Jane Barlow

Born on 17 October 1856 in Dollymount, Dublin, Jane Barlow was the daughter of Trinity College Dublin scholar and vice-provost James William Barlow. Educated at home, she became a gifted classical scholar, pianist, and linguist, and travelled widely in Ireland and abroad. Her writing often drew on the lives, speech, traditions, and struggles of the Irish peasantry.

Barlow published poetry, short stories, novels, and translations, including Bog-land Studies, Irish Idylls, Kerrigan’s Quality, Strangers at Lisconnel, and A Creel of Irish Stories. Irish Idylls ran to nine editions and was read in Britain, Europe, and the United States. In 1904, she became the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin. She continued writing despite declining health and died in Bray, County Wicklow, on 17 April 1917.