Publisher's Synopsis
"Never was there a more tragical history than that of Irish periodical literature: like that of our ancient monarchs, it comprises little more than a narrative of untimely deaths."
So said a member of the Belfast Historical Society in an 1840 paper entitled An Essay towards Investigating the Causes that have Retarded the Progress of Literature in Ireland. The three periodicals reprinted here live up to this reputation - none lasted for more than a few years - but the period they cover is one of the most lively and significant in Irish culture, when an intellectual revival in poetry, short stories and novels, music, Gaelic studies and topography was taking place. Together these 6 volumes capture a picture of the Ireland of tradition that - with the famine and the tightening of British control - was to pass into remote memory by the 1850s.
The Dublin Penny Journal, aided by improvements in printing and distribution, was among the first works to bring the new developments in Irish culture to a wider public audience. It survived for four years, during which time its circulation reached a remarkable 50,000 copies. It was followed in 1840 by another "cheap literary publication for the great body of the people" [George Petrie's Note to our Readers], the Irish Penny Journal, and in 1841 by the Irish Penny Magazine. These journals catered for the revival of interest in the Gaelic-speaking past and its literature, and in doing so they addressed the want of a contemporary, specifically Irish culture and identity. Much of the writing was of the highest order (for example, some of Mangan's best-known poems and translations are here), and several of the contributors were professional artists and illustrators. The large wood engravings found in all three journals are meticulously executed.
The first-hand insights of the writers and artists enlisted by Petrie and his fellow-editors created a focus for a national intellectual awakening, and a sense of Irish identity freed from the religious and political animosities of the recent past. In this sense these journals capture for us a critical juncture in Irish literature and history.
So said a member of the Belfast Historical Society in an 1840 paper entitled An Essay towards Investigating the Causes that have Retarded the Progress of Literature in Ireland. The three periodicals reprinted here live up to this reputation - none lasted for more than a few years - but the period they cover is one of the most lively and significant in Irish culture, when an intellectual revival in poetry, short stories and novels, music, Gaelic studies and topography was taking place. Together these 6 volumes capture a picture of the Ireland of tradition that - with the famine and the tightening of British control - was to pass into remote memory by the 1850s.
The Dublin Penny Journal, aided by improvements in printing and distribution, was among the first works to bring the new developments in Irish culture to a wider public audience. It survived for four years, during which time its circulation reached a remarkable 50,000 copies. It was followed in 1840 by another "cheap literary publication for the great body of the people" [George Petrie's Note to our Readers], the Irish Penny Journal, and in 1841 by the Irish Penny Magazine. These journals catered for the revival of interest in the Gaelic-speaking past and its literature, and in doing so they addressed the want of a contemporary, specifically Irish culture and identity. Much of the writing was of the highest order (for example, some of Mangan's best-known poems and translations are here), and several of the contributors were professional artists and illustrators. The large wood engravings found in all three journals are meticulously executed.
The first-hand insights of the writers and artists enlisted by Petrie and his fellow-editors created a focus for a national intellectual awakening, and a sense of Irish identity freed from the religious and political animosities of the recent past. In this sense these journals capture for us a critical juncture in Irish literature and history.
