Life
1894-1974; b. Belfast; son of linen-manufacturer; ed. Belfast Acad. Inst.,
and QUB; Royal Irish Fusiliers in France and Macedonia [Greece] in First
world War; invalided with rank of captain; travelled for family linen
firm in Britain, Canada, and USA; freelance writer and broadcaster; first
resident of Northern Ireland to become member of Irish Senate, 1948-51;
Irish delegation to Council of Europe; fndr. Ulster Union Club; An
Irish Protestant Looks at His World (1930); Patriot Adventurer
(1936), biography of Wolfe Tone; From the Irish Shore (1936), autobiographical
[check date]; Statues Round the City Hall (1939); contrib. ‘A
Road to the Isles’ to Robert Greacen, ed., Northern Harvest: Anthology
of Ulster Writing (1944); Six Counties in Search of a Nation
(1947); contrib. to The Envoy (1950); From the Jungle of Belfast
(1973); reprints pieces from two earlier vols. of autobiography and new
material; held that partition had created a wall cutting across a common
Irish culture; the Public Records Office (NI) holds papers of and relating
to Denis Ireland incl. correspondence regarding his books, 1938-74 (D.3137).
IF2 DIW DUB
[ top ]
Works
Fiction, Geda and George C. Marroo (Belfast: Vortex
[1935]), 103pp.
Commentary, An Ulster Protestant Looks At His World: A Critical Commentary on Contemporary Irish Politics (Belfast: Dorman & Co. 1930), 86pp. [infra]; Portraits and Sketches (Belfast: Vortex Press [1935]); Theobald Wolfe Tone: Patriot Adventurer, extracts from the memoirs and journals of Wolfe Tone, comprising his early life in Dublin, his exile in America, her negotiations with the French Govt. in Paris, his adventures in Holland and Germany, and the attempted invasion of Ireland by the French, 1763-98; selected, arranged, with connected narrative by Denis Ireland (London: Rich & Cowan 1936) (London: Rich & Cowan 1936), 144pp.; From the Irish Shore (London Rich & Cowan 1936) [infra]; Statues Round the City Hall (London: Cresset 1939) [infra]; Portraits and Sketches (Belfast: Vortex Press 1935), 103pp.; Statutes Round the City Hall (London: Cresset Press 1939), 298pp. [var. early edn., Belfast: Mullan 1935]; Eamon de Valera Doesn’t See it Through: A Study of Irish Politics in the Machine Age (Cork: Forum Press 1941), 62pp.; The Age of Unreason: A Short History of Democracy in Our Times [Abbey Publ.] (Dublin: Corrigan & Wilson 1944), 34pp.; Six Counties in Search of a Nation, Essays and Letters on Partition 1942-1946 (Belfast: Irish News 1947), vi, 108pp.; From the Jungle of Belfast: Footnotes to History 1904-1972 (Belfast: Blackstaff 1973) [infra]. Miscellaneous, ‘Red Brick and Its Dramatist: A Note on St. John Ervine’, in Envoy, 1 (March 1950), pp.59-67.
[ top ]
Bibliographical
details
Statues Round The City Hall (London: Cresset
1939) [dedicated to my wife for her part in it / especially for spotting
the fox at Louis MacNeice’s grave], signed copy in Belfast Central
Public Library; memoir, mostly conversations and impressions in Ireland,
London, and America. CONTENTS: Family Portrait; A Free Woman; The Oracle;
The emigrant; Conversations in a London Restaurant; A visit to the Fleet;
Portrait of a Gunman; The Business Man; The Weaver; A Women; A Day in
NY; The First in the Red Picture Hat; Conversation in a [?] Hotel; Flowers
for the Unworthy; [?Hoan]; In the West; Light from Europe; Exeunt theVictorians;
Rolling Stream; An Fermanagh and Donegal; The Black Mountains; The Poteen
maker; The Island of [?Ste]; A Fair Day; The Politician; The Antiquary;
Channel Crossing; Statues Round the City Hall; Immortality; In the Glens;
Manoeuvres; Up the Republic; The Windy Road [266pp.]. TEXT, ‘the
Falls Road, that was a place full of foreigners and Catholics, from whence
there sometimes came the sound of shots [3]. Ireland develops an extremely
romantic view of Ireland, tracing the native race from Oriental stock;
notice of Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Ernest, at Gate
(pp.77-78), incls. the remark, ‘Lady Bracknell never got near Belgravia
than Butt Bridge ... Algernon terrific’ [names of actors added in
marginal hand in copy at Belfast Central Public Library].
