John Banim (1798-1842)


Life
b. 3 April, Kilkenny, son of Michael Banim (Snr.), prosperous farmer and shopkeeper; ed. Mr George Charles Buchanan’s ‘English Academy’ from the age of five, learning ‘oratorical reading’ and modern languages; later at Kilkenny College (Grammar School), under direction of Rev. O’Callaghan; left Kilkenny for Dublin, 1813, spent two years studying art under Mulvany at the Academy of the Royal Dublin Society; won drawing prize; returned to Kilkenny as art teacher; fell unhappily in love with girl who died of tuberculosis after the refusal of their marriage by her father, a local land agent; himself contracted spinal tuberculosis; contrib. to Leinster Gazette; moved to Dublin in 1820, intending to live by writing; issued The Celt’s Paradise (Feb. 1821), an Ossianic poem in four ‘duans’ - verses from which Croker used as an epigraph in Fairy Legends ( Pt. II, 1828); received £10 from Lord Cloncurry on viewing the manuscript; his Turgesius, on the Viking period in Dublin, rejected by Drury Lane and Covent Garden, and neither acted nor printed;
 
sought assistance from Richard Lalor Sheil with Damon and Pythias, based on Polyænus (Bk. 5, Chap. 25), successfully produced by William Charles Macready, who appeared as Damon to Charles Kemble’s Pythias (Covent Gdn., 28 May 1821); returned to Kilkenny in Feb. 1822, with a view to writing Irish fiction in collaboration with his brother Michael [q.v.]; married Ellen Ruth [var. Rothe], the daughter of a man with whom he had lodged there, on 27 Feb. 1822, moved with her to London, 13 March 1822, to pursue a literary career ‘without friends and with little money to seek his fortune’; settled at 7, Amelia Place, Brompton - the house where J. P. Curran had died; wrote librettos for Thomas Arne of the English Opera House; endured poverty and illness; encouraged and assisted Gerald Griffin in London, 1823; also befriended John Sterling; received the manuscript of “Crohoore of the Bill-Hook”, from Michael, 1823, published with his own John Doe and The Fetches as Tales by the O’Hara Family [1st ser.] (1825), jointly and pseudonymously as the Abel and Barnes O’Hara [aka ‘O’Hara Brothers’]; John writes to Michael report that the books are selling ‘very well’ and the publishers [Simpkin and Marshall] ‘quite contented: big with hopes, and withal benevolent’ (1 May 1825), and receives a generous offer from Colburn for the next series;
 
travelled in Ulster to research his historical novel in the manner of Scott set in the Williamite War, published in The Boyne Water (1826) - stopping at Coleraine in May 1825, where he wrote to his brother (as shown in the introduction Michael wrote to the edition of 1865 [p.iv]; wrote Tales by the O’Hara Family [2nd ser.] (1826), his own work solely, which includes The Nowlans; writes to Michael at Christmas 1826 that ‘the second series goes right well, but the publishers say they are too strongly written, too harrowing [...]’ (Christmas Day, 1826; quoted in Murray, 1857); visited by Michael in 1826; composed Tales by the O’Hara Family [3rd ser.] (1828), consisting of The Croppy by Michael; issued The Anglo-Irish of the Nineteenth Century (1828), a satirical novel implicitly comparing the waning ascendancy with the new greatness of O’Connell; suffered the early death of a child, and experienced sharp deterioration in health, 1829; moved to Boulogne on medical advice, with the help of charitable subscriptions from supporters in London, Dublin, and Kilkenny; moved on to Paris, 1829 and there contracted cholera, 1832; suffered the death of a second son, who was bur. in Père la Chaise, Paris; returned from France to Dublin, in a desperate state of health, 1835; though illhe , attended benefit performance of The Irish Widow and another play (Dublin Theatre Royal, 21 July 1835); returned to Kilkenny, where he was highly honoured, Sept. 1835;
 
settled in Windgap Cottage; visited by Gerald Griffin, 1836; confined to a bath chair; received £50 from Sir Robert Peel, through the good offices of the Earl of Carlisle, and £50 from the king; inscribed on civil list pension, 1836 (£150 with £40 for his dg.); completed Fr. Connell (1842) with Michael; d. 31 Aug. [var. 1st Aug], 1844, at Windgap Cottage; bur. St. John’s Churchyard, Kilkenny [aetat. 44]; often called “the Scott of Ireland”; William Carleton thought his attempt to imitate Scott unfortunate (Nation, 23 Sept. 1843) but held that he ‘vindicate[d] our country from falsehood and calumny as much as any that ever bore a pen in her defence’; he also felt that Banim’s knowledge of the Irish peasantry more extensive than profound, while marking his strength of feeling; there is a portrait in oil in the National Gallery of Ireland by his friend George Francis Mulvany, thought an excellent likeness by Michael Banim; also a bust by Hogan at the Tholsel of Kilkenny; the Banim brothers write twenty-four books, often dealing with violence crime in melodramatic terms, but showing a close knowledge of Irish small-town and country life. CAB ODNB DIB DIH NCBE MKA RAF JMC FDA SUTH OCIL DIL

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Works
Plays
PERFORMANCES:
  • Damon and Pythias (Covent Garden, 28 May 1821).
  • The Prodigal [never acted].
  • The Death Fetch (Eng. Opera House [1825]).
  • The Last Guerrilla (English Opera House [1826]).
  • The Sargeant’s Wife (English Opera House, 24 July 1827).
  • The Sister of Charity (English Opera House 1830).
  • The Conscript’s Sister (English Opera House, 1832).
  • The Irish Widow (Theatre Royal, Dublin, 21 July 1825).
  • The Ghost Hunters (Surrey Theatre, 26 March 1833).
  • The Duchess of Ormond (Drury Lane, 20 Oct. 1836), and Sylla (Theatre Royal, Dublin, 18 May 1837).

See also dramatic versions of The Fetches and Ghost-hunter [unpub.] (cited in Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre, Tralee: Kerryman 1946).

