William Makepeace Thackeray enjoyed a
leisurely visit to Ireland in 1842. He had a fine time and left a very readable account.
He's highly opinionated and almost completely detached from everything he sees, but there
is the ring of truth about the descriptions - he simply didn't care enough in most
instances ("Catholicity", maybe, excepted) to make up a lie. Dublin only
features as a "top and tail" but I think it paints a fairly accurate picture of
Ireland at the time (as seen by a slightly cynical Cockney!) KF, Oct. 2001.
The Irish Sketch Book of 1842
By William Makepeace Thackeray.
| 1. A Summer Day in Dublin, or There and
Therabouts. |
9. Rainy Days at Glengariff. |
17. From Galway to Ballinahinch. |
25. Country Meetings in Kildare, Meath,
Drogheda. |
| 2. A Country-house in Kildare - Sketches
of an Irish Family and Farm. |
10. From Glengariff to Killarney. |
18. Roundstone Petty Sessions. |
26. Dundalk. |
| 3. From Carlow to Waterford. |
11. Killarney, Stag-hunting on the Lake. |
19. Clifden to Westport. |
27. Newry, Armagh, Belfast - From
Dundalk to Newry. |
| 4. From Waterford to Cork. |
12. Killarney, the Races, Muckross. |
20. Westport. |
28. Belfast to the Causeway. |
| 5. Cork, the Agricultural Show, Father
Mathew. |
13. Tralee, Listowel, Tarbert. |
21. The Pattern at Croaghpatrick. |
29. The Giant's Causeway, Coleraine,
Portrush. |
| 6. Cork, the Ursuline Convent. |
14. Limerick. |
22. From Westport to Ballinasloe. |
30. Peg of Limavaddy. |
| 7. Cork. |
15. Galway - "Kilroy's Hotel"
- Galway Nights' Entertainments, First Night; An Evening with Captain Freeny. |
23. Ballinasloe to Dublin. |
31. Templemoyle, Derry. |
| 8. From Cork to Bantry; with an Account
of the City of Skibbereen. |
16. More Rain in Galway - A Walk There,
and the Second Galway Night's Entertainment. |
24. Two days in Wicklow. |
32. Dublin at Last. |
|