Life
1817-1889 [Michael Joseph Barry; pseuds. ‘MJB’, ‘Brutus’,
and ‘Bouillon de Garcon’ - viz., ‘Broth of a Boy’];
b. Cork, barrister and Young Irelander imprisoned in 1843, frequent contributor
to the Nation, Dublin University Magazine and Punch;
winner of ‘First Repeal Prize’ with an essay, ‘Ireland
as She Was, as She Is, and as She Shall Be’ (Dublin 1845); contrib.
"The Kishogue Papers" to Dublin University Magazine (9
iss.; Jan 1842-Dec. 1847), over pseud. ‘Bouillon de Garçon’,
and later issued as a book in 1872; dissociated himself from Young Ireland
after 1848, became editor of the Southern Reporter (Cork), and
ultimately a police-magistrate in Dublin; poems include "The Green
Flag" and "Step Together" and "The Massacre at Drogheda";
works include A Waterloo Commemoration for 1854 (1854); Lays
of the War (1855) and Heinrich and Lenora (1886); ed., Songs
of Ireland (1845), which he received as a commission from Thomas Davis,
and to which a second volume was added by Hercules Ellis [var. Eyless]
in 1849; d. 23 Jan.; a notice by Frank MacDonagh in The Nation (16
Feb. 1889) characterises Barry as a ‘brilliant songwriter who helped
build up a national literature for Ireland.’ PI
JMC DIW DIH RAF MKA FDA OCIL DIL
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Works
Ireland as She Was, As She Is, and As She Shall Be [containing
1st, 2nd and 3rd supplemental Repeal essay, (Dublin: James Duffy 1845),
[1] 122, [3] 152, [4] 43pp. [infra]; ed., Songs
of Ireland (Dublin: James Duffy 1845), xvi, 238pp. [infra];
Do., rev. edn. (1846; 1869), ‘assisted by Eugene O’Curry’ [with
Gaelic typography]; ed., Echos from Parnassus: Selected from the Original
Poetry of the Southern Reporter (Cork: Southern Reporter 1849); A
Waterloo Commemoration for 1854 […] (London:
W. S. Orr & Co.; Dublin: McGlashan 1854); Lays of the War (Cork:
Daily Reporter Office 1855); Lays of the War and Miscellaneous
Lyrics (London: Longman & Co. 1856); The Pope and the Romagna
(Dublin: Hodges & Smith 1860); Irish Emigration Considered
(Cork 1863); Poems Addressed to Minnie (Cork: Nash 1867); [as ‘Bouillon
de Garcon’, pseud.], Six Songs of Bèranger (Dublin: priv.
printed 1871); [as 'Bouillon de Garcon'] Kishogue Papers (London:
Chapman & Hall 1875) [formerly in Dublin University Magazine,
1842-47]; Heinrich and Leonore, an Alpine Story (Dublin: Hodges,
Figgis 1886).
Songs of Ireland (Dublin: James Duffy 1845), xvi, 238pp. [incl. 38 anon. songs and pieces by John Banim; J. J. Callanan; J. P. Curran; H. G. Curran; Thomas Davis; Arthur Dawson; William Drennan; CG Duffy; James Furlong; Gerald Griffin; Samuel Lover; Edward Lysaght; DF McCarthy; Richard Milliken; Lady Morgan; Thomas Moore; George Ogle; James Orr; Maurice O’Connell; GN Reynolds; Charles Wolfe; RD Williams ["Adieu to Innisfail"]. The poem An t-sean Bhean bocht appears in Irish fonts [p.49]
There is a bibliography of his writings in Irish Book Lover, 9 (1917-18), 27f.
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Notes
Justin McCarthy, gen ed., Irish Literature (1904), gives
‘The Massacre at Drogheda’ et al.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol 2, selects M. J. Barry’s version of "The Shan Van Vocht" from The Songs of Ireland (Dublin 1845), containing stanzas often incorporated in the most popular version (FDA2, p.109).
Belfast Public Library holds copies of Irish Emigration Considered (1863); A Waterloo Commemoration (1854) and A Treatise on the Practice of the High Court of Chancery of Ireland [n.d.].
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)