo XIII]; A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, 4 vols. (London: Chatto & Windus 1884-1901); The French Revolution, 4 vols. (London: Chatto & Windus 1890-97; another edn. 1906); Charing Cross to St. Paul’s: Notes by Justin McCarthy and vignettes by Joseph Pennell (1893; rep.1898 [var. 1899]); The Epoch of Reform, 1830-1850 [1882] (London: Longmans 1902); ed., Irish Literature, 10 vols. (NY; Bigelow, Smith & Co.; for The Catholic University of America 1904); The Reign of Queen Anne (1902, rep. 1905); Ireland and Her Story (1903); The Story of an Irishman (1904), autobiography; A Short History of Our Times (1908); Con Amore [q.d.], essays; Ireland’s Cause in England’s Parliament [q.d.], pamph.; Our Book of Memories, Letters to Mrs Campbell Praed (1912). Autobiography, Reminiscences 2 vols., (London: Chatto & Windus; NY: Harper 1899).
Bibliographical
Details
A History of our Own Times: From the Accession of Queen Victoria
to the Berlin Congress (London: Chatto & Windus 1879); A History
of our Own Times: from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the General
Election of 1880 (London: Chatto & Windus 1881, 1882, 1897, 1898);
A History of Our Own Times: from the Accession of Queen Victoria to
the Diamond Jubilee, 1897 (London: Chatto & Windus 1897, 1898,
1900); A History of Our Own Times: from the Diamond Jubilee 1897 to
the Accession of King Edward VII (London: Chatto & Windus 1905,
1908, 1909, 1911). [Formats vary from 4 vols. to 1 vol. with 567pp.]
Irish Literature, [gen.] ed. Justin McCarthy, 10 vols. (NY; Bigelow, Smith & Co.; for The Catholic University of America 1904), with Charles Welsh of Notre Dame [as] Mgr. Ed.; editorial board formed by Maurice Francis Egan of the Catholic University Washington, Lady Gregory, Douglas Hyde, Stephen Gwynn, Standish O’Grady, W. P. Ryan, and John Redmond, and others; and with ‘special articles’ and ‘biographical notices and literary appreciations’ by Douglas Hyde, W. B. Yeats, George Sigerson, "AE" [George Russell], W. P. Ryan, T. W. Rolleston, G. A. Greene, J. F. Taylor, D. J. O’Donoghue, Standish O’Grady, Austin Dobson, and Lionel Johnson.. An editorial essay and a tables of contents appear at the commencement of each ‘volume’, e.g., Vol. VII-VIII, pp.[vii]-xxxv, 2465-2878, pp.[i]-xxxii, 2879-3298. The whole series concludes with a Glossary (pp.4031-39) and an Index, listing authors, titles, subject dealt with, source of library extracts by title, first lines of poetry (pp.4041-4126).
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Criticism
William White [1807-1882], The inner life of the House of Commons (1897).
Thomas Sexton, The Land League Vindicated: A Speech Delivered in the House of Commomns, on February 15th, 1882, in Support of the Amendment Moved by Justin McCarthy, to the Reply to the Address from the Throne (1882).
Eugene J. Doyle, Justin McCarthy [for Historical Assoc. of Ireland; Life and Times ser., No. 7] (Dundalk: Dundalgan Press 1997), 67pp.
James H. Murphy, Catholic Fiction and Social Reality in Ireland, 1873-1922 (Conn: Greenwood Press 1997), Part I: ‘Upper Middle-Class Fiction 1873-1890’, pp.69.
Stephen Gwynn, Irish Literature and Drama (1936), p.113.
F. S. L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine (London: Fontana 1971), p.190, p.192, p.197.
James H. Murphy, Catholic Fiction and Social Reality in Ireland, 1873-1922 (Conn: Greenwood Press 1997), Part I: ‘Upper Middle-Class Fiction 1873-1890’, pp.69.
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Notes
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges
Figgis 1912), notes that wrote verse in the Irishman, 1849; also
Cork Magazine, 1847; Con Amore, collection of essays, containing
translations of Freiligrath, eight of which appear in the Tauchnitz edition
of Freiligrath (Leipzig 1869) which was edited by McCarthy’s dg.,
Mary Stanislaus McCarthy, author of Songs of Zion (Dublin 1897),
ed., ‘Birthday Book of our Dead’, &c.; also Michael Francis
McCarthy, f. of Justin, and ed. of Poems of J J Callanan, and much
verse in Cork papers. [BIOG as above].
