Anthony Trollope died on this day in 1882. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, which revolves around the imaginary county of Barsetshire.
However, his first novel - ‘The Macdermots of Ballycloran’ was published while he was living in Clonmel. And his second novel - ‘The Kellys and the O’Kellys’ - was written while he was living in the town.
Born in London in 1815, Trollope left England in 1841 to work as a surveyor’s clerk for the postal service in Ireland, where he was based in Banagher, Co. Offaly. In 1844 married Rose Heseltine and later that year, he was appointed Assistant Surveyor in the Southern District of Ireland and they moved to Clonmel.
In Clonmel they took lodgings in a large house off the High St. in which Cromwell was reputed to have stayed after O'Neill's troops had withdrawn in 1650. They both found the place more to their liking than Banagher, and Anthony enjoyed riding and hunting in the Suir valley. In 1846 their first child and eldest son was born. He was named Henry and christened in St. Mary's Church by Rev. J. B. Gordon.
In his autobiography, Trollope described Clonmel as ‘a town of some importance’. While in Clonmel, Trollope struck up a close friendship with the then mayor of Clonmel, Italian entrepreneur, Charles Bianconi who had set up Ireland’s first transport system. In Trollope’s words, “no living man has worked more than he has for the benefit of the sister kingdom”.
John McCourt, Trollope critic, suggests that Clonmel and Tipperary has a presence in Trollope’s works. McCourt suggests that Trollope appears to have taken the Palliser, De Burgo, Desmond, and Fitzgerald names from Tipperary.
In his autobiography, he remembered his time in Ireland as being ‘very jolly… The Irish people did not murder me, nor did they even break my head. I soon found them to be good-humoured, clever, economical and hospitable'.
Sources:
Anthony Trollope in Ireland, P.F. Byrne. Dublin Historical Record, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 126-128
https://thetrollopejupiter.wordpress.com/.../trollope.../
https://www.dib.ie/biography/trollope-anthony-a8659
Debbie Blake, The Little Book of Tipperary (2018), p65.
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on this day in 1921.
Although it was undoubtedly a momentous day in a historical context, it seems that it wasn’t fully appreciated at the time. Writing in his journal Thurles priest Father Michael Maher wrote:
"There was a fair in Thurles, it being the first Tuesday of December. I heard the good news as I was passing through the fair and it came as a surprise for we thought that the North would be a difficulty and the form of allegiance a crux in the negotiations. So the sudden announcement that the whole matter was settled appeared quite unexpectantly. We knew that the negotiations would cease directly unless a settlement was reached and then whether the truce would be kept was a problem. ...It was singular how calmly the country read the intelligence in the morning papers. The fair went on just as anyfair before it, there was not a cheer nor a handshake over the good news. There was far more rejoicing over the truce last July. The Archbishop [Archbishop of Cashel and Emly John Harty] is delighted that the question is settled and he is glad he threw his lot in with Sinn Fein for the last four years."
Source:
County Tipperary 1921-1923 - a history in 60 documents. Denis G. Marnane and Mary Guinan Dermody
