DOWLING, Richard. Born in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, 1846. Educated St. Munchin’s, Limerick. Much of his life was passed in journalistic work, first for the Nation, then for London papers. He edited the short-lived comic papers Zozimus and Yorick, and was a leading spirit in another, Ireland’s Eye. In 1879 came his Irish romance, The Mystery of Killard; but he found that there was no public at the time for Irish novels, so he devoted himself to writing sensational stories for the English public. He published some delightful volumes of essays, Ignorant Essays and Indolent Essays. These deal with all kinds of subjects in a quaint, humorous, fanciful vein. Other novels—The Sport of Fate, Under St. Paul’s, The Weird Sisters, &c., seventeen or so in all.
⸺ THE MYSTERY OF KILLARD. Pp. 357. (Tinsley Bros.) [1879]. New edition, 1884.
A tale of the Clare coast and its fishing population (drawn with much skill and fidelity) half a century back. The story centres in a mysterious and romantic rock unapproachable by sea and connected with the land by a single rope only. There is a mysterious owner, or rather a series of them, and mysterious gold. But the central idea of the book (one of the most original in literature, it has been justly called) is the study of a deaf-mute who, by brooding on his own misfortune, grows to envy and then to hate his own child, because the child can hear and speak.
⸺ SWEET INNISFAIL. Three Vols. (Tinsley). 1882.
Scene: chiefly the neighbourhood of Clonmel. The interest is mainly in the plot, which is full of dramatic adventure and of movement, without any very serious study of Irish character.
⸺ OLD CORCORAN’S MONEY. Pp. 310. (Chatto & Windus). Crown 8vo. Cloth. 3s. 6d. 1897.
Money is stolen from an old miser. The interest of the complicated plot centres in the detection of the thief. Clever sketches of life in a southern town. Characters carefully and faithfully drawn, especially Head-Constable Cassidy, R.I.C.
⸺ ZOZIMUS PAPERS. (N.Y.: Kenedy). 38 cents net. 1909.
“A series of comic and sentimental tales and legends of Ireland.” The title is most misleading. There are six pages of an introduction dealing with Michael Moran, a famous Dublin “character,” nicknamed Zozimus. The rest of the book consists of a series of stories by Carleton, Lover, Lever, Barrington, &c. The contents have nothing to do with Dowling nor with the famous periodical Zozimus.