 
PUBLISHED EDNS.:
  • Damon and Pythias: A Tragedy, in Five Acts[in verse], revised and altered for the stage by the Right Hon. R. L. Shiels (London: John Warren, Old Bond Street 1821), viii, 70pp., 8°. [styled a prompt book; mistakenly called 2nd edn.; incls. prelim. note: ‘This tragedy underwent a most considerable change in Mr. Shiel’s hands, after having been originally written. That gentleman’s alterations and arrangements generally pervade it; some scenes are exclusively his.’]; Do., as Damon and Pythias: a Tragedy [by J. Banim and R.L. Shiel [Cumberland’s Brit. Theatre Ser., Vol. 44. No. 363 (London: [Duncombe] [1845 & [186?]), 60pp., 14 cm. [12°]; Do., as Damon and Pythias [Edwin Forrest Edition of Shakespearian and Other Plays, 6] (NY: W. A. Moore, C. S. Bernard [1860]), 57pp. [‘Correctly marked ... from his own prompt-book.’]; Do. [British drama, Vol. 3] (London: J. Dicks 1865), pp.[843]-48; and Do. [Dicks’ Standard Plays, 19] (London; J. Dicks [1877 or 188?]), [18pp.], pp.831-48, 8°[2 cols. per page; Aberdeen UL; TCD Lib.].
  • The Sargeant’s Wife (London: T. H. Lacy, Vol. 23 [1824]), and Do. (Dicks Standard Plays, No. 369 [1855].
  • Revelations of the Dead Alive (London: J. Simpkin & Marshall 1824).
 
Poetry
  • The Celt’s Paradise (London: John Warren 1821), 96, [i-]xxvipp. [i.e, Notes; ded. to Valentine B. Lawless, 2nd. Baron Cloncurry].
  • Chaunt of the Cholera (London: James Cochraine 1831), iv, 92pp., 8° [but actually by Griffin].
  • Revelations of the Dead Alive (London: J. Simkin & R. Marshall 1824).
 
Fiction
  • Tales by the O’Hara Family [1st Ser.], 3 vols. (London: Simpkin & Marshall 1825), comprising “Crohoore of the Bill Hook” [by Michael Banim; Vol. I, pp.1-367; Vol. II, pp.1-107], “The Fetches” [Vol II, pp.109-392], and “John Doe” [all of Vol. III].
  • Tales by the O’Hara Family [2nd Ser.], 3 vols. (London: Colburn 1826), comprising “The Nowlans” [Vol. I, pp.1-318; Vol. II, pp.1-360] and “Peter of the Castle” [Vol. III comp.; 281pp.[epigraph: ‘“Quid? Ille ubi est Milesius?” / What has become of the Milesian?’ - Terence, Adelphi, Act. IV, Scene I.]
  • The Boyne Water / A Tale by the O’Hara Family [but actually by John Banim], 3 vols. (London: W. Simpkin & R. Marshall 1826); Do. [2nd edn.], 3 vols. (London: Printed for W. Simpkin & R. Marshall 1836), 18.8cm [printed by J. McCreery in London]; Do., New Edition, with introduction and notes by Michael Banim (Dublin: Duffy & Co. 1865), 568pp., 19cm. [8°]; Do., A New Edition / with Introduction and Notes, by Michael Banim, Esq., the survivor of the ’O’Hara Family’ (NY: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. [and] Montreal ... 1881); Do., with new intro. and glossary by Bernard Escarbelt [CERIUL Anglo-Irish Texts; facs. of 1865 edn.] (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Université de Lille III 1976), xv, 595pp., ill. [maps], Bibl. pp.30-31; Do., with an introduction by Robert Lee Wolff [Ireland, from the Act of Union, 1800, to the death of Parnell, 1891; A Garland Series, No. 17], 2 vols. [facs. of 1865 edn.] (NY & London: Garland 1978), 19cm.
  • The Anglo-Irish of the XIX [Nineteenth] Century. A novel. In three volumes [i.e., 3 vols. in 2] (London: Henry Colburn 1828), 308, 305, 303pp., 12°; Do., with an introduction by Robert Lee Wolff [Ireland, from the Act of Union, 1800, to the Death of Parnell, 1891, 20], 3 vols. [facs of 1828 edn.] (NY: Garland 1978), 19cm; Do. [Hibernia: Literature and Nation in Victorian Ireland], 1 vol. (Poole, Washington, DC: Woodstock Books 1997), 27cm. [303 cols.; var. pag.]; and Do., trans. as L’Anglo-Irlandais du XIXe siècle: roman historique Irlandais / par M. Banim [sic]; traduit de l’Anglais par ... A[uguste] J[ean] B. Defauconpart ..., 4 vols. (Paris: Charles Gosselin, libraire [...] 1829), 18cm. [printed at Angers by Ernest le Sourd]; Do. [rep. edn.], intro. by John Kelly (NY: Woodstock Books 1997).
  • The Nowlans; Do., trans. as L’apostat, ou La famille Nowlan, tr. par A.J.B. Defauconpret [Coll. de romans hist. sur l’Irlande], 4 tom. (Paris 1829), 17cm.; The Nowlans, intro. by Kevin Casey [Classic Irish Novels] (Belfast: Appletree Press 1992), viii, 272pp.;
    [as anon.,] The Denounced, 2 vols. (London: Colburn & Bentley 1830) [being The Last Baron of Crana and The Conformists; see details].
  • The Smuggler, 3 vols. (London: Colburn & Bentley 1831).
  • The Mayor of Wind-Gap and Canvassing, by the O’Hara Family [but actually with Harriet Martin], 3 vols. (London: Saunders & Otley 1835) [see details].
  • [with Michael Banim,] John Doe (London: Saunders & Otley 1835) [sep. edn.].
  • [with Michael Banim,] The Bit o’ Writin’ and Other Tales by the O’Hara Family, 3 vols. (London: Saunders & Otley 1838), 19cm. [see details]; Do., as The Bit o’ Writin’ / by the O’Hara family. A new edition, with introduction and notes, by Michael Banim, Esq., the survivor of the “;O’Hara family” (Dublin: James Duffy 1865), 371pp., 8°; Do. [facs. of 1838 Edn.], as The Bit o’ Writin’ and Other Tales / John Banim, with an introduction by Robert Lee Wolff [Ireland from the Act of Union, 1800 to the Death of Parnell, 1891], 3 vols. (NY: Garland 1979), lii, 304, 305, 296pp., 19cm.
  • [with Michael Banim,] Father Connell, by the O’Hara Family, 3 vols. (London: Newby and Boone 1842).
  • [anon,] The Changeling, 3 vols (London [s.n.] 1848), 315, 350, 414pp. [sole copy in TCD Lib., et al.; attrib. in Stephen Brown].

See also under Michael Banim, q.v.

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Collected Edition
  • The Works of the O’Hara Family, with foreword and notes by Michael Banim, 10 vols. (Dublin: Duffy 1865), and Do. (NY: D & J Sadleir 1869).
 
