LAWLESS, Emily. Hurrish. A Study.

Two volumes. Edinburgh & London: 1886. Crown octavo. pp. (1) [viii], 266 (2) [iii], 302. With half-titles. Contemporary half black morocco on marbled boards, titles in gilt direct on spines. Both volumes personally inscribed from Lady Cloncurry to John Lunsden, Maretimo, July, 1890. Ex libris Dalgan Park with neat stamps. A very good set.
O’Donoghue p.244. Loeber L38.Wolf 3960.
The Honourable Emily Lawless (1845-1913), novelist and poet, was born at Lyons House, County Kildare, the daughter of Lord Cloncurry. She spent much of her youth in the West of Ireland with her mother’s family the Kirwans of Castle Hackett, County Galway. Her grandfather was Valentine Lawless, a member of the United Irishmen and son of a convert from Catholicism to the Church of Ireland. Her father was Edward Lawless, 3rd Baron Cloncurry (d. 1896), thus giving her the title of “The Honourable”.
According to Betty Webb Brewer, writing in 1983 for the journal of The Irish American Cultural Institute, Éire/Ireland: “An unflagging unionist, she recognised the rich literary potential in the native tradition and wrote novels with peasant heroes and heroines, Lawless depicted with equal sympathy the Anglo-Irish landholders.” This is the prevalent view of Lawless, yet she unequivocally referred to her Irish “patriotism”, and her unshakeable love of Ireland, and several of her short stories denounce the inequalities brought about by colonialism and landlordism in Ireland.
After the agitation of the Land War she spent more and more time in England, but never lost her interest in Ireland and Irish history. She counted among her friends Sir Horace Plunkett and British Prime Minister William Gladstone, who said of her novel Hurrish that it was impossible to understand Ireland without it.