Life
1823-1907; b. 7 July, Temple Carne rectory, Co. Donegal, ed. Newry, Co.
Down, and TCD. Schol.; grad. 1843, fellow 1846; fnd. Philosophical Society,
appt. to Erasmus Smith chair oratory and English Lit., 1852; appt. regius
prof. Greek, 1866, librarian 1879; and ultimately senior lecturer, 1887;
D.Litt, 1891; wrote the political ballad "The Memory of the Dead"
[‘Who Fears to Speak of ’98’], printed in The Nation
(1 April 1843), but not acknowledged by him until 1900; MRIA, 1847; started
Hermethena, 1874; National Library trustee, 1881; contrib. articles
on political economy and slavery to Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th
edn.); his History of Political Economy ( 1888) was trans. into
ten languages; other positivist works after Comte; distrusted Parnell;
d. 1 May; there is a Kells Ingram Bequest fund for purchase of books at
TCD Library. PI DBIV DIB DIW MKA
KUN ODQ DUB OCIL
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Works
Considerations on the State of Ireland (Dublin: Ponsonby 1864);
History of Political Economy (Edin: Black 1888); A History of
Slavery and Serfdom (London 1895); Love and Sorrow (Dublin,
priv. 1897); Outlines of the History of Religion ([London] 1900);
Sonnets and other Poems (London: A & C Black 1900); Human
Nature and Morals According to Auguste Comte (London 1901); Practical
Morals, A Treatise on Universal Education (London 1904); The Final
Transition, A Sociological Study (London 1905).
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Criticism
T. W. Lyster, W. K. Ingram: A Bibliography, in An Leabharlann,
Vol. III, No. 1 (1909), 46pp. [var. 1907-08].
C. L. Falkiner, Memoir of John Kells Ingram (Dublin: Sealy, Bryers 1907).
Who Was Who 1897-1916 (1920) and Irish Book Lover, Vol. 17.
Peter Gray, ‘Nassau Senior, the Edinburgh Review and Ireland 1843-49’, in Tadhg Foley and Seán Ryder, Ideology and Ireland in the Nineteenth Century (Dublin: Four Courts Press 1998), p.130-42.
G. K. Peatling, ‘Who fears to speak of politics?: John Kells Ingram and Hypothetical Nationalism’, in Irish Historical Studies, Vol. XXXI, No. 122 (November 1998) [q.pp.].
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature, Washington: Catholic
Univ. of America 1904, p.2,166.
Very Rev. Canon Murphy, DD, PP, Pres. of Maynooth, Two Irish Parliaments: A Contrast (CTS 1909, 32pp.
Joseph Lee, The Modernisation of Irish Society, 1973, p.24.
Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde (1974), Chap. IV; n.6, p.209
Cyril Pearl, Three Lives of Charles Gavan Duffy (Dublin O’Brien Press 1979), pp.29, 230.
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984), p.116.
Tadhg Foley, ‘Praties, Professors, and Political Economy’ (Irish Reporter, Third Quarter 1995), pp.6-7.
J. F. Deane, Irish Poetry of Faith and Doubt, Wolfhound Press 1991, Introduction, p.12.
Thomas A. Boylan & Timothy P. Foley, Political Economy and Colonial Ireland, the Propagation and Ideological Function of Economic Discourses in the 19th Century (London: Routledge 1992), p.190.
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Donagh McDonagh, ed., The Golden Treasury of Irish Verse (1930) incls. this Note (p.326): ‘I have been requested to publish the following note on “The Memory of the Dead”: ‘The poem entitled “The Memory of the Dead” was published in the Nation newspaper in April 1843 when I was in my twentieth year [ ...] Some persons have believed, or affected to believe, that I am asharned of having written it, and would gladly, if I could, disown its authorship. Those who know me do not need to told that this idea is without foundation. I think the Irish race should be grateful to men who, in evil times, however mistaken may have been their policy, gave their lives for their country. But I have no sympathy with those who preach sedition in our own day, when all the circumstances are radically altered. In my opinion no real popular interest can now be furthered by violence.’ John K. Ingram. Dublin, 1900.
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature, 1800-1875: A Guide to Information Sources (Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1978) cites Thomas W. Lyster, ‘W. K. Ingram: A Bibliography’ (Dublin: Cumann na Leabharlann 1907-08), p. 203.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1, p.1288: Ingram met Carlyle in 1849 and travelled to France to meet Comte in 1855 and declared himself a Comtean positivist, later editing selection of Auguste Comte’s letters; fnd Statistical Soc. of Ireland [with Whateley], and sometime Pres. RIA; articles in 9th ed. of Encyclopaedia Britannica and Palgrave’s Dict. Political Economy; first English trans. of Thomas a Kempis’s Imitation of Christ (1892) from Cambridge MSS; d. in Dublin [1299-1300]. DIL cites Sonnets and Other Poems (London: A & C Black 1900).
Belfast Public Library holds C. L. Faulkner, Memoir of JKI, LL.D. (1907); Sonnets and other Poems (1900). Belfast Linenhall Library holds Memoir of John Kells Ingram, by C. L[itton] Falkiner; Bibliography of his works complied for Cumann na Leabharlann (Dublin 1907-08) [This work by Thomas W. Lyster (See McKenna, Irish Lit., 1978, p. 203)].
Leopold Bloom alludes mentally to “Who Fears to Speak ...?”
in Joyce’s Ulysses (‘Wandering Rock’): ‘Fine
poem that is: Ingram. They were gentlemen. Ben Dollard does sing that
ballad touchingly. Masterly rendition.’ (Bodley Head Edn., p.309.)
Thomas Carlyle knew J. K. Ingram to be author of “True men like you men”, a Repeal song [sic], but evidently meant “Who Fears to Speak ..”. (See Carlyle, and FDA, supra.)
Portrait: There is a portrait of J. K. Ingram by Sarah Purser. See Anne Crookshank, ed. & intro., An Exhibition of Portraits of Great Irish Men and Women (1965).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)