Kathleen O’Meara

Life
1839-1888 [pseud. “Grace Ramsay”]; b. Dublin; gdg. Barry Edward O’Meara, Napoleon’s physician on St. Helena; went to Paris at a young age with her parents and never returned; wrote biographies, and acted as correspondent for the Tablet; published six novels, A Woman’s Trials (1867), in which the heroine is disowned when she becomes a Catholic; also Iza’s Story (1869); A Salon in the Last Days of the Empire (1873); The Old House in Picardy (1887); The Battle of Connemara (1878); Are You My Wife? (1878); The Old House in Picardy (1887); and Narka the Nihilist (1888), a tale of Russian assassins; freq. contrib. to The Irish Monthly; d. 10 Nov., Paris. ODNB JMC IF DIW SUTH

 

Works
[*pseud. Grace Ramsay]
  • A Woman’s Trials, 3 vols. (London: Hurst & Blackett 1867).*
  • The Bells of the Sanctuary: Monseignor [G.] Darboy (London [q. publ.] 1967; 1871).*
  • Agnes (London 1871); and Do., with The Bells of the Sanctuary (London 1871).*
  • The Bells of the Sanctuary. A Daughter of St. Dominick [rep. from "Catholic World"] (London: R. Washbourne 1873); and Do., (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne 1879)*.
  • A Salon in the Last Days of the Empire and Other Sketches by Grace Ramsay (1873); Do., rep. edns. Kessinger 2008, 332pp.; Hardpress Publ. 2010), 344pp.
  • Iza, a Story of Life in Russian-Poland, 3 vols. (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne 1869; rep. 1877).
  • A Heroine of Charity (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne 1878), another ed [1912].
  • The Battle of Connemara (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne 1878).
  • One of God’s Heroines, Mother Mary Teresa Kelly (NY: CTS 1878).
  • Are You My Wife?: A Novel, 3 vols. (London: Tinsley [1877] 1878).*
  • Henri Perreyve, and his Counsels to the Sick, trans. with biog. sketch (1881).
  • Madame Mohl, her salon and Friends, A Study of the Social Life of Paris (London: R Bentley & Son 1885), another edn. (Boston: Roberts Bros. 1886).
  • Queen by Right Divine, and Other Tales (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne 1885).
  • Thomas Grant, first Bishop of southwark (2nd ed. London: W. H. Allen & Co. 1886).
  • The Old House in Picardy (London: Bentley & son 1888).
  • The Blind Apostle and a Heroine of Charity (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne [1890]).
  • The Venerable Jean-Baptiste Vianney, Curé d’Ars (London 1891).
  • Mabel Stanhope (Philadelphia: Kilner 1907).
  • A Queen by Right Divine (London: Burnes & Oates [1912]).
  • A Heroine of Charity (London: Burnes & Oates [1912].
  • QRY, Diana Coryval (1883)

Note: The Bells of the Sanctuary and Monseignor Darboy though often listed separately are apparently the same work, also published as a collective biography incorporating an account of George Darboy with those of two unidentified Catholic nuns - viz., Mary Benedicta, Agnes, Aline, one of God's heroines, Monseigneur Darboy, by Kathleen O'Meara ["Grace Ramsay"] (London: Burnes & Oates 1879), 313pp. [See COPAC - online.]

Catholic Biography
  • Thomas Grant, First Bishop of Southwark, by Grace Ramsay, author of "A woman's trials", "Iza's story", "Bells of the sanctuary", &c. With two portraits (London Smith, Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place 1874 ), vi, 491pp., ill. [2 lvs. of pls.], & Do. [2nd edn.], with a preface by W. Ullathorne, R.C. Bishop of Birmingham (London: 1886), xv, [1], 400pp., ill. [folded pl.].*
  • Frederic Ozanum: His Life and Works (Edinburgh 1876); Do., with a preface by Cardinal Manning (London: C. Kegan Paul 1878), & Do., with a preface by Cardinal Manning [3rd Am. Edn.] (NY: Catholic Publ. Soc. 1888), xx, 345pp.; Do. [another edn.], with a preface by Cardinal Manning, [and] preface by Thomas M. Mulry (NY: Christian Press Assoc. 1911), xx, vii, 345pp.

 

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Commentary
James H. Murphy, Catholic Fiction and Social Reality in Ireland, 1873-1922 (Conn: Greenwood Press 1997), Part I: ‘Upper Middle-Class Fiction 1873-1890’: ‘Kathleen O’Meara has succeeded … in writing a Catholic gentry novel, and yet in overcoming its conventional taciturnity and moderation over religion. The Battle of Connemara is an ultramontaine novel that identities an idealised Irish Catholicism as the model of vigorous Catholicism in general.’ (… &c.; p.58.); Note, Murphy identifies reviews in Irish Monthly commenting that her novels were ‘too Catholic in tone and purpose to become popular’ and reproaching her for a version of Irish peasant speech like that in Punch (idem.).

 

References
Irish Literature
, ed. Justin McCarthy (Washington: University of America 1904); p.2805-13, b. Dublin, removed v. young to Paris; A Woman’s Trials; Iza’s Story; A Salon in the last Days of the Empire; Mable Stanhope; Diana Coryval; The Old House in Picardy; Pearl; Are You My Wife?; Narka, and other novels; Madam Mohl, her Salon and Her Friends, the most successful biog.; also Life of Frederick Ozanam and Life of Bishop Grant; ‘very beautiful and saintly personality’[JMC].

Ireland in Fiction, ed. Stephen Brown (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), lists The Battle of Connemara (1878), in which an English lady settles in Connaught with her Irish husband and converts to RC; includes scenes with Soupers.

 

Notes
Diane Coryval (1883) - Kessinger notice [paraphrase]: A captivating tale of love, passion, and self-discovery set against the backdrop of 19th-century France; follows the life of title-char., a passionate and independent young woman who falls in love with young artist called Maurice. Diane struggles with family disapproval and social convention and confronts her own fears and desires learning to embrace her true self and find happiness in her own way.

Old Boney: O’Meara claimed relation to Dr. Barry O’Mara [q.v.], Napoleon’s physician on St. Helena.

 

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