Author Biography
Eugene Davis (1857-97) was born in Clonakilty, Co. Cork, was a journalist and one of the most prolific Irish popular poets of the Parnell era. He spent most of his life outside Ireland and died while living in New York. Owen McGee is the author of The Irish Republican Brotherhood: From the Land League to Sinn Fein (2005) and is a contributor to the Dictionary of Irish Biography.
Description
Eugene Davis's "Souvenirs", based on the author's tour of the continent in 1885-6, provides not only vivid vignettes of the life and times of Irish scholars, revolutionaries and artists living on the continent, both well known and obscure, from the time of the French revolution down to his own day, but also gives fascinating insight into how his contemporaries perceived the nature of Ireland's relationship with the European continent during the 1880s. This was a decade in which the future shape of Irish political society was being forged and when an optimism abounded that Ireland itself was about to become one of the nation states of Europe for the first time. These qualities help make the book an entertaining, enjoyable and informative read, and also a work of much historical interest and relevance.
Introduction by Owen McGee
SOUVENIRS OF FOOTPRINTS OVER EUROPE
- Belgium
Northern France
Italy, Iberia and Central Europe
Ireland and Europe
- Some Concluding Remarks
APPENDIX 'The Muse's Hour'
- a selection of Davis's poetry written on the continent
Notes
Index.
"An entertaining read on Irish connections, exiles, history and attitudes - of and towards the Irish."
Books Ireland
May 2006
"Culture-minded Irish people who have toured the European continent will enjoy this book and inevitably compare their experiences and impressions with those of Davis more than a hundred years ago."
Seanchas Ard Mhacha
21 (1) 2006
"carefully edited (with helpful notes) by Owen McGee, gives a glimpse into the under researched world of Irish emigres in late nineteenth-century Paris. It reminds us of the short life of this interesting individual and is a delightful and informative read."
Irish Democrat
2007
"University College Dublin Press has now published over thirty ‘Classics of Irish History'. These contemporary accounts by well known personalities of historical events and attitudes have an immediacy that conventional histories do not have. Introductions by modern historians provide additional historical background and, with hindsight, objectivity."
Books Ireland
Nov 2007
"Scholars of nineteenth-century Irish and Irish-American politics should reacquaint themselves with these classics, part of a long running and immensely useful series from University College Dublin Press."
Irish Literary Supplement
Fall 2008