Life
1863-1908 [Caesar Litton; occas. as Falconer, err.]; b. 26 sept.; Irish
historian, son of Sir Frederick Richard Falkiner [see infra]; ed. Royal
Armagh and TCD, MA; barrister at law, 1863; leader article for the Daily
Express; Sec of the Council of the RIA; Unionist contestant in Armagh,
1892; m. dg. of Sir Thomas Newenham Deane, the architect of the National
Library; d. 5 Aug. in the Alps nr. Argentière, in Chaomix Valley;
Recorder of Dublin and Privy Councillor; related on his mother’s
side to Caesar Otway; issued Studies in Irish History and Biography
(London 1902); also Illustrations of Irish History and Topography
(1904); Essays Relating to Ireland (1909), biog., hist., and topographical,
containing essays on Spenser in Ireland, Sir John Davies, Robert Emmet,
and Irish Places, with a memoir by Edward Dowden; ed. Ormonde Papers for
Historical MSS Commission (5 vols. 1902-1908); and Swift’s Letters
(1908); he was a correspondent of J. A. Froude; killed climbing at Chamonix;
there is a plaque at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. DNB
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Works
C. Litton Falkiner, Studies in Irish History and Biography (Longman
& Co [1901]) [but 1902 in bibl. of T. H. D. Mahoney, Burke and
Ireland, Harvard 1960], 350pp, index [see further under Quotations,
infra].
Illustrations of Irish History and Topography, mainly of the 17th century, by C. Litton Falkiner, 3 maps (Longmans Green & Co. 1904), 426pp., and index. Ded. to Pres. and Members of RIA. Maps are, The Walls of Dublin from all available authorities, Leonard R. Strangeways, MA MRIA 1904; colour Mercator map of Irland in the middle of the XVIth c., W&AK Johnston, Edin&Lon., Longmans [English miles to Irish miles: 30/24]; Dublin in the 17th c., attempt to identify the streets as depicted by T. Phillips 1685, LRS [Strangeways] 1904. PART I, essays by the author, His Majesty’s Castle of Dublin; The Phoenix Park; The Irish Guards; The Counties of Ireland; The Woods of Ireland; The parish Church of the Irish Parliament; Illustrations of the Civic and Commercial History of Dublin, The Origin of the Ballast Office &c, The Origin of the Chamber of Commerce, the Aldermen of Skinner’s Alley, the Ouzel Galley Society. PART II, contemporary accounts of Ireland in the 17th c., I] The Itinerary of Fynes Moryson, pp.211-309 II] Sir Josias Bodley’s Visit to Lecale, 1602, pp.326-44 III] Luke Gernon’s discourse of Ireland, 1620, pp.345-62 IV] Sir William Brereton’s Travels in Ireland, 1635, pp.363-407 V] M Jorevin de Rocheford’s Description, 1668, pp.407-26. Also contains The Itinerary of Fynes Moryson [first publ. in Sherratt & Hughes, eds., Shakespeare’s Europe], consisting of 3 chps., The Description of Ireland, The Commonwealth of Ireland, and The Manners and Customs of Ireland. [See under Moryson.]
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Criticism
George A Little, Dublin Before the Vikings (1947), p.xiv.
Luke Gibbons, Transformations in Irish Culture (Field Day/Cork UP 1996), p.180.
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Notes
Falkiner contrib. to literary journals such as the Irish
Monthly Review; also a memoir of Charles Wolfe in an edn. of The
Burial of Sir John Moore and other Poems, xxxviii, 61pp. (1909 [?recte
1903].
Long 19th c.: ‘Thus in the long nineteenth century there are long silences which intervened between the Union and Catholic Emancipation, between Repeal and Home Rule agitations. And in the eighteenth century, the pasues are still longer and the silences yet deeper.’ (Quoted [as C. Litton Falconer] in A. T. Q. Stewart, The Shape of Irish History, Belfast: Blackstaff 2001; cited in review of same by Patricia Craig, Times Literary Supplement [Irish issue], 29 June 2001, p.22.) Note that Stewart took ‘a deeper silence’ as his title for a study of the United Irishmen issued in 1993.
De Burca Books (Cat. 44; 1997) lists Essays Relating to Ireland, Biographical Historical and Topographical. With a memoir of the author by Edward Dowlen. London, Longmans, 1909. Pages, xx, 249pp., with studies in Irish biography: Spencer; Sir John Davis; First Duke of Ormond; Archbishop Stone, and Robert Emmet. Illustrations of Irish topography: Dublin, Youghal, Kilkenny, Drogheda, Armagh, and Galway. Studies in Irish history: Irish Parliamentary Antiquities; The Succession of the Speakers; List of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Irish Parliament 1586-69, and John Hooker’s Diary 1568-69. [£70]; Illustrations of Irish History and Topography, mainly of the seventeenth century. With three fold. maps. London, Longmans, 1904. Pages, xx, 433, 40 (catalogue). V.good. two parts: Historical and Topographical Studies - His Majesty’s Castle of Dublin; The Phoenix Park; The Irish Guards- The Counties and Woods of Ireland; The Parish Church of the Irish Parliament Illustrations of the Civic and Commercial History of Dublin. Part two: The Itinerary of Fynes Moryson; The Description of Ireland, The Commonwealth of Ireland, The Manners and Customs of Ireland, Sir Josias Bodley’s Visit to Lecale; Luke Gernon’s Discourse of Ireland 1620; Brereton’s Travels in Ireland 1635; De Rocheford’s Description 1668 [£75; both ].
Belfast Public Library holds Illustrations of Irish History and Topography of the 17th c. (1904) [in which he reprinted part of the MS of Fynes Moryson, infra.]; Essay Relating to Ireland (1909); Memoir of John Kells Ingram; Earl Bishop of Derry (in his Studies in Irish History, 1902).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)