Dermody, Thomas

(1775-1802)

   Born in Ennis, the county town of County Clare, he was educated at his father's school. He ran away to Dublin where the Rev. Gilbert Austin, principal of a school near Dublin, made a selection of Dermody's poems and published the book at his own expense in 1792. Despite all efforts he sank into squalor, saved by his enlisting in the Army, where he rose through the ranks to lieutenant. He served abroad with distinction, was wounded, and, returning with his regiment to England, was placed on halfpay. Sadly, he relapsed to his former habits and died in poverty near Sydenham, Kent, and was buried in Lewisham churchyard. Some of his publications: The Rights of Justice, or Rational Liberty, 1793 (on the French Revolution). The Reform, 1793. Poems Moral and Descriptive, 1800. Poems on various Subjects, 1802. The Harp of Erin, or the Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Dermody, 1807 (2 volumes). Some of his poems: "An Epistle Nugatory," "Sonnet, to Miss Brooke," "The Petition of Tom Dermody to the Three Fates in Council Sitting," "To Miss Sidney and Miss Olivia Owenson."

   Sources: An Anthology of Irish Verse: The Poetry of Ireland from Mythological Times to the Present. Padraic Colum, ed. Liveright, 1948. Bibliography of 19th-c. Irish Literature (http://info.wlu.ca/Dermody, Thomaswwweng/faculty/jwright/irish/bibliomain.htm). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org).