David James O'Donoghue (22 July 1866 – 27 June 1917) was an Irish

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

and editor.

Early life

David James O'Donoghue was born in 1866 in

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an area in West London, England, due south-west of Kilometre zero#Great Britain, Charing Cross by approximately . It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the SW postcode area, south-western p ...

, to Irish parents, and grew up in the Hans Town area of Chelsea. He was the son of John O'Donoghue, a bricklayer from Kilworth, County Cork, and Bridget Griffin, who was from County Tipperary. He was the third of nine children, and had four brothers, Thomas, John, James, and Edmund, and four sisters, Mary, Ellen, Katherine, and Agnes. He was first an upholsterer's apprentice from the age of sixteen, before becoming a journalist and author.

Career

He attended a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

school and furthered his own education at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. He began his journalistic work by writing for the Dublin papers upon subjects relating to Irish music, art, and literature. A founder-member of the

Irish Literary Society The Irish Literary Society was founded in London in 1892 by William Butler Yeats, T. W. Rolleston, and Charles Gavan Duffy. Members of the Southwark Irish Literary Club met in Clapham Reform Club and changed the name early in the year. On 13 Februa ...

in London, he was also vice president of the

National Literary Society The National Literary Society (also known as the Irish National Literary Society) was founded in Dublin in 1892 by William Butler Yeats. The members first met in John O’Leary's rooms on Mountjoy Square, and later formally at the Rotunda. Its f ...

, Dublin, and the compiler of a biographical dictionary, ''The Poets of Ireland'' (1891–93; revised edition, 1912), with entries on 2,000 authors.
The Poets of Ireland
' online in

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. He published also: * ''Irish Poetry of the Nineteenth Century'' (1894) * ''Humor of Ireland'' (1894; new edition, 1911) * ''List of 1300 Irish Artists'' (1894)
''The Life and Writings of James Clarence Mangan''
(1897) * ''Bibliographical Catalogue of Collections of Irish Music'' (1899) * ''Geographical Distribution of Irish Ability'' (1906) O'Donoghue published an edition of J. F. Lalor's writings (1895) and an edition of

William Carleton William Carleton (4 March 1794, Prolusk (often spelt as Prillisk as on his gravestone), Clogher, County Tyrone – 30 January 1869, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin) was an Irish writer and novelist. He is best known for his ''Traits and ...

's ''Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry'' (four volumes, 1896–97). He edited the works of

Samuel Lover Samuel Lover (24 February 1797 – 6 July 1868), also known as "Ben Trovato" ("well invented"), was an Irish songwriter, composer and novelist, and a portrait painter, chiefly in miniatures. He was the grandfather of Victor Herbert. Life L ...

(six volumes, 1898–99) and the prose works (1903) and

poems Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

(1904) of

James Clarence Mangan James Clarence Mangan, born James Mangan (; 1 May 1803 – 20 June 1849), was an Irish poetry, Irish poet. He freely translated works from German, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Irish, with his translations of Goethe gaining special interest. St ...

. He wrote biographies on

(1896) (whose sisters he rescued from poverty), Richard Pockrich (1899), and

Robert Emmet Robert Emmet (4 March 177820 September 1803) was an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the United Irish uprising in 1798, he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Prote ...

(1902). In 1896 he moved to Dublin. In 1909 he became librarian of University College Dublin. He was co-editor of ''Catalogue of the Gilbert Library'' (in Dublin; 1918).

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature, 20th-century literature. He was ...

wrote of him in his ''Autobiographies'' (1938). He died on 27 June 1917.Dublin Diary - from DublinHeritage.ie

Notes

External links

*
''Irish Literature Companion''
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Odonoghue, David James British biographers Irish male journalists Irish male biographers 1866 births 1917 deaths 19th-century British people Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia 19th-century Irish biographers 20th-century Irish biographers 19th-century Irish male writers 20th-century Irish male writers 19th-century Irish journalists Writers from County Dublin