active 1867 John Boyle

John Boyle is an obscure nineteenth-century author best known for The battle-fields of Ireland, from 1688 to 1691: including Limerick and Athlone, Aughrim and the Boyne, published in 1867. Library and public-domain records identify him only as "John Boyle" or "fl. 1867," which usually means the dates of birth and death are uncertain and the author is known to have been active at that time.

His surviving reputation rests on that one historical work, an outline of the Jacobite war in Ireland. The book was written for general readers rather than specialists, aiming to give a compact account of major campaigns and battles in a turbulent period of Irish history.

Because reliable biographical information is so scarce, it is safest not to claim more than the records support. What can be said with confidence is that Boyle’s name endures through this 1867 volume, which has remained accessible through library archives and Project Gutenberg.