J. Fitzgerald (Joseph Fitzgerald) Molloy

Born in New Ross, County Wexford, on March 19, 1858, Joseph Fitzgerald Molloy was educated at St Kieran's College in Kilkenny and was at first intended for the Catholic priesthood. Instead, he turned toward music, journalism, and writing, eventually becoming known as J. Fitzgerald Molloy.

Molloy wrote both fiction and nonfiction, but he is best remembered for his historical and biographical books. His subjects ranged widely, including the English stage, literary figures, aristocratic life, and royal courts. Contemporary and later reference sources describe him as a prolific Irish novelist, historian, and miscellaneous writer, with a particular feel for the personalities and social worlds of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

He spent much of his working life in London and died there on March 19, 1908, his fiftieth birthday. Although he is not as widely read today as some of the figures he wrote about, his books remain a useful window into the popular historical writing of the late Victorian and Edwardian period.