Digital copies
Books by John Banim at Google Books (UK)
  • Tales, by the O’Hara Family: Containing “Crohoore of the Bill-Hook”, The Fetches, and John Doe, Second Edition [2nd Edn.] in 3 vols (London: Printed for W. Simpkin and R. Marshall / Stationers'-Hall Court, Ludgate-Street 1826); Vol. II, 392pp. [recommencing “Crohoore” at Chap. XVII; Tale II: The Fetches”, [t.p.] pp.109-392 [end] - available at Internet Archive - online]
  • The Denounced. By the Authors of “Tales by the O‘Hara Family”. In Three Volumes. (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1830), I: viii, 309pp.; II: 315pp.; III: 292pp., 12° [see details]; Do., as The Denounced; or, the Last Baron of Crana (Dublin: James Duffy 1865) and Do, 2 vols. (NY: J. & J. Harper 1830), 428pp. [containing “The Last Baron of Crana”, Vol I: pp.1-232; and “The Conformists”, Vol. II: pp.1-188; available online]
  • Damon and Pythias [no. 6 Edwin Forrest Edition of Shakespearian and Other Plays correctly marked, with kind permission of / the eminent tragedian / from his own prompt book / and as acted by himself in the / principle cities of the United States / under the management of James M. Nixon, Esq. [...] (NY: Torrey Brothers 1860), 76pp. [online]
  • The Boyne Water: A Tale - A New Edition / with introduction and notes / by Michael Banim, Esq., / the survivor of “The O’Hara Family” (Duffy 1865), 596pp. [online & online].
  • The Peep o’ Day; or, John Doe, and Crohoore of the Billhook. By the O'Hara Family. A New Edition with Introduction and Notes, by Michael Banim, Esq., the Survivor of “The O’Hara Family”. (Dublin: James Duffy, 15 Wellington Quay, & London, Paternoster Row 1865), 412pp. [commencing “Crohoore” at p.189; available at Internet Archive - online.]
 
  • See also The Nowlans, by John Banim (1826), at “Irish Resources”, ed. Michael Sundermeier, Creighton University [online].
Google Books ...

    Google Books lists all the works of the Banim Brothers (John and Michael Banim) - online; accessed 21.07.2023

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Bibliographical details
The Denounced. By the Authors of “Tales by the O‘Hara Family”. In Three Volumes. (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1830), I: viii, 309pp.; II: 315pp.; III: 292pp., 12°, boards [31s 6d]. Dedication to ‘His Grace Arthur, Duke of Wellington’ (p.[iii].), with epigraph: ‘bright o’er the flood / of her tears and her blood, / Let the rainbow of hope be her Wellington’s nam.’ - Thomas Moore. [Prefatory ‘To the Reader’, pp.[v]–viii, precedes main text in Vol. 1; contents: ‘The Last Baron of Crana. Tale I’, vols. 1 & 2 (up to p.187), and ‘The Conformists. Tale II’, Vols. 2 (from p.[189]) and 3. Printer’s marks and colophons of Samuel Bentley, Dorset Street, Fleet Street. Further edns. incl. The Denounced; or, the Last Baron of Crana (Dublin 1866) and Do. (NY 1830). [Source: British Novels 1830-36 at CEIR Cardiff online.]

The Mayor of Wind-Gap and Canvassing. By the O’Hara Family. In Three Volumes. (London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street, 1835), Vol. I: 336pp.; Vol. II: 401pp.; Vol. III 316pp., 12°. [boards, 31s. 6d.; first noticed Jan 1835; held in 13 libraries incl. BL. The Mayor of Wind-Gap sometimes attributed to Michael Banim alone; Canvassing attrib. to Harriet Letitia Martin (1801–91) of Ballynahinch, Co. Galway, by Sadleir (Item 147a) and Wolff (Item 230).

CONTENTS: ‘The Mayor of Wind-Gap’, vols. 1 & 2 (up to p.222), and ‘Canvassing’, vols. 2 (from p.[223]) & 3; Printer’s marks and colophons of B. Bensley. Further edns: ‘new edn.’, revised (Dublin & London 1865); The Mayor of Wind-gap [solo] (New York [also Philadelphia] 1835); Canvassing [solo] (Philadelphia 1835). French trans. of ‘Canvassing’ [alone?] attributed to Banim as Le candidat: Moeurs irlandaises (1836). [See English Novels 1830-36: A Bibliography of British Fiction (Cardiff) - online.]

The Bit o’ Writin’ and Other Tales by the O’Hara Family, 3 vols. (London: Saunders & Otley 1838); comprising Vol. 1: “The Bit o’ Writin”; “The Irish Lord Lieutenant and his Double”, and “The Family of the Cold Feet”; Vol 2: “The Hare and the Witch”; “The Soldier”s Billet”; “The Hall and the Castle”; “The Half-brothers”; “Twice Lost but Saved”; “The Faithful Servant”; “The Roman Merchant” [orig. pub. in Dublin Penny Journal, I, 8, 18 Aug 1832, pp.61-63]; “Ill Got, Ill Gone”. Vol 3: “The Last of the Storm”; “The Rival Dreamers”; “The Substitute”; “The White Bristol”; “The Stolen Sheep”; “The Publican’s Dream”; “The Ace of Clubs”. Do [another edn.; reiss. (Dublin: Duffy 1865), with a foreword and notes by Michael Banim, also containing “A Peasant Girl”s Love” [prev.in Dublin Penny Journal, 25 Aug 1832, pp.66-67; here immed. after “The Soldier”s Billet”].

The Boyne Water, by John Banim, ed. by Bernard Escarbelt [CERIUL Anglo-Irish Texts, Gen. Ed. Patrick Rafroidi] (Univ. of Lille 1976), 564pp., with notes, glossary and maps. Escarbelt’s ‘Notes on the Text’ makes no allusion to the American printing of 1869, but reports that the 1865 edn. of The Boyne Water was reprinted by Saddlier [sic err.], New York, in 1881, and translated into French in 1829 by A. J. B. Defauconpret as La Bataille de la Boyne, ou Jacques II en Irlande. Present text from the 1865 ed. in 1 vol, with intro. and notes by Michael, giving an idea of the co-operation of the brothers; orig. ed. 1829 from Simpkin & Marshall (xxxix, 375pp, chaps. 1-XIII; 421pp, chaps. 1-XIV [equiv. of XIV-XXVII in single vol. ed.]; 436pp., chaps. I-XIII. [See bibliography, infra.]

Julia M. Wright

Irish Literature [Dalhousie Univ., Canada]: A longer bibliography compiled by Julie Wright - cites John Banim & Michael Banim (John [1798-1842] and Michael [1796-1874]) with the following introductory note: ‘Much of the Banims’ work was collaborative, often under the name, “the O'Hara Family,” so distinguishing who wrote what is often difficult, especially given the varying degrees of collaboration. Usual attributions are given below in parentheses. The matter is further complicated by the republishing of some texts, or fragments of texts, under different titles. Many of the novels were reissued in later years with notes and introductions by Michael Banim.’ (Available online; accessed 19.01.2023.)

Bibl. Julia Wright, ed., Irish Literature 1750-1900: An Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell 2008), 628pp. [see details infra].
 
