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Product Description
John Boyle was an orphan with a difficult upbringing, impoverished
and a social misfit, yet he achieved great prominence in early
nineteenth-century Cork. A disruptor, he doggedly challenged the
status quo. In politics, he was a vehement Vetoist and a forthright
opponent of Daniel O’Connell. A lapsed Catholic in a religious
age, he scorned all religions and clergymen. His nimble wit and
considerable powers of oratory often plunged public gatherings into
mayhem. In his journalism, he suffered frequent legal and physical
admonishment, yet relentlessly championed the downtrodden and
exposed the rottenness of contemporary society. An unfortunate
obsession with publicising the sexual proclivities of the prosperous
and prominent of Cork society has soiled his reputation.
Boyle’s periodical, the Freeholder, exceptional in pre-Famine Ireland for
longevity, provides a vivid chronicle of a city in transition, from
wartime prosperity to post-Waterloo stagnation, not otherwise
available for any Irish urban centre. Notwithstanding personal and
professional shortcomings, Boyle remains admirable and relevant.
