Armstrong, Edmund John

(1841-1865)

   Dublin poet whose life was cut short by illness. His early experience of a burst blood vessel in the lung cut short his study at Trinity College, Dublin. After traveling in Europe he returned to his course and in 1864 was elected president of the Undergraduate Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin. He was buried at Monkstown, Co. Dublin. Friends published the volume Poems by the Late Edmund J. Armstrong in 1865, which included two long poems, "The Prisoner of Mount Saint Michael," a romantic tale of passion and crime, and the idyllic "Ovoca," partly dramatic, partly narrative, as well as many lyrical pieces which demonstrated his genius. A new edition appeared in 1877, The Poetical Works of Edmund J. Armstrong, edited by G.F. Armstrong, Longmans, Green, and Co. Longman also published, in 1877, Essays and Sketches by Edmund J.

   Sources: A Dictionary of Irish Biography. Henry Boylan, ed. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1998. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997.