  • The Celt's Paradise (1821, John).
  • Damon and Pythias: A Tragedy, in Five Acts (1821) [by John Banim].
  • A Letter to the Committee appointed to appropriate a fund for a national testimonial, commemorative of His Majesty's first visit to Ireland (1822).
  • Revelations of the Dead Alive (1824) [by John Banim]; reissued in 1845 as London and its Eccentricities in the Year 2023, or Revelations of the Dead Alive.
  • The Tales of the O'Hara Family [by John & Michael Banim]: First series (1825); Second series (1827).
  • The Nowlans (1825).
  • The Boyne Water (1826 [by John Banim].
  • The Croppy, a Tale of 1798 (1828 [by Michael Banim).
  • The Anglo-Irish of the Nineteenth Century. A novel (1828) [by John Banim].
  • The Denounced; or, the Last Baron of Crana (1830) [by John Banim].
  • The Smuggler (1831) [by John Banim].
  • Chaunt of the Cholera: Songs for Ireland (1831) by John & Michael Banim).
  • The Ghost-Hunter and His Family (1833) [by Michael Banim).
  • The Mayor of Wind-Gap and Canvassing (1835) [by Michael Banim & Harriet Letitia Martin].
  • The Bit O’ Writin’ and Other Tales (1838) [by John & Michael Banim].
  • Father Connell (1842) [by Michael Banim].
  • The Loaded Dice (1844) [by John Banim].
  • The Sergeant’s Wife: A Drama in Two Acts ... Taken from the Author’s Tales of the “O’Hara Family” (1855) [by John Banim].
  • Town of the Cascades (1864 [by Michael Banim].
 
Julia M. Wright, ed., Irish Literature 1750-1900: An Anthology, ed. Wright, Wiley-Blackwell 2008, 628pp. CONTENTS - This expansive anthology offers full texts of short plays, fiction, and poetry by a wide selection of prominent writers, including Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Maria Edgeworth, Thomas Moore, James Clarence Mangan, Samuel Ferguson, Lady Jane Wilde, and Oscar Wilde. It features a selection of collaboratively authored works by the Edgeworths, the Banims, and the Kavanaghs, as well as excerpts from collaborative publications such as Paddy’s Resource and The Nation. Special attention is paid to the work of Ireland’s women writers, as well as a number of Ulster poets and writers who emigrated to North America during this period. [See Amazon - online; accessed 19.01.2023.]

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Criticism
  • Thomas Moore, ‘Irish Novels’, in Edinburgh Review, 43 (Edinburgh: Blackwood 1826), pp.356-72.
  • William Carleton, ‘The Late John Banim’, The Nation (Dublin, 23 Sept. 1843), pp.794-95 [see extract].
  • [anon.,] ‘National Tintings III: John Banim’, in The Illustrated Dublin Journal, 1, 12 (23 Nov. 1861) [see attached].
  • Patrick Joseph Murray [barrister-at-law], The Life of John Banim, the Irish Novelist ... with extracts from his correspondence, general and literary (London: William Lay 1857), 3, l., 334pp., ill. [front. port.], 17cm. [see details & editions, infra].
  • Louis Lachal, ‘The Forgotten Irish Novelists’, The Irish Monthly, Vol. 58 (1930), pp.238-49.
  • B. G. McCarthy, ‘Irish Regional Novelists of the Early Nineteenth Century’, in Dublin Magazine [n.ser.] XXI, 3 (July-Sept. 1946), pp.28-37 [with Gerald Griffin].
  • Thomas Flanagan, The Irish Novelists 1800-1850 (New York: Columbia UP 1958) [chap.], pp.167-202.
  • W. J. McCormack, ‘A Manuscript letter from Michael Banim (1874)’, Hermathena, Vol. CXVII (Summer 1974), pp.37-38 [see extract].
  • Bernard Escarbelt, ‘France as Fictional Material in the Novels of John Banim (1798-1842)’, in Cahiers Irelandaises, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Villeneuve d’Ascq 1974), pp.133-52.
  • Mark D. Hawthorne, John and Michael Banim (The ‘O’Hara Brothers’): A Study in the Development of the Anglo-Irish Novel (Salzburg Inst. für Englische Sprache und Lit. 1975), 143pp.
  • Bernard Escarbelt, ‘The Kilkenny Novelist’, introduction to The Boyne Water [rep. of 1865 edn.] (Lille UP 1976), pp.9-14 [see extract].
  • Robert Lee Wolff, ‘The Fiction of the O’Hara Family’, intro. to The Denounced (New York: Garland 1979)
  • John Cronin, ‘John Banim, The Nowlans’, in The Anglo-Irish Novel: The Nineteenth Century [Vol. I] (Belfast: Appletree 1980), pp.41-58.
  • Barton Orr Friedman, ‘Fabricating History, or John Banim Refighting the Boyne’, Éire-Ireland, Vol. 17, No.1 (1982), pp.39-56.
  • James Cahalan, Great Hatred, Little Room, The Irish Historical Novel (Syracuse UP / Gill & Macmillan 1984) [see extract].
  • Barry Sloan, The Pioneers of Irish Fiction 1800-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe / Totowa NJ: Barnes & Noble 1986).
  • Tom Dunne, ‘The Insecure Voice: A Catholic Novelist in Support of Emancipation’, in Culture et Practiques Politiques en France et en Irlande, XVI-XVIIIe Siecle [Actes du Colloque de Marseille 1988] (Paris: Centre de Recherches Historiques [1988]) [see extract]
  • James Cahalan, The Irish Novel: A Critical History (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1989), [extensive sections on Banim]
  • John Cronin, ‘Historical Glimpses: John Banim and the Big House Theme’, in Jacqueline Genet, ed., The Big House in Ireland (Lille UP 1991), pp.85-90.
  • Bernard Escarbelt, ‘An Irishman in France: John Banim’, in Barbara Hayley & Christopher Murray, eds., Ireland and France - A Bountiful Friendship: Essays in Honour of Patrick Rafroidi (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1992) [see extract].
  • Julian Moynihan, ‘Charles Lever (1806-72): The Anglo-Irish Writer as Diplomatic Absentee, with a Glance at John Banim’, in Anglo-Irish: The Literary Imagination in a Hyphenated Culture (Princeton UP 1995) [Chap. V], pp.84-108, espec. 106ff.
  • Willa Murphy, ‘The Subaltern Can Whisper: Secrecy and Solidarity in the Fiction of John and Michael Banim’, in Was Ireland a Colony?: Economy, Politics, Ideology and Culture in Nineteenth-century Ireland, ed. Terence McDonough (Dublin: IAP 2005), 455-90pp.

