James Joseph Callanan

Who is James Joseph Callanan?

James Joseph Callanan, Irish poet, was born in Cork city in 1795, died 19 September 1829 at the Hospital of San Jose, Lisbon, Portugal. He studied at Maynooth for the priesthood but left in 1816 after determining he had no vocation.

He returned to Cork to become a tutor, though he subsequently entered Trinity College, Dublin, on an aborted idea of legal studies. His financial recources now exhausted he enlisted in the 18th Royal Irish but was bought out by some friends.

In 1823 he was for a few months an assistant as the school of a Doctor Maginn in the city. Maginn introduced him to Blackwood's Magazine to which Callanan became a contributor, as well as to other magazines. According to the 1878 Compendium of Irish Biography.

"During six years, and up to 1829, he spent most of his time in rambling through the country, collecting old ballads and legends, and giving them a new dress in a new tongue. His health began to fail, however, a warmer climate appeared desirable, and early in 1829 he became tutor in the family of an Irish gentleman at Lisbon. In a few months it is stated that he acquired sufficient of the language to make translations from Portuguese poetry.