Standish James O'Grady

Standish James O'Grady (18 September, 1846–1928) was an Irish author, journalist, and historian. His father was the Reverend Thomas O'Grady, the scholarly Church of Ireland minister of Castletown Berehaven, County Cork, and his mother Susanna Doe (or Dowe). Standish O'Grady's childhood home - the Glebe - lies a mile west of Castletownbere near a famine mass grave and ruined Roman Catholic chapel. It is not much further inland from the Castletownbere GAA ground. The Glebe is owned by a German couple who are both judges and use it as a holiday home.

He was a cousin of Standish Hayes O'Grady, another noted figure in Celtic literature.

After a rather severe education at Tipperary Grammar School, Standish James O'Grady followed his father to Trinity College, Dublin, where he won several prize medals and distinguished himself in several sports. He proved too unconventional of mind to settle into a career in the church, and qualified as a lawyer, though earning much of his living by writing for the Irish newspapers. However, a chance discovery of a book of Celtic literature inspired him. After an initial lukewarm response to his writing on the legendary past in "History of Ireland: Heroic Period" (1878-81) and "Early Bardic Literature of Ireland" (1879), he realized that the public wanted romance, and so followed the example of James McPherson in recasting Irish legends in literary form, producing historical novels including "Finn and his Companions" (1891), "The Coming of Cuculain" (1894), "The Chain of Gold" (1895), "Ulrick the Ready" (1896) and "The Flight of the Eagle" (1897), and "The Departure of Dermot" (1913).

He also studied Irish history of the Elizabethan period, presenting in his edition of Sir Thomas Stafford's "Pacata Hibernia" (1896) the view that the Irish people had made the Tudors into kings of Ireland in order to overthrow their unpopular landlords, the Irish chieftains. His "The Story of Ireland" (1894) was not well received, as it shed too positive a light on the rule of Oliver Cromwell for the taste of many Irish readers. He was also active in social and political campaigns in connection with such issues as unemployment and taxation.

In 1898, finding Dublin journalism in decline, he moved to Kilkenny to become editor of the "Kilkenny Moderator", which was printed at number 28 High Street. He engaged in the revival of the local woollen and woodworking industries. In 1900 he founded the "All-Ireland Review", and returned to Dublin to manage it until it ceased publication in 1908.

He married Margaret Fisher and had three sons. Advised to move away from Ireland for the sake of his health, he passed his later years living with his eldest son, a clergyman in England, and died in the Isle of Wight.

His second son was Dr Hugh O'Grady, later Professor of the Transvaal University College, Pretoria.

External links

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References

[http://web.ukonline.co.uk/members/tom.paterson/StandishJamesBIO.htm Memoir of Standish James O'Grady by Dr. Hugh O'Grady, 1929]