Thomas Caulfield Irwin (4 May 1823 – 20 February 1892) was an
Irish poet, writer, and classical scholar.
He was born in
Warrenpoint
Warrenpoint () is a small port town and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits at the head of Carlingford Lough, south of Newry, and is separated from the Republic of Ireland by a narrow strait. The town is beside the village ...
,
County Down
County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...
,
to a prosperous family. He was educated privately. He travelled to Europe and Africa but later became impoverished through the collapse of family fortunes. He took up journalism in Dublin around 1848. He was highly regarded as a poet by contemporaries.
[Hogan, 1979]
He was a prolific writer and contributed to the
Dublin University Magazine
The ''Dublin University Magazine'' was an independent literary cultural and political magazine published in Dublin from 1833 to 1882. It started out as a magazine of political commentary but increasingly became devoted to literature. The magazine ...
and
The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
, among other publications. He wrote at least one novel and several volumes of poetry. He also carried out translations from classical and European writers.
[Brown, 1919]
He died after some years of poverty in
Rathmines
Rathmines (; ) is an inner suburb on the Southside (Dublin), Southside of Dublin in Ireland. It begins at the southern side of the Grand Canal of Ireland, Grand Canal and stretches along the Rathmines Road as far as Rathgar to the south, Ranela ...
, Dublin, and is buried in
Mount Jerome Cemetery
Mount Jerome Cemetery & Crematorium () is situated in Harold's Cross on the south side of Dublin, Ireland. Since its foundation in 1836, it has witnessed over 300,000 burials. Originally an exclusively Protestant cemetery, Roman Catholics have a ...
.
Selected works
*''From Caesar to Christ'' (novel, Dublin 1853)
*''Versicles'' (Dublin: Wm. Hennessy 1856)
*''Poems'' (Dublin: McGlashen & Gill 1866)
*''Irish Historical and Legendary Poems'' (Cameron & Ferguson 1868)
*''Irish Poems and Legends'' (Dublin, 1869)
*''Songs and Romances'' (Dublin: Gill 1878)
*''Winter and Summer Stories, and Slides of Fancy’s Lantern'' (Dublin: Gill 1879)
*''Pictures and Songs'' (Dublin: Gill 1880)
*''Sonnets and Poetry on the Problems of Life'' (Gill 1881)
*''Poems, Sketches, and Songs'' (Dublin: Gill 1889).
Notes
References
*Geoffrey Taylor, ''Irish Poets of the Nineteenth Century'' (London 1951)
*Geoffrey Taylor, ''A Neglected Irish Poet'', The Bell, 3 (1942)
*
Stephen Brown, ''Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore''
t. I(Dublin: Maunsel 1919)
*Robert Hogan, ed., ''A Dictionary of Irish Literature'' (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irwin, Thomas Caulfield
1823 births
1892 deaths
19th-century Irish poets
Irish translators
Thomas Caulfield Irwin
Thomas Caulfield Irwin (4 May 1823 – 20 February 1892) was an Irish people, Irish poet, writer, and classical scholar.
He was born in Warrenpoint, County Down,
to a prosperous family. He was educated privately. He travelled to Europe and Africa ...
People from Warrenpoint
19th-century Irish translators
Writers from County Down
19th-century Irish novelists