Life
1817-1882; b. Co. Roscommon; emig. USA, working as teacher among native
Indians before settling in St. Paul, Minnesota; novels incl. The Dalys
of Dalycross (1866), the tale of Henry Daly and his relations with
the Anglo-Irish Browns; and Frank Blake (1876) printed in America,
descriptive of Irish-America communities, the former set in Ireland with
American interlude, vindicating Catholic respectability; ‘Widow Lemville’s
Boarding House’, short novel, ser. in The Irish Monthly (Vol.
9 1881); ‘Dead Broke’ (Irish Monthly, Vol. 10 1882),
shows Church militant in opposition to ‘the mystifying evolutions
of modern philosophy’. IF DIW.
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Commentary
James H. Murphy, Catholic Fiction and Social Reality in Ireland, 1873-1922
(Conn: Greenwood Press 1997), Part I: ‘Upper Middle-Class Fiction
1873-1890’, p.19-20.
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Notes
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction (Dublin: Maunsel 1919) lists
The Dalys of Dalystown (St. Paul: Pioneer Printing 1866) [old Catholic
family saved by son who goes to USA]; also, Frank Blake (1876)
[a friend is saved from false accusation of murder of Hon. Robert Eyre
in Galway; full of Bodkins, Lynches, Joyces, and other Galway families].
James H. Murphy, Catholic Fiction and Social Reality in Ireland, 1873-1922 (Conn: Greenwood Press 1997), Part I: ‘Upper Middle-Class Fiction 1873-1890’, p.19-20; summarises plot of Dalys of Dalystown (1866), the tale of Henry Daly, and his feud with the Anglo-Irish Browns, amicably settled after a duel in which Brown loses his hand; contains a Fenian sub-plot in which Bryan Larkin is set to kill the middleman O’Roarke by Ribbonman Maloney, though actually at the behest of the scheming govt.; quotes, ‘It would seem impossible to prove any connection between the Lord Lieutenant in Dublin Castle and such a ruffian as Maloney in this country; but connections between villains of his stamp and the police have been frequently proved and exposed and the Castle of Dublin and police barracks of Ireland sand in very close relationship to each other.’ (St. Paul, MN: Pioneer Printing 1866, p.268; here pp.19-20); also quotes Brown on the Ribbonmen: ‘cowardly assassins whose religion teaches them that murder is justifiable and whose priests are ever ready to absolve them of their crime’ (ibid., p.91; here p.42).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)