Standish O'Grady

Artist John Butler Yeats (1839 - 1922)

Date1904

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions110.5 x 85 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Lane Gift, 1912.

Object number248

DescriptionLike William Martin Murphy, Standish O’Grady (1846-1928) was born at Castletownbere, Co. Cork. Having attended Trinity College, Dublin he qualified as a barrister. However, he subsequently devoted his time to writing. Described by Lady Gregory as a ‘Fenian unionist’, O’Grady wrote a series of outstanding columns during the Lockout for The Irish Worker entitled ‘To the Leaders of Our Working People.’ These articles challenged many of the conservative social values he had earlier propounded and on which much of Ireland’s modern identity was based. The Irish Worker was edited by James Larkin, and
by James Connolly when Larkin was jailed during the 1913 Lockout. The paper was of enormous importance and had a huge circulation. As well as Standish O’Grady, other contributors to the paper during the 1913 Lockout included W.B. Yeats, George Russell, Padraic Colum and Constance Markievicz. Yeats, for example, wrote a stirring letter headed ‘Dublin fanaticism’ about attempts to stop a humanitarian campaign to send the children of striking workers to England.

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