John Banim (April 3, 1798 - August 30, 1842), Irish novelist, sometimes called the "Scott of Ireland," was born at Kilkenny. In his thirteenth year he entered Kilkenny College and devoted himself specially to drawing and miniature painting. He pursued his
artistic education for two years in the schools connected with the Royal Society at
Dublin, and afterwards taught drawing in Kilkenny, where he fell in love with one of his pupils. His affection was
returned, but the parents of the young lady interfered and removed her from Kilkenlly. She pined away and died in two months. Her
death made a deep impression on Banim, whose health suffered severely and permanently.
In 1820 he went to Dublin and settled finally to the work of literature. He published a poem, The Celt's Paradise, and
his Damon and Pythias was performed at Covent Garden in 1821. During a short visit
to Kilkenny he married, and in 1822 planned in conjunction
with his elder brother, Michael (1796-1874), a series of tales illustrative of Irish life,
which should be for Ireland what the Waverley Novels were for Scotland; and the influence of his model is distinctly traceable in his writings. He then set out for
London, and supported himself by writing for magazines and for the stage, a volume of
miscellaneous essays was published anonymously in 1824, called Revelations of the Dead Alive. In April 1825 appeared the first series of Tales of the O'Hara Family, which achieved immediate and decided success.
One of the most powerful of them, Crohoore of the Bill Hook, was by Michael
Banim.
In 1826, a second series was published, containing the Irish novel, The Nowlans. John's health had given way, and the
next effort of the "O'Hara family" was almost entirely the production of his brother Michael. The Croppy, a Tale of 1798
(1828) is hardly equal to the earlier tales, though it contains some wonderfully vigorous passages. The Mayor of Windgap,
The Ghost Hunter (by Michael Banim), The Denounced (1830) and The
Smuggler (1831) followed in quick succession, and were received with considerable favour. Most of these deal with the darker
and more painful phases of life, but the feeling shown in his last, Father Connell, is brighter and tenderer. John Banim,
meanwhile, had suffered from illness and consequent poverty. In 1829, he went to France, and
while he was abroad a movement to relieve his wants was set on foot by the English press, headed by John Sterling in The Times. A sufficient sum was obtained to
remove him from any danger of actual want.
He returned to Ireland in 1835, and settled in Windgap Cottage, a short distance from
Kilkenny; and there, a complete invalid, he passed the
remainder of his life, dying on the 13th of August 1842. His strength lies in the delineation of the characters of the Irish
lower classes, and the impulses, often misguided and criminal, by which they are influenced, and in this he has shown remarkable
power.
Michael Banim had acquired a considerable fortune which he lost in 1840 through the
bankruptcy of a firm with which he had business relations. After this disaster he wrote Father Connell (1842), Clough
Fionn (1852), The Town of the Cascades (1862). Michael Banim died at Booterstown.
An assessment in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh
Edition (1911) reads:
- The true place of the Banims in literature is to be estimated from the merits of the O'Hara Tales; their later works,
though of considerable ability, are sometimes prolix and are marked by too evident an imitation of the Waverley Novels. The
Tales, however, are masterpieces of faithful delineation. The strong passions, the lights and shadows of Irish peasant character,
have rarely been so ably and truly depicted. The incidents are striking, sometimes even horrible, and the authors have been
accused of straining after melodramatic effect. The lighter, more joyous side of Irish character, which appears so strongly in
Samuel Lover, receives little attention from the Banims.
References
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