CARLETON, William. Born in Prillisk, Clogher, Co. Tyrone, 1794. His father, a tenant farmer, who supported fourteen children on as many acres, was remarkable for his extraordinary memory and had a thorough acquaintance with Irish folk-lore. The family was bilingual. Carleton was chiefly educated at hedge-schools and at a small classical school at Donagh (Co. Monaghan). Somewhere about 1814 Carleton made the Lough Derg Pilgrimage, afterwards described in a story with that title written for the Christian Examiner. About the same period he seems to have gradually lost his faith, and subsequently he became a Protestant, but for most of his life was indifferent to all forms of religion. After many vicissitudes he came to Dublin, where he had very varied and painful experiences in the effort to make a living. He wrote for the Christian Examiner, the Family Magazine, the Dublin University Magazine, &c. He also wrote for the Nation, though, as Mr. O’Donoghue says, “Carleton never was a Nationalist, and was quite incapable of adopting the principles of the Young Irelanders.” What he wrote from the Nationalist standpoint was written through the need of earning his bread. For, though famous long before his death, he never freed himself from money troubles. Died 1869. See D. J. O’Donoghue’s Life of Carleton, two vols., which includes Carleton’s Autobiography.
⸺ AMUSING IRISH TALES. Two Series in One. Fourth edition. 256 pp. (Published 5s.).
Not to be confounded with Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, by the same Author. This is an entirely different work. Contains:—“Buckram Back, the Country Dancing Master”; “Mary Murray, the Irish Matchmaker”; “Bob Pentland, the Irish Smuggler”; “Tom Gressley, the Irish Sennachie”; “Barney M’Haigney, the Irish Prophecy Man,” and ten others.
⸺ ANNE COSGRAVE.
“A vigorous attempt to exhibit the manners and customs, and especially the religious feelings, of the Ulster people. Some of the chapters are very graphic, and there is no lack of Carleton’s peculiar humour.”—(O’Donoghue).
⸺ FATHER BUTLER AND THE LOUGH DERG PILGRIM: Sketches of Irish Manners. Pp. 302. (Curry). 1829.
Published anonymously. Two of Carleton’s most virulently anti-Catholic writings. The second, in particular, contains passages which, for Catholics, are blasphemous.
⸺ THE POOR SCHOLAR; and other Tales. Pp. 252. (Duffy). 1s. Still in print. [1830].
Selections, comprising some of Carleton’s best work, and quite free from religious and political rancour. The Poor Scholar is full of human interest. Carleton works powerfully upon all our best feelings in turn. Particularly touching is his picture of the depth and tenderness of family affections (he was himself a doting father). The pictures of the hedge-schoolmaster’s brutalities, and of the days of the pestilence are vivid. He is in this story altogether on the side of the peasant. This little volume contains also eight other stories, humorous for the most part, all excellent.
⸺ TALES OF IRELAND. [1834].