# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/M'Carthy, Justin

​M'CARTHY, JUSTIN (1830–1912), Irish politician, historian, and novelist, born near Cork 22 November 1830, was the second child and elder son of Michael Francis M'Carthy, clerk to the Cork city magistrates, by his wife, Ellen FitzGerald. Brought up, as he says, in ‘genteel poverty’ with a view to the bar, at seventeen he found his family dependent on him. The Cork Examiner offered work: the Irish famine provided subjects for his pen. In 1848 he reported the trial at Clonmel for high treason of William Smith O'Brien [q.v.] and Thomas Francis Meagher [q.v.]. M'Carthy, full of the literary and political enthusiasms of Young Ireland, was himself involved in the rebel organization, but after this abortive outbreak he became ‘more and more convinced that the righting of Ireland's wrongs was to be accomplished by appeal to the conscience and reason of England's best citizens’. London became his goal. In 1854 he joined the Northern Daily Times in Liverpool, and there, though still supporting his family, married (1855). His wife, who died in 1879, was Charlotte, daughter of W. G. Allman. They had one son, Justin Huntly M'Carthy, the novelist, and one daughter.
In 1859 M'Carthy went to London, joined the staff of the Morning Star, and, having learnt to read French, German, Italian, and Spanish, became foreign editor of that journal, and later editor (1864). Friendship with John Bright, then on its board of directors, followed. Contributions to the Westminster Review led to another friendship, with John Stuart Mill. M'Carthy commenced as a novelist successfully, and in 1868 was able to resign his editorship and visit the United States, where his brother was established. Lucrative prospects opened before him and he would have settled in America but that the opening of the constitutional movement of Isaac Butt [q.v.] led him to believe that he could serve Ireland as writer and speaker in England. In 1871 he returned to London and became a leader writer on the Daily News, continuing to produce novels and short stories. In 1877 was published the History of Our Own Times, which definitely established his success.
In 1879 C. S. Parnell asked M'Carthy to stand for county Longford, and his candidature was successful. When Parnell was elected chairman of the nationalist party M'Carthy became vice-chairman. The new party used methods not to the liking of one who loved and respected parliament; but M'Carthy never shrank from his task. In 1886 his personal prestige enabled him to win the important seat of Derry city. After the Parnell divorce case in 1890, M'Carthy, the channel through whom Gladstone's warnings were transmitted, endeavoured to persuade Parnell to a temporary retirement. Debate in committee room No. 15 at the House of Commons having shown agreement to be impossible, M'Carthy led the majority of the members out. He became chairman of the anti-Parnellite party, which carried 72 out of 81 nationalist seats at the general election of 1892. Yet he retained Parnell's friendship; in all that savage controversy he never made an enemy. He had combined writing with the closest parliamentary attendance, and the responsibility of leadership increased the strain. Also, in 1894, having joined the executive committee of an Irish industrial exhibition which lost heavily, he became liable for a large sum. He resigned the leadership of his party to John Dillon in 1896, but continued in parliament, representing North Longford, which had elected him in 1892 when he lost Derry. In 1897 his constitution broke up; almost total blindness followed. In 1900 M'Carthy ceased to be a member of parliament and the rest of his life was spent at Westgate-on-Sea. He continued to write books by dictation up to 1911; but his mind's alertness was gone. Nothing remained but his perfect charity and gaiety. In 1903 Mr. Balfour, as prime minister, recommended him for a civil list pension of £300 a year for his services to literature.
As a literary man, M'Carthy was a popularizer rather than an original writer; but he had an ease and simplicity which recall Goldsmith's; and with them went the attraction of his own personality. Had he been nothing but a writer, he would certainly have died rich, for his novels have real charm. Dear Lady Disdain (1875) and Miss Misanthrope (1878) are the best remembered; but Mononia (1901) has interest for its sketch of Munster life and politics in his youth. But he threw aside certainties and chances alike ​to give his country a perfectly unselfish service. He died at Folkestone 24 April 1912.
[Justin M'Carthy, Reminiscences, 1899, Story of an Irishman, 1904, Irish Recollections, 1911; T. P. O'Connor, The Parnell Movement, 1886; private information; personal knowledge.]
S. G.