David James O'Donoghue

Who was David James O'Donoghue?

David James O'Donoghue 1866, Chelsea, London – June 27, 1917 was an Irish biographer and editor. He attended a Catholic school and furthered his own education at the British Museum. 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 in London, he was also vice president of the National Literary Society, Dublin, and the compiler of a biographical dictionary, The Poets of Ireland (1891-93; revised edition, 1912), with entries on 2,000 authors. 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), available at Google Books (here)

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's Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (four volumes, 1896-97). He edited the works of Samuel Lover (six volumes, 1898-99) and the prose works (1903) and poems (1904) of James Clarence Mangan. He wrote biographies on William Carleton (1896) (whose sisters he rescued from poverty), Richard Pockrich (1899), and Robert Emmet (1902).