Daniel MacCarthy (Glas) (Irish ''Dónaill Mac Cárthaigh;'' 28 June 1807 – 9 April 1884) was a writer of historical fiction, Irish history and biography, born in London of Irish descent. MacCarthy was in correspondence with a large circle of archaeologists, antiquarians, and early pioneers of Irish scholarship during the Irish historical awakening of the 19th century, as evidenced in letters found in collections such as the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...

and Cork City and County Archives.

Life

MacCarthy was born into an Irish shipping and

coal merchant Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dead ...

family of

Wellclose Square Wellclose Square is a public square in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, between Cable Street to the north and The Highway to the south. The western edge, now called Ensign Street, was previously called Well Street. The southern edge was cal ...

, East London. After receiving his education at the Roman Catholic school, St. Edmund's College, MacCarthy resided a number of years on the continent. In Naples, at the age of 25, he married the daughter of Admiral Sir Home Popham. Together they had a daughter and two sons, of whom only one outlived MacCarthy. Being of independent means, MacCarthy initially focused on producing historic novels, including: ''The Siege of Florence'', ''Massaniello'' and ''The Free Lance''. In 1867, MacCarthy published his first scholarly work, ''The Life and Letters of Florence MacCarthy Reagh,'' which detailed the biography of kinsman

Florence MacCarthy Reagh Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

(1560–1640)''.'' This was followed by a second work in 1875, ''A Historical Pedigree of the Sliochd Feidhlimidh, the MacCarthys of Gleannacroim,'' which documents the genealogy of numerous members of a west Cork sept of the MacCarthy Clan, from whom he claimed descent. In the course of his genealogical research, MacCarthy established links to his paternal family's homeplace of

Dunmanway Dunmanway (, official Irish name: ) is a market town in County Cork, in the southwest of Ireland. It is the geographical centre of the region known as West Cork. It is the birthplace of Sam Maguire, an Irish Protestant republican, for whom the tr ...

. He gave generously to many causes in the district, including the education of children. However, the failure of the Overend and Gurney Bank in 1866 reduced MacCarthy's income. His scheme to buy out his ancestral property in the neighbourhood of Dunmanway, including the castle at Togher, was never fulfilled.

Personal genealogy and DNA testing

Daniel's paternal grand-uncle Denis emigrated from

in the mid-1700s, and became a prosperous shipowner and coal merchant in London. MacCarthy's first cousin was Sir

Charles Justin MacCarthy Sir Charles Justin MacCarthy (1811–1864) was the 12th Governor of British Ceylon and the 12th Accountant General and Controller of Revenue. He was appointed on 22 October 1860 and was Governor until 1 December 1863. He also served as acting gov ...

, Governor of Ceylon, and son-in-law of

Sir Benjamin Hawes Sir Benjamin Hawes (1797 – 15 May 1862) was a British Whig politician. Early life He was a grandson of William Hawes, founder of the Royal Humane Society, and son of Benjamin Hawes of New Barge House, Lambeth, who was a businessman and Fellow ...

. MacCarthy traced his ancestry to the Lords of Gleannacroim, cousins of the

MacCarthy Reagh The Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach (anglicised ''MacCarthy Reagh'') dynasty are a branch of the MacCarthy dynasty, Kings of Desmond, deriving from the Eóganacht Chaisil sept. History The Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach seated themselves as kings of Carbery in ...

sept, and adopted the "Glas" agnomen earlier associated with that sept to his name. However, as a result of a direct male descendant of MacCarthy partaking in a Y-DNA study, MacCarthy's paternal genetic origins have been shown to differ considerably from those described in his genealogical work.

The Daniel MacCarthy (Glas) Archive

In 2017, approximately 2,000 documents assembled from MacCarthy's research and family memorabilia were donated to th
Cork City and County Archive
by descendants, Don and Susan, née MacCarthy, of Oregon, USA. These include a 1784 family pedigree compiled by John Collins of Myross, which has been described as of "immense cultural and historical significance", as well as a rare copy of a 1567 map of ‘Hibernia’ by John Goghe.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacCarthy Glas, Daniel 1807 births 1884 deaths English letter writers People educated at St Edmund's College, Ware English people of Irish descent 19th-century English male writers English genealogists Irish historical fiction writers Irish biographers 19th-century Irish writers Irish genealogists English biographers