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), supplies bio-data: b. Cork, 1830; MP and Chairman of the IPP, 1890-96; A Fair Saxon (1873; US title, Maurice Tyrone); Mononia (1901). See also Irish Book Lover 1, 2, 4.
Donald Torchiana, Backgrounds for Dubliners (1986), cites the Story of Gladstone’s Life (Toronto 1898) [sic for England under Gladstone?], prob. by Justin McCarthy.
Roy Foster, Modern Ireland (London: Allen Lane 1988), biog, joined Cork Examiner, 1847; Liverpool-based Northern Daily Times, 1859; contrib. Westminster Review; ed. Morning Star, 1864-8; considered settling in America; Home Rule MP for Longford, IPP vice-chairman, 1879; led majority in split of 1890; remained friendly with Parnell; retired 1900; civil list pension 1903; a leading popular novelist, biographer, and historian of his day [p.367].
Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography [rev. edn.] (Gill & Macmillan 1988), give bio-data: b. near Cork 22 Nov. 1830, legal plans frustrated by poverty, journalism, Cork Examiner; joined Northern Daily Times, Liverpool, 1854; ed. London Morning Star, 1864; novels; returned from US in 1871; leader-writer Daily News and Parnell supporter; History of Our Own Times (1879); MP Co. Longford 1879; vice-chairman IPP; led anti-Parnell group at split, but avoided personal recriminations; almost blind in 1897; dictated novels in retirement after 1900 till 1911; civil pension list £300, at instance of Balfour; d. Folkestone, 24 April 1912; Dear Lady Disdain (1875) and Mononia (1901) depict Munster life in his youth.
John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Longmans 1988; rep. 1989), cites The Waterdale Neighbours (1867); Dear Lady Disdain (1875), with an unpromisingly scornful heroine, and Miss Misanthrope (1878), on the same lines, stand out as superior works; Mononia (1901), heroine-title, retrospective and autobiographical; Lady Judith, melodrama of London 1851; A Fair Saxon (1873), his best Irish novel, chronicles the love of an English girl for a radical Irish MP, Maurice Tyrone, with Fenian sub-plot; wrote three novels with Mrs Praed, e.g., The Right Honorable (1886) [see infra]; The Ladies Gallery (1888), enjoying considerable popularity. See also sep. article on The Right Honorable (1886), in collab. with Mrs Campbell Praed, a novel set in Australia and England which broadly hints at a sexual relationship between its authors; deals with the love between Sandham Morse, a rising politician, and Koorali Middlemist, a politician’s dg; they re-encounter one another after her marriage when he has become leader of a radical party on the verge of power, they admit to loving one another but resolve to the ‘whiteness’ of their relationship; here husband attempts to blackmail them; Morse offers to elope and she returns to England rather than risk the destruction of his career.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2 , notes, Justin McCarthy, the first leader of the anti-Parnellites, 1-6 Nov 1890 [sic; but recte 26 Nov-6 Dec, being the inclusive dates of the meetings in Committee Room 15], 311; On 28 Nov 1890 Parnell read a manifesto to a number of his loyal followers at a London apartment. Justin McCarthy, whom Parnell had expressly invited to the meeting, objected as soon as the document had been read. Challenged by Parnell to specify what exactly made it ‘all objectionable ... offensive to our English allies’ in McCarthy’s eyes, the latter instanced the phrase ‘English wolves’. According to R. Barry O’Brien ... Parnell was equally insistent that these words were not removable [Seamus Deane, ed.], 312; Michael Davitt, The Fall of Feudalism (1904), McCarthy quoted Grattan in his fine expression, ‘No man can be lavish with his honour, or woman with her virtue, or country with its liberty’ [Speech of 1 April 1780], to which Parnell’s contemptuous rejoinder was ‘You elected me unanimously ...’, 320; Gladstone informed McCarthy that Parnell was no longer acceptable to the Liberal[s] ... McCarthy could not persuade Parnell of this and when Gladstone published an account of his position, McCarthy ... led the withdrawal of the members of the party from Committee Room 15, 320n.; Substantial accounts of events at the Split, on Dec 6, 1890, McCarthy led out 44 members, leaving Parnell with 27 (from T. P. O’Connor, Memoirs of an Old Parliamentarian, 1929); McCarthy characterised in Tim Healy’s view [by ed.] as the best representative of the very gentlemanly set, and endlessly civil and boring (acc. Tim Healy); ‘At six o’clock, Parnell having refused to put any question touching his disposition, Justin McCarthy rose to announce our wthdrawal. Forty-four colleagues followed him out. Many of us shook hands with those from whom we were separating ... (Healy, Letters and Leaders of My Day, 1928); [322-333 passim]; Douglas Hyde regards the revival of spoken Irish as more important than whether Mr Redmond or Mr McCarthy lead the largest wing of the Irish party at the moment, in The Necessity, &c (1892), 532-33.
