Dorothea Herbert

Who was Dorothea Herbert?

Dorothea Herbert was an Irish diarist and poet. Her Retrospections, first published in two volumes in 1929-30, contain local accounts of life in the late eighteenth century, but are soon overshadowed by her unrequited passion for John Roe, heir to Rockwell near Knockgrafton, another of her father's parishes.

She was the eldest daughter of Rev. Nicholas Herbert, rector of Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Ireland. In spite of increasing isolation, depression and derangement, she wrote plays, novels and other works, none of which can be accounted for. Her Volume of Poetry, however, has survived; it, along with her Journal Notes, have recently been published as a biography by historian Dr. Frances Finnegan.