The Life / of / John Banim, / The Irish Novelist, / author of “Damon and Pythias”, &c. and one of the writers of “Tales by the O’Hara family”. / with / Extracts from his Correspondence, / General and Literary / by Patrick Joseph Murray (London: William Lay, King William Street, Strand / 1857), 3, l., 334pp., ill. [front. port.; printed by R. Clay, Bread Street Hill], 17cm. [expanded from a serial in the Irish Quarterly Review, 1854-6]. Available at Google Books - online.

Other editions, as The Life of John Banim, in the 10th and last vol. of The Works of the O’Hara Family, collected by Michael Banim (NY: D. & J. Sadlier 1869), 355 [1]; [2], 90pp., ill. [1 pl., port.) [18.5cm; incls. The Celt’s Paradise, with sep. t.p. and pag. though first leaves are printed in same gathering as last leaves of the Biography - the Biography ded. to Richard Armstrong; the The Celt’s Paradise ded. to Valentine B. Lawless, 2nd. Baron Cloncurry]; and Do. [facs. rep.], introduced by Robert Lee Wolff, as The Life of John Banim (New York: Garland 1978), lii, 334pp.

Bernard Escarbelt, ed., The Boyne Water by John Banim (1976) provides a bibliography (pp.26-29), listing William Carleton, ‘John Banim’, The Nation (23 Sept. 1843), pp.794-95; M[ichael] Banim’s preface to Town of the Cascades; P. J. Murray, The Life of John Banim, the Irish Novelist ... with extracts from his correspondence, general and literary (London: William Lay 1857); M. A. Steger, John Banim: Ein Nachahmer Walter Scotts (Erlangen: Karl Dores 1935); M. R. Mitford, Recollections of a Literary Life, or Books, Places, and People, 3 vols. (London: Bentley 1852), p.33ff. [see Notes]. M[aurice] Goldring, Le Drame en l’Irlande (Paris: Bordas 1972); Patrick Rafroidi, bibliography of Banim’s plays, in L’Irlande et le Romantisme (1972); Hugh Maxton [i.e., W. J. McCormack], ‘Tales of Two Extremes’, in Hibernia (21 Sept. 1973), [n.p.]. Also Thomas Flanagan, The Irish Novelists (1958). For history see MacKenzie, Siege of Londonderry, 1690 [q.d.]; C. D. Milligan, History of the Siege of Londonderry (Derry: Carter 1951), and and J. G. Simms, Jacobite Ireland (Routledge 1969).

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Commentary
See separate file, infra.

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Quotations
See separate file, infra.

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References

For bibliographical details, see British Novels 1830-36, at CEIR Cardiff online.]

Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: CUA 1904), Vol. 1, calls Banim ‘a bright-hearted, true-souled Irishman’ [this phrase also quoted by Patrick Murray, in Life of John Banim, facs. rep. of 10th vol. of Sadlier 1869 edn. of Works, New York: Garland 1978, p.9]; b. 3 April 1798; son of farmer and trader who gave his sons a good education; wrote precocious poetry and prose at ten; entered Kilkenny College at 13; developed talent as sketcher and painter; chose between art and [?]law; trained RDS, Dublin, in 1814; returned after two years; drawing teacher; contrib. poems and sketches to local periodicals; death of a young lady to whom he was engaged permanently affected his mind and health, passed some years in aimless and hopeless manner akin to despair; moved to Dublin in 1820, relinquishing art for literature; numerous contributions to periodicals from this time, mostly hurried; sketches on theatrical topics, pseudonym ‘A Traveller’ appeared in Limerick journal, considered v. clever; published The Celt’s Paradise in 1821; gained friendship of Sheil; tragedy Turgesius offered to Covent Garden and Drury Lane, and rejected; composed Damon and Pythias, produced at Covent Garden through recommendation of Sheil, and well received; [engraved portrait of Banim facing p.44, Vol. I]; revisited Kilkenny in the summer of 1822 [sic]; planned O’Hara tales; m. Ellen Ruth [sic], prior to his return [sic] to London for several years; commenced first of his O’Hara Tales in April 1823; John Doe and The Fetches [order sic], his sole works in the first series; The Boyne Water [n.d.]; 2nd ser. Tales by the O’Hara Family (1826) includes The Nowlans, severely criticised; The Anglo-Irish (1828); the concluding series of the Tales appeared in 1829, commencing with The Disowned [recte The Denounced], by John, and ending with Father Connell by Michael (1842) [note that this denomination of a third series is irregular, since there was no such corporate issue]; declining health; wrote pieces for the English opera-house [see Balfe]; returned home in 1835; d. 13 Aug. [1842; ?err. 1844]; provision made for his widow, a daughter dying a few years after her father. The authorship of the Tales series is here ascribed as follows, John Doe, Fetches, Smuggler, Peter of the Castle, The Nowlans, Last Baron of Crana, and Disowned [recte The Denounced], all by John. A lengthy quotation from Chamber’s Cyclopaedia of English Literature follows invoking comparisons with Crabbe, Edgeworth, Lady Morgan, and using epithets such as ‘passion’, ‘crime’, ‘turbulence and misery’, ‘overmastering energy’, ‘sustained and harrowing interest’, ‘murders’, ‘abductions’, ‘pursuits’, ‘escapes’, ‘spirit’, ‘raciness’, ‘truth of costume and colouring’. D. J. O’Donoghue, author of Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis 1912), is quoted as saying, ‘Where his songs are at all tolerable, they are full of fire and feeling’, with further reference to his disregard of ‘metrical laws’ as the ‘chief defect’.

Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: CUA 1904) - selects: “An Adventure in Slievenamon” from John Doe [Lieutenant Howard’s discovery of illicit whisky distilling presided over by Jack Mullins; in the course of it Mullins shows classical learning (viz., ‘.. remembering my poor old Horace’s aversion to garlic’), and quotes ‘Parentis olim si quis impia manu, / Senile guttur [sic] fregerit–’, but soon reverts to the colloquial in ‘Thonamon duoul’]. Also the poems “Soggarth Aroon” [‘Loyal and brave to you, / Soggarth Aroon / Yet be not slave to you / Soggarth Aroon / Nor, out of fear to you, / Stand up so near to you- / Och, out of hear to you / Soggarth Aroon! // ... Knelt by me, sick and poor ... on the marriage day ... friend only ... And for this I was true to you / Soggarth Aroon / In love they’ll never shake, / When for Old Ireland’s sake / We a true part did take, / Soggarth Aroon!’]; “Aileen” [‘And I go to brave a world I hate, / And woo it o’er and o’er, / And tempt a wave and try a fate, / Upon a stranger shore, / Aileen; / Upon a stranger shore. // Oh, when the bays are all my own, / I know a heart will care, / Oh, when the gold is wooed and won, / I know a brow shall wear .. /; and ‘He Said that he was not Our Brother’, styled a ‘ferocious attack provoked by some utterance of Wellington about Ireland’ [JMC], and continuing: ‘The mongrel! he said what we knew. / No, Eire! our dear mother-island, / He ne’er had his black blood from you!’ Stanza 2 of the same ‘tarnishes’ various English kings and conquerors in Ireland; Stanza 3 explains the conquest, ‘No! falsehood and feud were our evils, / While force not a fetter could twine’ and ends with the asservation, ‘[...] And no traitor among us or nigh us- / Let him come, the Brigand! let him come!’

