Life
1810-1889; b. Dublin; excise service, 1830, and Surveying Gen. Examiner,
1854; Collector of Inland Revenues, 1857; conrib. to The Nation under
pseud *** (three asterisks) and the figure of a hand (as reported in The
Nation, 21 Aug. 1852); mbr. Kilkenny Archaeological Society; and contrib.
to its journal, and to The Irish Monthly; his verse-history, Monks
of Kilcrea, printed anonymously as Scraps of History (1858),
was translated into French by Chevalier de Chatelain in 1858; settled
in London, 1869; exhibited large collection of antiques; d. London. PI
JMC DBIV DIW DIH MKA DIL RAF
- Matthew Russell, ‘Our Poets, Irish Monthly, No. 13 (1885).
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Notes
D. J. O'Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary,
(Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912); The Monks of Kilcrea, a
ballad poem (Dublin 1853), and French translation of same by Le Chevalier
de Chatelain (Lon. 1858); poems for DUM, Dublin Joural of Temperance
.., Penny Journal et al.; early member of Kilkenny Archae.
Soc.; died in Kensington 1889.CRONE, The Monks, sketches of Irish
history in verse.
Dublin Book of Irish Verse 1728-1909, ed. John Cooke (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis 1909); bio-dates 1810-1889; ‘The Mountain Fern’; ‘After Aughrim’ ("for better die with Sarsfield so/Than live a slave without a blow ..". JMC, b. Dublin, exciseman (Customs); Collector of Revenue, 1857; retired 1877; Monks of Kilcrea (1853) for many years anonymous, long narrative poem, second ed. 1861, French trans. 1858; contributed verse to Dublin Penny Journal, Dublin University Magazine, and The Nation; contrib ‘After Aughrim to Irish Monthly some years before his death; rhetorical ballads of his in Hayes Ballad Poetry; ‘The Mountain Fern’; d. London, Nov. 1889; his collection of Irish antiquities was exhibited in London, where he settled in 1869. JMC selects ‘After Aughrim’ [‘Do you repent you made him go,/Kathleen/An quick you answer proudly, "No!"/For better die with Sarsfield so/Than live without a blow/For the Green!’], called poignant, fresh in feeling, fragrant in expression; ‘The Mountain Fern’ [‘Oh, the fern, the fern, the Irish hill fern,.That girds our blue lakes from Lough Ine to Lough Erne/That waves on our crags like the plume of a king/That bends like a nun over clear well and spring’, &c.]
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)