Life
[?-?]; dg. of Lord Mounteagle; suggested Howth gun running; related to
the de Vere family, Aubrey being introduced to the Apostles by Stephen;
another Stephen visited at his home on Foynes Island by Douglas Hyde 4-5th
1891.
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Criticism
Peadar Ó hAnnracháin, Fé bhrat an Chonnartha (Baile Átha Cliath:
Oifig an tSolathair 1944); ‘Diary of Mary Ellen Spring Rice’,
in F. X. Martin, ed., The Howth Gun-running (Dublin 1964); Dominic
Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde (1974), p.146, and p.218n.
See also Oliver Snoddy, ‘Notes on Literature in Irish Dealing with the Fight for Freedom’, in Éire-Ireland, 3, 2 (Summer 1968), pp. 138-48.
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Commentary
Mark Storey, Poetry and Ireland Since 1800: A Source Book (London: Routledge 1988), notes to Douglas Hyde, “On the Necessity for the De-Anglicising of Ireland” [pp.78-84, gives an ccount of Thomas Spring-Rice (1790-1866), first Baron Monteagle of Brandon in Kerry, who is ‘said by the OED [Oxford English Dictionary] to be the first Irishman to have nicknamed himself a “West Briton”. It soon became a term of abuse amongst Irish nationalists, and crops up frequently in the debate, and in fictional representations of that debate (such as Joyce’s Dubliners)’. (Storey, op. cit., p.84.)
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Notes
Thomas Moore, in Captain Rock (London 1824), cites an article
on the difference between English and Irish Tithes, printed in the Inquirer,
‘for which’ - Moore writes - ‘I suspect we are indebted
the pen of that enlighted and patriotic member of Parliament, Mr. Spring
Rice.’ (p.300n.)
James Hardiman, ed., Irish Minstrelsy, Bardic Remains (London: Robins 1831), bears the dedication: To the Right Honorable / Thomas Spring Rice,/ Representative in Parliament for the City of / Limerick, / A Steady Friend to the Best Interests of Ireland, / This Work, / Undertaken with a View to Preserve and Illustrate / A Portion of Ancient Irish Literature, / Is resepctfully inscribed / by his obedient servant, / James Hardiman. / Dublin, September 1st, 1831.
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