2009/01/01 by Liam Harte · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Irish and British Studies
paper · doi:10.1057/9780230234017_13
openalex publication_date 2009/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
In addition to being a prominent parliamentarian, who held the vice-chairmanship of the Irish Party from 1880 until the Parnellite split of 1890, after which he led the anti-Parnellite faction until 1896, Cork-born Justin McCarthy (1830–1912) forged a distinguished literary career in Victorian England. Between his taking up employment with the Northern Daily Times in Liverpool in 1853 and his entry into parliament as a nationalist MP for Longford in 1879 he established himself as an influential liberal journalist, successful novelist and noted historian. He worked for the radical Morning Star newspaper from 1860 to 1869 and was a leader writer for the Daily News from 1871 to 1894. During these years he also published many novels, including Dear Lady Disdain (1875) and Miss Misanthrope (1878), and several works of non-fiction, including the hugely popular A His tory of Our Own Times (1878), which ran to several revised editions. McCarthy’s prolific literary output continued after his retirement from parliament in 1900, though the onset of blindness meant that he wrote by dictation during his last decade. His award of a civil-list pension for services to literature in 1903 confirmed his stature as an eminent Victorian, while simultaneously reinforcing many Irish nationalists’ jaundiced view of him as a careerist West Briton, despite his long-standing devotion to the cause of Home Rule. 1 Yet, as Paul Townend observes, it was precisely his ‘peculiar brand of anglophilia and deeply held Irish patriotism’ that made McCarthy an ideal ‘ambassador between Parnellite nationalism and British opinion which despised that cause’. 2 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.