author
Henry O'Brien
1808–1835
A brilliant and short-lived Irish scholar, he is remembered for turning the mystery of Ireland’s round towers into one of the strangest and most ambitious books of the 19th century. His work mixed classical learning, folklore, and bold historical theory in a way that still fascinates readers today.
1 Audiobook
The Round Towers of Ireland; or, The History of the Tuath-De-Danaans
by Henry O'Brien
About the author
Born in County Kerry in 1808, he was an Irish classicist, antiquary, and author whose reputation rests chiefly on his study of Ireland’s round towers. Sources agree that he was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and that he died very young in London in 1835.
His best-known book, The Round Towers of Ireland, grew out of a dissertation connected with a Royal Irish Academy prize. Although his theories were highly speculative, the book became well known for its energy, learning, and imagination, and it helped secure his place in Irish literary and antiquarian history.
Because his life was so brief, his body of work is small, but it left a lasting impression. He is often remembered as an unusually gifted young scholar whose curiosity ranged across mythology, language, religion, and the ancient past of Ireland.