Life
1805-1851; b. Derry, son of army sargeant; returned to Cork; became hedge-school
teacher and later national teacher in Co. Waterford, 1837-43; became Tithe
War activist, imprisoned; dismissed at Glounthane for Nation article
in support of Repeal ("What is Repeal, Papa?"); post as sub-editor
on Dublin Monitor secured by Charles Gavan Duffy; moved to Dublin,
1844; contrib. to Dublin Journal of Temperance, Science, and Literature,
The Irish Penny Journal, and The Nation; met John O’Daly,
publisher, and assisted him in issuing issued Reliques of Irish Jacobite
Poetry (1844), with metrical translations by Walsh; charged Thomas
Davis with bigotry [PI]; issued his translation-collection, Irish Popular
Songs (1847); became schoolmaster to young convicts at Spike Island,
and was dismissed for greeting John Mitchel en route for deportation,
whose hand he kissed with the words ‘Ah, you are now the man in all
Ireland the most to be envied’ (see Jail Journal); he was
schoolmaster to the Cork Workhouse at the time of his death. CAB DNB
JMC PI DIB DIW DIL DBIV MKA RAF FDA OCIL
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Works
Reliques of Irish Jacobite Poetry; with biographical sketches
of the authors, interlineal literal translations and historical illustrative
notes by John O’Daly; together with metrical versions by E. Walsh
(Dublin: S. Machan 1844; 2nd edn. Gill 1883); Irish Popular Songs;
with English metrical translations and introductory remarks and notes
by E. Walsh (Dublin: J. McGlashan; London: W. S. Orr 1847).
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Criticism
Charles Kickham, ‘Edward Walsh’, in The Celt, 5 Dec.
1857, p.306.
Charles J. Kickham, ‘E. Walsh: A Memoir’, in J. Maher, The Valley near Slievanamon, a Kickham Anthology (Kilkenny People, 1942), Pt. 7.
W. B. Yeats, [in] Preface, Book of Irish Verse.
Robert Welch, A History of Verse Translation from Irish 1789-1897 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1987), Chap. 9 [pp.120-32].
Anne MacCarthy, James Clarence Mangan, Edward Walsh and Nineteenth-century Irish Literature in English (NY: Edwin Mellen 2000), 306pp.
Anne MacCarthy, ‘Edward Walsh and Nineteenth-Century Translation’, in Neil McCaw, ed. Writing Irishness in Nineteenth-Century British Culture (Aldershot: Ashgate 2004), pp.81-93.
Robert Farren, The Course of Irish Verse in English (Sheed & Ward 1948).
Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde (1974), p. 119.
Robert Welch, Irish Poetry from Moore to Yeats (1980), p.114.
Anne MacCarthy, James Clarence Mangan, Edward Walsh and Nineteenth-century Irish Literature in English (Edward Mellen 2000) - noticed in Études Irlandaises, 28, 1 (Printemps 2003), pp.96-97.
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Notes
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature (Gale Pub. 1978), notes
that DNB entry is by Martin MacDermott; other comms. by Charles Kickham
(Celt 1857); Eugene Davis (Shamrock 1877); anon. (Emerald
1868), and others.
John Cooke, The Dublin Book of Irish Verse (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1909), bio-dates, 1805-1850; “Mairgréad ni Chealleadh” [‘At the dance in the village/Thy white foot was the fleetest/Thy voice ’mid the concert/Of maidens was sweetest ...’]; “A Munster Keen”; “Mo Craoibhin Cno”; “O’Donovan’s Daughter”; “Song of the Penal Days, 1720” [‘She’s bound and bleeding ’neath the oppressor [...] My love had riches once and beauty ...’]. And see comments in Robert Farren, Course of Irish Verse (1948), pp.28-29.
Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), his father a small farmer of Cork, joined army under pressure of poverty, and was stationed at Londonderry; ed. in Cork, spending a good deal of time and attention on ‘the ancient tongue’; briefly occupied sub-ed. post on The Dublin Monitor procured by CG Duffy; On Spike Island occurred the interview with John Mitchel of which the latter gives a touching account in Jail Journal, ‘A tall gentleman-like person in black but rather over-worn clothes, came up to me and grasped my hands with every demonstration of reverence. I knew his face, but could not at first remember who he was - he was Edward Walsh, author of ‘Mo Craoibhín Cno’ and other sweet songs, and some very musical translations from Irish ballads. Tears stood in his eyes as he told me he had contrived to get an opportunity of seeing and shaking hands with me before I should leave Ireland. I asked him what he was doing in Spike Island, and he told me he had accepted the office of teacher to a school they kept there, for small convicts-a very wretched office, indeed, and to a shy, sensitive creature like Walsh it must be daily torture. He stooped down and kissed my hands. "Ah," he said, you are now the man in all Ireland most to be envied." I answered that I thought there might be room for difference of opinion about that; and then after another kind word or two, being warned by my turnkey, I bid farewell, and retreated into my own den. Poor Walsh! he has a family of young children; he seems broken in health and spirits; ruin has been on his track for years, and I think has him in the wind at last. There are more contented galley-slaves moiling at Spike than the school-master. Perhaps, this man does really envy me, and most assuredly I do not envy him.’ The meeting occurred in Aug. 1850. Died as schoolmaster in Cork workhouse. A monument raised to him by a number of workingmen in Cork. JMC selects ‘Brighidin Ban Mo Store’; ‘Mairgréad bni Chealleadh’; ‘Mo Craoibhín Cno’; ‘Have you Been at Carrick’; ‘The Dawning of the Day’; ‘Lament of the Mangaire Sugach’ [Andrew Magrath, an attempted convert to Protestantism].
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, Vol 2 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Reliques of Irish Jacobite Poetry, with biog. sketches of the authors, interlineal literal translations and historical illustrative notes by John Daly [sic], together with metrical versions by E. Walsh (Dublin: Daly 1844); Irish Popular Songs, with metrical translations and introductory remarks and notes by E. Walsh (Dublin: M’Glashan 1847, and (London: W. S. Orr 1847).
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2, selects from Reliques of Jacobite Poetry, ‘An Bonnaire Fiadha-Phuic’ (‘The Cruel Base-Born Tyrant’), and from Irish Popular Songs ‘Owen Roe O’Sullivan’s Drinking Song’, ‘Mairgréad ní Chealleadh’, ‘Mo Chraoibhín Cnó’ [40-43], ‘An Raibh Tú Ag gCarraig’, Casadh an tSugáin’, ‘Táim Sínte ar Do Thuama [From the Cold Sod that’s O’er You]’; ‘An Clár Bog Déil [The Soft Deal Board]’, printed with translations and commentary by Walsh in Irish Popular Songs [79-82; 83]. REMS & REFS: unhappy at Spike Island, 2; faithful translation of ‘Maidin chiuin dham cois bruach na trag’ in Irish Popular Songs, 33; [Irish Pop. Songs, 1847, 76]; [‘Poetry and Song’, bibl., 98]. WORKS, 112 [as supra].
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)