Belfast Public Library holds Comet of a Season (1871); The Daily News Jubilee (1896); Doom! An Atlantic Episode (1886); A History of Our Own Times (1897); Ireland and Her Story (1903); Irish Recollections (n.d.); Modern England (1899) My Enemy’s Daughter (1869); Our Book of Memories: Letters to Mrs Campbell Praed (1912); Reminiscences (1899); A Short History of Our Times (1908); Sir Robert Peel (1891); The Story of an Irishman (1904); Wearing of the Green (n.d.). MORRIS holds Irish Literature, 10 vols. in 5 (1904). NOTE mixed titles therein for the two authors above under McCarthy, J.
Eggeley Catalogue (No 44) holds Julian Revelstone (London: Chatto & Windus 1909), 2nd imp. (viii), [1]-316pp. [not listed in COPAC].
Michael Davitt: In his foreword to Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Michael Davitt, Revolution-ary, Agitator, and Labour Leader (London:
T. Fisher Unwin 1908), speaks of his friendship with Davitt, and identifies
his policy as ‘the restoration of the Irish people to the right of
national self-government as a will partner in the Imperial confederation’ [xix].
History of Our Own Times, comments [inter al.] on Isaac Butt; Sir Charles Napier [of Sinde]; Darwin, Spencer, and Tyndall; Froude, Meredith, Lorna Doone, &c.1st vols. 1 & 2 appeared in 1875; completed by additions, 1897 [cf. supra 1879-80], and intermediate vols. 3 & 4, incl. an account of Committee Room 15; the last vol. shows satirical animus against English taxation in Ireland, which rested disproportionately on tobacco and whiskey.
W. P. Ryan, The Irish Literary Revival (1894). notes that Justin McCarthy lectured to the Irish Literary Society in London on 21st Sept 1887, addressing the topic ‘The Literature of ’48’, [with] Sir Charles Gavan Duffy in the chair (Ryan, op. cit. p.26.). Ryan further notes that he was a member of the Irish Society of East Anglia, est. Aug. 1890.
McCarthy v Yeats: Justin McCarthy praised Griffin’s Collegians as ‘the real masterpiece of Irish Romance’ though spoiled by Boucicault’s successful drama’ (Irish Literature, 1904, Vol. 1, Introduction, p.xiii). For W. B. Yeats in his Introduction to Representative Irish Tales (1891), this is the mark of a class whose ‘main hindrances are a limited and diluted piety, a dread of nature and her abundance, a distrust of unsophisticated life.’ (See Representative Irish Tales, ed. Mary Helen Thuente, 1979 edn., p.31; also under Griffin, Rx.)
MP Derry: On winning a seat in Derry/Londonderry (1886-92), McCarthy declared that he ‘did not despair by any mans’ of having Protestant and Orange friends even yet on their [the Nationalist] side’, claiming that his election victory showed that ‘they were very near levellling the old walls of ascendancy in Derry’ and that ‘the time was approaching when the city of Derry would be given to the Irish cause’. (Longford Independent, 10 July 1886; cited in D. George Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland, London: Routledge 1982; 1991 Edn., p.220-21.)
Sir James Caldwell, A Brief Examination of the Question Whether It Is Expedient ... to Pass an Act to Enable Papists to Take Real Securities for Money Which They May Lend (1764), instances a rich Catholic in Cork called Justin McCarthy who, he alleges, had so many Protestants debtors that the popery laws had not been put in force for several years (p.2-3). (See Maureen Wall, Catholic Ireland in the 18th c., ed. Gerard O’Brien (1989), p.189, n.47.)
Mononia (recte, and so cited in Brown, Ireland in Fiction, 1919; ditto Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (1988), is rendered ‘Monomia’ [sic] in Irish Literature, gen. ed. Justin McCarthy (Washington & NY 1904), revealing that the anthology was actually compiled by Charles Welch or Maurice Egan rather than the nominal editor.
Donald Torchiana, Backgrounds for Dubliners (1986), lists also Life of Leo XIII (London: Bliss [q.d.]), which indicates that Leo expressed public distaste for the physical reaction against landlords like Captain Boycott (Torchiana, op. cit., p.215).
Query, Library Catalogues (viz., COPAC) commonly list this author as Justin Huntly McCarthy (1830-1912) presumably confusing him by name with Justin Huntly McCarthy (1860-1936).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)