What is inside?

Originally published in Waterford in 1907 by E. Downey & Co., and republished here in fully searchable format, is the first edition of My Clonmel Scrap Book. Compiled and edited by James White, My Clonmel Scrap Book contains some 382 printed pages and more than a dozen photographs of Clonmel (County Tipperary) dating from the period of the book's compilation. The publisher of My Clonmel Scrap, Edmund Downey (1856-1937) was a native of Waterford and an author in his own right with titles such as Through Green Glasses (1887), Green as Grass (1892), Merchant of Killogue (1894), and Clashmore (1903) to his credit. Downey spent his early career in London where he was active in the Southwark Irish Literary Club and conducted a publishing business jointly with Ward. From 1895 onwards he published independently and is one of the leading publishers associated with the Irish literary revival of the Irish literary revival; at an early stage of the revival Downey was associated with Charles Gavan Duffy in printing the poems of F. H Donnell and after his return to Waterford started to collect and publish work from a nationalist grouping, which included D. P. Moran, who is remembered for his seminal work on Irish revivalism, The Philosophy of Irish Ireland. Edmund Downey's publications from this period include works by O'Donovan Rossa, Standish James O'Grady, Lady Wilde, T. P. O'Connor, Joseph Le Fanu, Somerville & Ross, Charles Lever and many many more and it was wholly appropriate the Downey was responsible for the publication of My Clonmel Scrap Book. Containing 79 short stories, poems, anecdotes and excerpts from previously published material, all of the material contained in My Clonmel Scrap Book centres in around the town of Clonmel and some, but not all is of a highly patriotic nature that were in-line with Downey's heavy involvement with the Irish Literary Revival Movement and Moran's concepts of Irish-Ireland. The miscellany includes works by C. J. Boland, Richard Shiel, A. M. Sullivan, E. P. Hogan, William Leahy and Charles Kickham and well as a number of anonymous writers such as 'F.H.W', 'J.J.M' and a 'Student of Gray's Inn'. Amongst the stand-out titles in collection of articles in My Clonmel Scrap Book are excerpts on Clonmel taken from Inglis's Journey Through Ireland, originally published in 1834; 'Meagher of the Sword' and Thomas Francis Meagher's speech from the dock; The Trial of Father Sheehy as well as many reminisces and observations on local Clonmel events and places such as the Potato Market, the Great Clonmel Flood, The Men of 'Ninety-Eight, Waterford Elections, the Clonmel Assizes of 1827 to name but a handful out of this wonderful collection. For anyone interested in in the local history of Clonmel and the surrounding area, the Irish Literary Revival Movement and the part played in this by the publisher Edmund Downey of Waterford, this is an opportunity to purchase a republication of the first edition of My Clonmel Scrap Book.

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