Detailed Record

Shamrock, The;

vol 1 no 1, 06 Oct 1866 - 11 Dec 1920

then: Shamrock and Irish Emerald, The; Irish tales and sketches. no 2387, 17 Aug 1912 - no 2735, 19 May 1917

Dublin,Dublin

Editor:

T.R. Herrington
Richard Pigot (1866 - 1879)

Proprietor:

Irish National Newspaper and Publishing Co (1879)
Richard Pigott (1866 - 1879)

Publisher:

William O'Brien

Printer:

William O'Brien

Contributors:

John S.C. Abbott (1880)
Max Adeler (1880)
Hans Christian Andersen (1870)
Gougane Barra (1881)
Josh Billings (pseud. Henry Wheeler Shaw)
M.P. Boulebane
James J. Bourke (1870)
Thomas Burke
J.T. Campion (Dr.) 1870)
William Carleton (novelist)
J. Carolan (1870)
John Keegan Casey
Austin Clarke (poet, 1920)
T.C.S. Corry
"Lictor" Cottehill
Alice Dale (1881)
Gustave Doré (ill. 1867)
James Dunne
F.A. [Francis Alexander] Durivage (1881)
Eirronach
Fanny Fisher (1887)
Edmund Fitzpatrick (ill.)
Harry Furniss (ill.)
J.D. Heigh (ill. 1887)
Denis Holland
Douglas Hyde
Thomas Caulfield Irwin
Robert Dwyer Joyce
Rose Kavanagh
Charles Kickham
Killeen (pseud. George Noble Plunkett?)
Col. [Major in 1880] William F. Lynam
Martin MacDermott (poetry 1880)
Patrick Joseph McCall (P.J.)
Merva (1880)
Montbard (ill.)
J. Murphy
Muskerry (Major)
Milton Nobles (1881)
John F. O’Donnell
William O'Donovan
Darby O'Quill
J. [John] Boyle O'Reilly
John Augustus O'Shea
John J. O'Shea (1887)
Outre
M.T. Pender (Mrs.)
John Reville
Owen Roe (1880, 1881)
Ruby (1880)
Dora Russell (fiction, 1881)
Edward Shiel (ill.)
Bram Stoker
Tiria (1880)
William Twamley (poetry, 1880-1881)
Tynan Katharine
V.V. (1880)
J.C. Waters (Dr.)

Names:

Patrick S. O'Hegarty
Henry Wheeler Shaw

Size:

29cm (1883); 16pp/no (1870, 1880)

Price:

1d (1867, 1870, 1874, 1883)

Frequency:

weekly (Sat)

Illustration:

b/w, sketches, coloured engravings

Indexing:

index/vol

Departments:

Irish songs & sketches, poetry, serial fiction, lessons in Irish language, famine, Fenians, politics; [Irish] Gaelic department, a conversazione (1880)

Merges:

absorbed The Irish Emerald (1912)

Sources:

Brown, Stephen J. The Press in Ireland; Hayley, Voice of Nineteenth-Century Ireland.; listings of contents in IBL 29:5 (1945), pp. 104-108.; Loeber. "Popular Reading Practice." Oxford History of the Irish Book. vol iv, 2011. p.220.; McKenna, Irish Literature, 1800-1875.; Sutherland Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction.

Histories:

Benatti, Francesca. "Shamrock." DNCJ. p.569; Clyde, Irish Literary Magazines.; Harmon, Maurice. Austin Clarke, 1896-1974: A Critical Introduction. Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1989. p.268.; Kelleher, "Prose writing and drama in English," p.454.; "Richard Piggott." Ricorso.net. Online.; "Richard Piggott." wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pigott.; Ryan, Irish Literary Revival, p.42, 168.

Comments:

"The most popular humorous paper that has appeared in Ireland and certainly the longest lived.... Contained serials by some good writers such as Denis Holland, John Augustus O'Shea, T. Caulfield Irwin, John Keegan Casey, though it later degenerated in literary quality.... It was chiefly famous for the Mick McQuaid series which ran in its pages throughout its whole career. This was written by Col. William F. Lynam and illustrated by the famous Harry Furniss. Though the author died in 1894, the series was still running in 1919 for the public never tired of the humorous rascal who was its hero."
The issue of vol 20:876 [2s] is dated 28 Jul 1883. The Irish Emerald involved in the merge is not to be confused with a continuation of Young Ireland bearing the same title.
Hayley notes the "high standard of illustration" and adds, "its 'Noctes Dublinienses' described contemporary Dublin; it was full of Irish reminiscences and anecdotes. It had romantic fiction (Ella, the Dancing Girl) and Irish comic dialect stories such as John F. O’Donnell’s 'Tim Hogan’s Adventures in Fairyland'." (45-46)
Benatti notes that Irish nationalism increased after the 1881 change in proprietorship, and after the absorption of the The Irish Emerald, she concurs that a "marked decline in literary quality led to its demise." Harmon cites Austin's contribution in December 1920. Loeber notes that it carried a literary supplement.
Pigott went on to unfortunate notoriety as the forger of the Parnell letters.
The publication continued "under Pigott until 1879 when he sold it with his other papers, the Flag of Ireland and The Irishman, to the Irish National Newspaper and Publishing Company, owned by Parnell and the Land League. Politics take over again; Yeats notes the commercialism and banality of the press. There is a distinct sense of the end of an era" (Hayley 46).
This periodical "provided a forum for many writers including Charles Kickham and the young Bram Stoker" (Kelleher 454).
"By the turn of the century, the Shamrock had lost its way, plunged downmarket, and become irrelevant from any literary standpoint" (Clyde 132).
The subtitle is dropped as early as 1870.
Christmas "double numbers" were issued as early as 1870 (seen also in 1880 and 1881); in 1870, this issue was also titled "Light Ship Broken Adrift" price 2d (subtitled "fragments gathered from the wreck"). In 1870, there were numerous contributions from "Killeen," a pseudonym identified with Plunkett.

Location:

DB/N-1 vol 1:1-38:? (6 Oct 1866-11 May 1901, wanting Oct 1876-1890); LO/N38 A no 464, 876-2386, 2387-2735 (04 Sep 1875, 28 Jul 1883-10 Aug 1912, 17 Aug 1912-19 May 1917); CA/U-1 A vol 18 no 735 (13 Nov 1880); MA/U-1 A vol 1-8, 11, 16-18, 31, 37, 38 (1867-1900); CO/U-1; N.America: Boston PL, NN vol 1-15 (1866-1878), U Notre Dame, see worldcat.org for more; full text in Hathitrust vol 8, 9 (Oct 1870-Sep 1872) and Google Books vols 12, 14-18, 24 (1874, 1876-1880, 1886)