[EGAN, Pierce]. (1772-1849).
⸺ REAL LIFE IN IRELAND; or, the Day and Night Scenes, Rovings, Rambles, and Sprees, Bulls, Blunders, Bodderation and Blarney, of Brian Boru, Esq., and his elegant friend Sir Shawn O’Dogherty, exhibiting a Real Picture of Characters, Manners, &c., in High and Low Life, in Dublin and various parts of Ireland, embellished with humorous coloured engravings from original designs by the most eminent Artists, “by a real Paddy.” [1821].
Messrs. Methuen in 1904 reprinted the book from the fourth ed. which was publ. by Evans & Co. The title-p. well describes the book. Brian and his friend were what were then called bucks and bloods. There is much absurdity, and extreme exaggeration. The follies and vagaries of the two heroes are told in a facetious and roistering style. There is not a little coarseness. But the book is interesting for its side-lights on the period, 1820-1830. Geo. IV.’s visit is described in a vein of burlesque. The illustrations are even more vulgar than the text, but have a similar interest.
EGAN, P. M.
⸺ SCULLYDOM: an Anglo-Irish Story of To-day. Pp. 360. (Maxwell). 2s. Picture boards. 1886.
Scene: Kilkenny. Time: 1880-84. Lucifer Scully, moneylender, by degrees becomes possessed of much land, and grinds down the tenants. They revolt, and this gives opportunity for good descriptions of evictions and reprisals. Fred O’Brien, a fine character whose sweetheart is spirited away by the villainy of Scully, goes in pursuit of her, and has many adventures and disappointments before all ends happily. Mickey Crowe and his love episodes supplies the comic relief. The tone is strongly National, and the dialect well done. The Author has also written “A History and Guide to Waterford.”
ELIZABETH, Charlotte. [Mrs. Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, 1790-1846].
⸺ THE ROCKITE. [1832].
The Tithe War (c. 1820) from Protestant standpoint. Captain Rock was a famous leader of Whiteboys during the anti-tithe war. The Memoirs of Captain Rock were published anonymously, 1824, in Paris, by Thomas Moore.
⸺ DERRY: A Tale of the Revolution. Pp. xxiv. + 317. (Nisbet). [1839]. Sixth edition. 1886, and since.