From The Jungle: Footnotes to History 1904-1972 (Belfast: Blackstaff 1973), 176pp. CONTENTS: A Belfast Protestant Mantelpiece [3 pts.] A Glare of Burning Tankers; [Towards a] United States; Europe Revisited [inc. conversation with Jan Maseryk]; Island of 18th century Ghosts; Requiem for Louis MacNeice (pp.142-44), incls. pastiche ‘fragments after reading Ulysses’; also ‘A Good booze up at Jammet’s’; ‘James Joyce at the Belfast Opera house’ (pp.63-67), and many other shorter pieces.
[ top ]
Criticism
Robert Greacen, Even Without Irene (1969; Lagan rep. 1995),
p.146.
[ top ]
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction, Pt II (Cork: Royal Carbery
1985); cites Patriot Adventurer, or A short life of Wolfe Tone; Portraits and Sketches, and From the Irish Shore,
her called ‘his autobiography’; also lists Statues around
the City Hall (London: Cresset Press 1939), 298pp., stories and sketches
based on personal experience, giving pictures of Belfast, Derry, Donegal,
Fermanagh, and Mourne Mountains, as well as Galway and Midlands; much
reflection and comment, and mild criticisms [of things Irish]. Note, The
British Library holds no titles in for the periods 1956-65 and 1966-70.
Frank Ormsby, ed., Northern Windows: An Anthology of Ulster Autobiography (Belfast: Blackstaff 1987), selects extract from Statues Round the City Hall (1939), here p.564f.
Sophia Hillan King & Seán MacMahon, eds., Hope and History: Eyewitness Accounts of life in Twentieth-Century Ulster (Belfast: Friar’s Bush Press 1996), incls. ‘A Skating Party in Edwardian Belfast’ [non-title excerpt from From the Jungle of Belfast] (pp.2-4).
Kate Newmann, Dictionary of Ulster Biography (Belfast: QUB/IIS 1993), cites Red Brick City; Patriot Adventurer; Life of Wolfe Tone; The Age of Unreason; Six Counties in Search of a Nation; and From the Irish Shore, autobiography [all n.dd.]
Herbert Bell Library (Belfast), holds Cpt. Denis Ireland, An Ulster Protestant Looks At His World [n.d.]; From the Irish Shore (London 1936); Statues Round The City Hall (London 1939); From the Jungle of Belfast (Belfast 1973); Six Counties in Search of a Nation (Belfast 1947).
Books in Print (1994), An Ulster Protestant Looks At His World (Belfast: Dorman 1931); From the Irish Shore (London Rich & Cowan 1936); Statues Round The City Hall (London: Cresset 1939); From the Jungle of Belfast, Footnotes to History 1904-1972 (Belfast: Blackstaff 1973) [0 85640 020 3]; Portraits and Sketches (Belfast: Vortex Press 1935), 103pp.
University of Ulster (Central Library), holds Eamon de Valera Doesn’t See it Through: A Study of Irish Politics in the Machine Age (Cork: Forum Press 1941), 62pp.; From the Jungle of Belfast: Footnotes to History 1904-1972 (Belfast: Blackstaff 1973), 175pp.; Portraits and Sketches (Belfast: Vortex Press [1935]); Six Counties in Search of a Nation: Essays and Letters on Partition 1942-1946 (Belfast: Irish News 1947), vi, 108pp.; An Ulster Protestant Looks At His World: A Critical Commentary on Contemporary Irish Politics (Belfast: Dorman & Co. 1930), 86pp.; The Age of Unreason: A Short History of Democracy in Our Times [Abbey Publ.] (Dublin: Corrigan & Wilson 1944), 34pp.; From the Irish Shore: Notes on My Life and Times (London: Rich & Cowan 1936), 244pp.
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)