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Dictionary of National Biography [UK] remarks that the O’Hara tales (1st series 1825), to some extent succeeded in doing for the Irish what the Waverley novels [of Walter Scott] had done for the Scottish people. Note: the entry is by Charles Read.

Catholic Encyclopaedia [New Advent]: Poet, dramatist, novelist, b. 3 April, 1798, at Kilkenny, Ireland; d. 31 August, 1842. His father, following the double occupation of farmer and storekeeper, was in easy circumstances. John’s literary efforts began very early; at ten he wrote some verses and a tale of considerable length. After a preparatory training in private schools he entered Kilkenny College in 1810. Having a taste for painting and drawing he went to Dublin in 1813 to study art. In two years he was back in Kilkenny, became a drawing teacher, and fell desperately in love with one of his pupils, a girl two years his junior. The girl’s father refused his consent, wit the result that in two months she died of a broken heart. Her lover almost followed her example. An entire disregard of self at the time of the funeral caused paralysis and left him a victim of spinal disease, which afflicted him almost incessantly and finally caused his death. At the end of a year he set out for Dublin with a literary career in view. It was not long before he made his reputation. In 1821, when only twenty-three years old, he wrote the tragedy Damon and Pythias, which was played at Covent Garden with Macready and Charles Kemble in the principal parts. After his marriage, which took place during a visit to his parents, he planned with his brother Michael, The Tales of the O’Hara Family. These were to be written in collaboration, each brother to submit his work to the other for revision. As a result, it is impossible to distinguish from internal evidence the work of each. Their ambition was to do for Ireland what Scott, by his Waverley Novels, had done for Scotland - to make their countrymen known with their national traits and national customs and to give a true picture of the Irish character with its bright lights and deep shadows. To London, a wider field for literary work, Banim went in 1822 “without friends and with little money to seek his fortune”. The next ten years were a fruitful season, during which he contributed frequently to various periodicals, and produced a considerable number of operative pieces, dramas, essays, and novels, but always at the expense of “wringing, agonizing, burning pain”. Writing of this period to his brother, he says: “Of more than twenty known volumes I have written, and treble their quantity in periodicals, no three pages have been penned free from bodily pain.” The little crumbs of comfort he received he generously shared with his countryman, Gerald Griffin, who wrote of his early struggles in London: “What would I have done if I had not found Banim?” In 1829 John Banim was ordered to France in the hope that he might repair his shattered health, but the journey was of no avail. In a few years a stroke of paralysis “deprived him of the use of his limbs and brains”. In 1835 he returned to Kilkenny by slow stages. Dublin and his native city showed him signal honour by demonstrations that moved him deeply. A public appeal for assistance met with such generous response that his financial troubles were ended. The Government, in recognition of his literary work, granted him a pension of £150, and an additional sum of £40 a year for the education of his daughter. His last work was the revision of a story which he had inspired and encouraged his brother to write, Father Connell, the picture of his beloved parish priest of Kilkenny. He died in his own Windgap Cottage, just outside Kilkenny, at the early age of forty-four. His principal works are: the poems, “Soggarth Aroon”, “Aileen”, “The Celt’s Paradise”; the dramas, Damon and Pythias and The Prodigal; and the novels, John Doe, The Fetches, Peter of the Castle, The Mayor of Windgap, and The Boyne Water, the last a political novel. (Online; accessed 98.04.2010.) Note similar entries on Michael Banim and Gerald Griffin.

Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), lists Banim brothers, viz, “The O’Hara Family, John Doe, or The Peep o’ Day (1825; rep. Simms & M’Intyre 1853, then Routledge [n.d.]), young man joins Shanvests for revenge, terrible to landlord, proctor, and priest; The Fetches (Duffy [1825]), the influence of superstition - the spirit of a person about to die - on two susceptible minds; The Nowlans ([1826] 1853), 256pp., temptation and fall of a young priest; Peter of the Castle (Duffy [1826]), 191pp.; The Boyne Water (Duffy [1826] & eds.), 564pp., chars. incl. Sarsfield, George Walker, Galloping Hogan, the Rapparee, Carolan the Bard and others; The Anglo-Irish of the Nineteenth Century 3 vols (Colburn [1828]; rep. in 1 vol. as Lord Clangore (Duffy 1865), opening in London with Lord Castlereagh and J. W. Croker; the son of a peer, Gerald Blount, flees after a duel with all his anti-Irish prejudices, exciting adventures with Rockites; double identity; Catholic association meeting with O’Connell and Sheil debating, Scott’s son appears at dinner party [see Notes, infra.]; The Conformists (Duffy [1829]), a Catholic under George II determines to conform and oust his father; The Denounced, or the Last Baron of Crana (Duffy [1826; err.], Colburn 1830; New York: Benziger [n.d.]), 235pp; The Changeling, 3 vols (London 1848), anon., 315, 350, 414pp. [Galway and Connemara, including Aran; mystery surrounding heir of Ballymagawley got out of the way by present owner, Mr. Whaley, returns in disguise to claim rights; Whaley hides his secret from his high-minded daughter Clara; the empty-headed Fosters; petit bourgeois, vulgar Mrs. Heffernan of Galway, matching-making Mrs. Flanagan, and other chars. such as Considine the butler and Capt. O’Connor, peasants.] See also under ‘Anon’: The Anglo-Irish of the Nineteenth Century, rep. anonymously as Gerald and Augusta, or The Irish Aristocracy (Cameron & Ferguson [n.d.]), in which Gerald, orphan son of Lord Glangore is brought up in London while his sister is raised in Ireland by Mr. Knightly [sic], their characters being respectively anti-Irish and Ireland-loving; wrecked off the Irish coast, Gerald is captured by ‘Captain Rock’; adventures and amusing situations result in his eventually being won over to Ireland’s side. Note that Brown’s attribution of first editions to Duffy Dublin are erroneous.

Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre (Tralee: Kerryman 1946), lists Turgesius, unacted and unprinted [see Dublin University Magazine, No.558, Nov. 1855]; Damon and Pythias (CG 28 May 1821), with help from Sheil, based on Polyaenus Bk. 5, Chp. 25, a success; The Prodigal, never acted; The Death Fetch (Eng. Op. Hs., c.1825); The Last Guerilla (Eng. Op. Hs., c.1826); The Sargeant’s Wife (Eng Op. Hs., 24 July 1827) ?1855; the last three, adpt. from Banim novels. The Sister of Charity (Eng. Op. Hse. 1830), approved; The Conscript’s Sister (Eng. Op. Hse. 1832); The Irish Widow, farce (Th. Royal, Dublin, 21 July 1825), author’s benefit, The Ghost Hunters (Surrey 26 Mar 1833); The Duchess of Ormond (DL 20 Oct. 1836), and Sylla (Th. Royal, Dublin, 18 May 1837).

Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English: The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol 2, lists poetry, and the fiction: The Fetches (London: Simpkin & Marshall 1825), in Tales, ser. 1; The Boyne Water, 3 vols. (London: Simpkin & Marshall 1826); The Nowlans (Colburn 1826); The Anglo-Irish of the XIXth Century (Colburn 1828), anon.; The Denounced, 3 vols. (Colburn & Bentley 1830), consisting of The Last Baron of Crana, Vol. I, viii+309pp. (comp.), Vol. II, pp.1-189, and The Conformists, Vol II, pp.189-315, Vol. III, 292pp. (comp.); The Smuggler (Colburn & Bentley 1821); also dramatic works, Damon and Pythias (1821); The Sargeant’s Wife, 2 acts ... taken from Tales of [recte by] the O’Hara Family (Lacy eds. 1824), and copies the unprinted titles from Nicoll and Kavanagh, Turgesius; The Prodigal; The Death Fetch (1825); The Last Guerilla (1826); Sylla (1826); The Sister of Charity (1830); The Conscript’s Sister (1832); The Ghost Hunter (1833); The Irish Widow (1835); The Duchess of Ormond (1936). Revelations of the Dead Alive (London: Simpkin & Marshall 1824), 376pp [presented in novelistic framework, subsequently printed as London and Its Eccenticities in the Year 2023, or Revelations of the Dead Alive [1845]; also Life of John Banim, the Irish Novelist ... with extracts from correspondence, Patrick Joseph Murray (London: William Lay 1857 [sic]), 334pp., port.; Ann Steger’s John Banim ein Nachahmer Walter Scotts ... &c (1935), bibliographically devoid of scientific value. Note that Rafroidi misreads the passage in Ethel Mannin’s Two Studies in Integrity dealing with Chaunt of the Cholera and attributes this to Gerald Griffin rather than Banim (see Romantic Period, Vol. 1). Note that Rafroidi misreads the passage in Ethel Mannin’s Two Studies in Integrity dealing with regarding Chaunt of the Cholera, attributing it in error to Griffin rather than Banim.

A. N. Jeffares & Anthony Kamm, eds., An Irish Childhood: An Anthology (Collins 1987), gives extract on Kilkenny Grammar School from The Fetches.

John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Longmans 1988; rep. 1989), remarks that John Banim’s heart was broken by the death of his beloved, and cites only two novels, Clough Fion (1852) and The Town of the Cascades (1864), both overlapping the Victorian period. Further, Father Connell (1842), despite artificial murder plot, has vivid pictures of suffering Irish humanity. ‘The Banims claimed attention as folklorists, Irish nationalists, and pioneer of regional authenticity.’ [q.p.]

James Cahalan, Great Hatred, Little Room: The Irish Historical Novel (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1983), lists The Boyne Water; A Tale by the O’Hara Brothers, 3 vols (London: William Simpkin & R Marshall 1826; New York: D. & J. Sadlier 1866; 3 vols rep. edn. New York: Garland Publishing Co. 1979); The Denounced, 3 vols (1830; New York: Garland 1979) [onsisting of The Last Baron of Crana and The Conformists].

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 3 vols. (Derry: Field Day Publications 1991), Vol. 1: selects The Anglo-Irish of the Nineteenth Century (pp.1139-49); biography (pp.1171-72), with notes in conjunction with Michael. See also Vol. 2, bio-notes and remarks at pp.3, 990, 999, & 1022.

