Standish OGrady

Standish O'Grady 1846-1928, Irish author and historian. A leader in the Irish literary renaissance , he followed his History of Ireland (1878-80) with English versions of the heroic legends of Ireland. The best are probably his volumes about Cuchulain (1892-1917; repr. 1920).

O'Grady, Standish James (1846–1928), journalist and popularizer of Gaelic myth. The son of a clergyman of aristocratic descent, O'Grady grew up in west Cork. After becoming aware of Gaelic sagas in his early twenties, he published several romanticized ‘histories’ of ‘the heroic period’, which he later reworked as boys' stories. O'Grady also wrote about the Elizabethan conquest and commented on contemporary politics, particularly as editor of the Kilkenny Moderator (1898–1900), and proprietor of the All Ireland Review (1900–7). A ‘Fenian Unionist’ admired by nationalists, O'Grady attacked British overtaxation of Ireland and denounced landlords as degenerate for failing to lead Irish plebeians against bourgeois commercialism. At different times he called himself Tory democrat, imperialist, and socialist, but consistently despised commercial values and praised agrarian warrior societies. His political views influenced Yeats; his histories inspired literary revival writers such as George Russell (AE), though O'Grady distanced himself from the mainstream of the revival. He was a maverick more notable for influence than personal achievement.

Patrick Maume