Life
[Michael John Fitzgerald McCarthy]; b. Midleton, Co. Cork; son of Denis
McCarthy and Catherine Fitzgerald of Clonmult, m. 1887, Margaret dg. of
John Ronayne of Donickmore [sic]; ed. Vincentian Seminary, Cork; Midleton
College, Co. Cork; TCD; BA, 1885; bar, 1889; took no part in public life
until appearance of Five Years in Ireland (1901); since then wrote
and spoke against Catholic Church in politics and education; stood for
St. Stephen’s ‘Green division of Dublin 1904; retired from contest
to avoid split of Unionist vote; fnds. and conducts Christian Defence
Effort in opposition to Papal aggression; books, Five Years in Ireland
1896-1900 (1901); Priests and People in Ireland (1902), his
best-known anti-Catholic work, providing accounts of rich priests and
substantial bequests and methods of clerical domination in education -
and incidentally echoing the title of the anonymous novel of 1891 written
in answer to Mulhulland’s Marcella Grace - leading in turn
to clerical refutations such as notably Fr. Michael O’Riordan, Catholicity
and Progress (1905); also Rome in Ireland (1904); a novel,
Gallowglass (1904), depicting corruption in the Catholic Church;
Catholic Ireland and Protestant Scotland (1905); The Coming
Power: A Contemporary History of the Far East (1905); Church and
State in England and Wales (1906); Irish Land and Irish Liberty
(1910); The Nonconformist Treason (1912); The Irish Revolution,
Vol. 1 (Edinburgh & London: Blackwood 1912); The Dictators (1913);
author of num. letters to Parliament and other publications in opp. to
Home Rule 1913-20; The British Monarchy and the See of Rome (1924);
The Irish Papal State (1925); Church and Empire Breaking (1927);
Anglo-Irish Bolshevism (1927); The Bishops and the Houses of
Commons (1928); resided at 13 Alwyne Mansions, Wimbledon, London SW;
d. 26 Oct. 1928 IF
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Works
(Selected), Five Years in Ireland 1895-1900 [3rd Edn.] (London:
Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent; Dublin: Hodges & Figgis 1901; 10th
edn. 1903); Priests and People in Ireland (London: Simpkin, Marshall,
Hamilton, Kent; Dublin: Hodges & Figgis 1902; 5th edn. 1905, pop.
edn. 1908); Rome in Ireland (London: Hodder & Stoughton 1904),
350pp.; Catholic Ireland and Protestant Scotland: A Contrast (Edinburgh
& London: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier 1905); Irish Land and
Irish Liberty: A Study of the New Lords of the Soil (London: Scott
1911); The Nonconformist Treason, or the Sale of the Emerald Isle (Edinburgh:
Blackwell 1912), 348pp.
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NotesStephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), compares him with Gerald O’Donovan, W. P. Ryan [O’Ryan], and others ‘sensational’ anti-clerical writers (Ireland in Fiction, 1919, p.238). See remarks in Angela Bourke's The Burning of Bridget Cleary (1999).
University of Ulster Central Library holds Five Years in Ireland 1895-1900 [3rd Edn.] (London: Simpkin,
Marshall, Hamilton, Kent; Dublin: Hodges & Figgis 1901) [also 5th
ed., Lon.] [DA960.M13]; Priests and People in Ireland (London: Simpkin,
Marshall, Hamilton, Kent; Dublin: Hodges & Figgis 1902) [BX1515.M3];
Rome in Ireland (London: Hodder and Stoughton 1904) [BX 1505.M1 South];
Catholic Ireland and Protestant Scotland: A Contrast (Edinburgh &
London: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier 1905) [JORD]; Irish land and
Irish Liberty: a Study of the New Lords of the Soil (London: Scott 1911)
[MAGEE]; The Nonconformist Treason, or the Sale of the Emerald Isle (Edinburgh:
Blackwell 1912), 348pp. [DA960.M3].
There is Dictionary of National Biography article nor any entries in Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography (1988) or Doherty and Hickey, A Chronology of Irish History since 1500 (1989). See however Who Was Who, 1928-29].
James Joyce held a copy of The Irish Revolution (Edinburgh & London: Blackwood 1912), titlepage missing, in his Library in Trieste. (See Richard Ellmann, The Consciousness of James Joyce, Faber, p.119 [Appendix].)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)