O’Kelly, Seumas.

Wet Clay.

First Edition. Dublin / London, The Talbot Press / T.Fisher Unwin, 1922. Octavo. 377 pages. Original Hardcover. Very good condition with some minor signs of external wear. Minor signs of foxing only. Gift-Inscription on endpaper.

O’Kelly began working as a journalist on local papers, variously said to have included the Midland Tribune, the Tuam News, and the Connacht Leader. He became editor of the Southern Star, based in Skibbereen, Co. Cork, in 1903, and is said to have been the youngest newspaper editor in Ireland.

Wet clay (1922), was published posthumously and is the story of the tense relationship between a ‘returned Yank’ and his small-farmer cousins, which shows deeply unresolved ambivalence about the nature and prospects of Irish rural society after the land war.

O’Kelly, Seumas (1875–1918), journalist and writer, was born James Kelly in Mobhill, Loughrea, Co. Galway, youngest of seven (or possibly eight) children of Michael Kelly, corn merchant, and his wife, Catherine Fitzgerald. His date of birth is uncertain; some commentators believe he was the James Kelly whose birth was registered on 16 November 1875, but relatives claimed this was a sibling and namesake who died prematurely. His death certificate implies he was born in 1878, and family members maintained he was born in 1880.

Loughrea was at the centre of the bitterly-fought plan of campaign agitation on the Clanricarde estate from the late 1880s; many tenants in the town and surrounding rural districts were evicted for non-payment of rent, and Lord Clanricarde (qv) (d.1916), resisted reinstatement until the estate was purchased by special legislation shortly before the first world war. According to one source, the O’Kellys were themselves evicted during the Plan of Campaign, though they seem to have retained a degree of financial stability. A widespread perception that nationalist politicians had exploited the evicted tenants contributed to the relative strength of Parnellism in the area, and the early appearance of Sinn Féin; this background inspired such works as O’Kelly’s 1917 play, The Parnellite. (Source: Dictionary of Irish Biography)

• Keywords: Catalogue Irish History Seven – Irish Literature – Poetry – Music – Theatre · Irish History – Rare · Irish Literature · Irish Literature – 20th Century · Irish Literature – Rare · Journalism · Journalists · O’Kelly, Seumas (Editor Southern Star) · Southern Star Newspaper · West Cork
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 32340AB

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