ABSTRACT

Sydney Owenson, known as Lady Morgan after her marriage to Sir Thomas Charles Morgan in 1812, was an Irish poet and novelist whose third novel, The Wild Irish Girl, brought her fame and notoriety. She was the daughter of an Irish actor-manager, Robert Owenson, and his English wife Jane Hill, whose somewhat hand-to-mouth existence in Dublin theatres is evoked in her autobiographical sketches, two chapters of which are devoted to her father's rise to prominence as an actor and singer. Bells tolled, carols were intoned, the streets resounded with joyous sounds, chimneys smoked, and friends were preparing to feast the fasters of the previous week, in that most Catholic of countries. The lady who had the best right to preside on the occasion of this most Christian festival, as she was herself truly the sincerest of Christians and best of women, had retired early in the evening to her chamber, on the plea of 'indisposition'.