Standish O'Grady

O'Grady, Standish James (1846-1928), novelist and cultural activist. Born at Castletown Berehaven, Co. Cork, where his father was Church of Ireland rector, he was educated at Tipperary Grammar School and TCD, and called to the Bar in 1872. Standish Hayes O'Grady was a cousin. A chance encounter with Sylvester O'Halloran's Introduction to the Study of the History and Antiquities of Ireland (1772) led him to undertake a thorough investigation of the extant sources of Irish myth and legend, and an ambitious series of legendary histories and fictions. Within four years he published the History of Ireland: The Heroic Period (1878), Early Bardic Literature, Ireland (1879), History of Ireland: Cuculain and his Contemporaries (1880), History of Ireland: Critical and Philosophical (1881), and Cuculain: An Epic (1882). He adopted a style at once high-flown and graphic to convey the grandeur of the Ulster and other cycles. These books had a profound effect on younger writers, Yeats included. O'Grady thought that the Anglo-Irish ascendancy should have taken over the leadership of the Gaelic people which he believed Cú Chulainn provided for ‘bardic’ Ireland. Toryism and Tory Democracy (1886) implored the Anglo-Irish to embrace their nation and to take advantage of the native instincts for service, loyalty, and bravery. In the novel Red Hugh's Captivity (1889, rev. 1897 as The Flight of the Eagle), O'Grady deals with the Elizabethan reconquest of Ireland, arguing in a preface that a closer union with England had been necessary. He continued to produce fiction, turning to the Fionn cycle for Finn and His Companions (1892). The Coming of Cuculain (1894) was the first part of a trilogy, completed by In the Gates of the North (1901) and The Triumph and Passing of Cuculain (1920). These books, intended for children, retell the stories of Cú Chulainn in the style of the adventure story. He edited The Kilkenny Moderator and the All-Ireland Review. The Queen of the World (1906) was a science fiction novel, published under the pseudonym ‘Luke Netterville’. In 1918 for health reasons he moved to the Isle of Wight.