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British Library (1955 Cat.)
  • [1]The Anglo-Irish of the Nineteenth Century. A novel. [By John Banim] 3 vol. Henry Colburn: London, 1828. 12o.
  • [2] A Letter to the Committee appointed to appropriate a fund for a national testimonial, commemorative of His Majesty’s first visit to Ireland. pp.31. Richard Milliken: Dublin, 1822. 8o.
  • [3] Damon and Pythias, &c.; Do. [another edition.] Do. [A reissue], pp.60. Music-Publishing Co.: London [1860?] 12o. 1865. London,1874?] 8o.
  • [4] [Peter of the Castle] Padhré na Moulh, ou le mendiant des ruines. Roman irlandais [...] traduit de l’anglais par A. J. B. Defauconpret. 2 tom. Paris [Charles Gosselin], 1829. 12o. [copy in TCD]
  • [5] [The Boyne Water] La Bataille de la Boyne, ou Jacques II en Irlande; roman historique irlandais [...] traduit de l’anglais par M. A. J. B. Defauconpret. 5 tom. Paris, 1829. 12o.
  • [6] The Celt’s Paradise, in four duans. pp.96, xxvi. John Warren: London, 1821. 12o.
  • [7] The Ghost-Hunter and his Family. By J. [or rather by Michael] Banim, author of “Tales by the O’Hara Family,” etc. [Another edition.] [A reissue.] Joe Wilson’s Ghost, ... etc. [Another edition.] The Ghost Hunter and his Family. pp.284. Simms & M’Intyre: London, 1852. 2o. i, 246pp. G. Routledge & Co.: London, 1863. 12o. G. Routledge & Sons: London, [1870] 12o. pp.124. Aldine Publishing Co.: London, [1913] 8o.
  • [8] The Loaded Dice.
  • [9] The Sergeant’s Wife. A drama, in two acts [...] Taken from the author’s Tales of the ‘O’Hara Family.’ [Another edition] pp.36. London, [1855?] 12o. [Another edition.] pp.13. London, [1883?] 8o.
  • [10] Here and there through Ireland [...] With illustrations [...] Reprinted from the ‘Weekly Freeman’. 2 pts. Freeman’s Journal: Dublin, 1891, 92. 8o.
  • [11] Crohoore na Bilhoge ou les White-Boys, roman historique irlandais [...] Traduit de l’anglais par M. A. J. B. Defauconpret. 3 tom. Paris, 1829. 12o.
  • [12] Le Chasseur de spectres et sa famille [...] Traduit de l’anglais par A. Pichard. 2 vol. Paris, 1833. 8o.
  • [13] The Mayor of Wind-gap. Paris: Baudry’s European Library; sold by Amyot, etc., 1835. pp.285. 8o.
  • [14] The Town of the Cascades. 2 vol. Chapman & Hall: London, 1864. 8o.
  • [15] Chaunt of the Cholera. Songs for Ireland. By the authors of ‘The O’Hara Tales,’ ‘The Smuggler,’ &c. [i.e. John and Michael Banim], iv, 92pp.. J. Cochrane & Co.: London, 1831. 8o.
  • [16] The Smuggler [1831] [in] Bentley Standard Novels (1833), vii, 490pp.; new edn. (1856), 490pp.
  • [17] Damon and Pythias: a tragedy, in five acts, etc. [In verse. By John Banim. Revised by Right Hon. Richard L. Sheil] 70pp.. John Warren: London, 1821. 8o.
  • [18] The Denounced. By the authors of ‘Tales by the O’Hara Family’ or rather, by John Banim]. 3 vol. Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley: London, 1830. 12o.
  • [19] London and its eccentricities in the year 2023, or Revelations of the Dead Alive. By the Author of ‘Boyne Water,’ etc. [J. Banim] pp.376. Simpkin, Marshall & Co.: London, 1845. 8o.
  • [20] [P. J. Murray,] The Life of J. Banim, the Irish Novelist [...] with extracts from his correspondence. London, 1857. 8o.
  • [21] Peter of the Castle [by J. and M. Banim]; and The Fetches [by J. Banim]. By the O’Hara Family. A new edition, with introduction and notes, by M. Banim, etc. Dublin, London, 1865. 8o.
  • [22] The Bit o’ Written’ and other tales, by the O’Hara Family. New edition, with introduction, and notes by M. Banim, etc. 3 vol. London, 1838. 12o. Dublin, London, 1865. 8o.
  • [23] The Boyne Water. By the O’Hara Family [or rather, by John Banim only]; Do. A new edition, with introduction and notes by M. Banim, etc. Dublin, London, 1865. 8o.
  • [24] The Denounced; or, the Last Baron of Crana. By the O’Hara Family [or rather, by J. Banim]; Do. A new edition, with introduction and notes by M. Banim, etc. Dublin, London, 1866. 8o.
  • [25] The Mayor of Wind-Gap [by M. Banim] and Canvassing by [Miss Martin]. By the O’Hara Family. New edition, with introduction and notes by M. Banim, etc. 3 vol. London, 1835. 12o. Dublin, London, 1865. 8o.
  • [26] The Peep O’Day; or, John Doe [by M. and J. Banim] and Crohoore of the Billhook [by M. Banim] [...] A new edition, with introduction and notes by M. Banim, etc. Dublin, London, 1865. 8o.
  • [27] Revelations of the Dead Alive. [By J. Banim] London, 1824. 12o.
  • [28] The Smuggler: a tale; by the author of ‘Tales by the O’Hara Family,’ ‘The Denounced,’ etc. [John Banim]. [Another edition.] New edition. 3 vol. London, 1831. 12o. pp.vii, 490. 1833. pp.490. Ward & Lock: London, 1856. 12o.
Also listed: M. A. Steger, John Banim, ein Nachahmer Walter Scotts. Auf Grund der wichtigsten ‘O’Hara Tales’ [by John and Michael Banim]: Inaugural Dissertation (Erlangen 1935), 87pp.; The Sargeant’s Wife, drama (Lacy vol. 23; also Dicks Standard Plays, No. 369];

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Notes
M. R. Mitford, Recollections of a Literary Life, or Books, Places, and People, 3 vols. (London: Bentley 1852), p.33ff: remarks of ‘John Banim, the founder of the first school of Irish novelists that if it were possible to suspect Messieurs Victor Hugo, Eugène Sue and Alexander Dumas of reading the English, which they never approach without such ludicrous blunders, one might fancy that many-volumed tribe to have stolen their peculiar inspiration from the O’Hara Family. Of a certainty, the tales of Mr. Banim were purely original ... they reflect Irish scenery, Irish character, Irish crime, and Irish virtue, with a general truth which, in spite of their tendency to melo-dramatic effects, will keep them fresh and life-like for many a day ...’ (p.35.)

Thomas Crofton Croker takes some verses from Banim’s Celt’s Paradise as an epigraph to the last section of Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, Pt. II (London: Murray 1828), viz.,

[T. C. Croker]Fairy Legends / Rocks and Stones: “Forms in silence frown’d, / shapeless and nameless; and to mine eye / Sometimes they rolled off cloudily, / Wedding themselves with gloom - or grew / Gigantic to my troubled view, / And seemed to gather round me.” Banim’s Celt’s Paradise. (Croker, op. cit., p.273.)

W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984), lists Irish classical plays including J. Banim, Damon and Pythias (1821) [Stanford, 110]. But note also a play, Damon and Pythias, by Richard Edwards (?1565), written in ‘long doggerel’ and turning on the legendary character Grim, the Collier of Croyden. Edwards was Master of the Children of the Queen’s Chapel. (See Saintsbury, Short History, [1898], 1922 edn., p.231.)

Robert Lee Wolff, ed., The Denounced, by the O’Hara Family, 3 vols. [facs. edn.] (NY: Garland 1978), ded. Wellington; consists of two novels, The Last Baron of Crana, and The Conformists [pl. sic], the latter set near Coleraine and featuring a fanatically anti-Catholic bishop in the historical person of Anthony Dopping, Bishop of Meath (1643-1697) as an example of savage prejudice of Protestant Ulstermen [Wolff]. The novel bears an epigraph from Moore: ‘- bright o’er the flood / Of her tears and her blood, / Let the rainbow of hope be Wellington’s name’. The dedication reads, ‘Addressed to His Grace Arthur, Duke of Wellington, these tales most gratefully, and most respectfully, are enscribed.’ The Preface of three pages speaks briefly of the commencement of writing and the ‘old laws ... at that time debated’ which had since ‘became unexpectedly decided’ (p.[v]), and defends the author against “continuing prejudices” and “opening wounds afresh”, possibly language used by Wellington. In his introduction, Wolff refers to the dedication in the light of the fact that Wellington was castigated in The Anglo-Irish of the XIXth Century. The implication is that the dedication must be ironically intended, even that The Denounced is none other than Wellington himself. Vide the lines, ‘He Said that he was not Our Brother’, occasioned by a ‘ferocious attack provoked by some utterance of Wellington about Ireland’ according to McCarthy (ed., Irish Literature, 1904; cited in Refences, supra). And note also the occasion when Wellington attacked the Catholic mayor of Kilkenny, as reported in Cabinet [?], who may have been Michael Banim.

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