Index to The Irish Sketch Book (1842.)

William Makepeace Thackeray enjoyed a leisurely visit to Ireland in 1842. He had a fine time and left a very readable account. He’s highly opinionated and almost completely detached from everything he sees, but there is the ring of truth about the descriptions - he simply didn’t care enough in most instances (“Catholicity”, maybe, excepted) to make up a lie. Dublin only features as a “top and tail” but I think it paints a fairly accurate picture of Ireland at the time (as seen by a slightly cynical Cockney!) KF, Oct. 2001.

The Irish Sketch Book of 1842 By William Makepeace Thackeray.

1. A Summer Day in Dublin, or There and Therabouts.

9. Rainy Days at Glengariff.

17. From Galway to Ballinahinch.

25. Country Meetings in Kildare, Meath, Drogheda.

2. A Country-house in Kildare - Sketches of an Irish Family and Farm.

10. From Glengariff to Killarney.

18. Roundstone Petty Sessions.

26. Dundalk.

3. From Carlow to Waterford.

11. Killarney, Stag-hunting on the Lake.

19. Clifden to Westport.

27. Newry, Armagh, Belfast - From Dundalk to Newry.

4. From Waterford to Cork.

12. Killarney, the Races, Muckross.

20. Westport.

28. Belfast to the Causeway.

5. Cork, the Agricultural Show, Father Mathew.

13. Tralee, Listowel, Tarbert.

21. The Pattern at Croaghpatrick.

29. The Giant’s Causeway, Coleraine, Portrush.

6. Cork, the Ursuline Convent.

14. Limerick.

22. From Westport to Ballinasloe.

30. Peg of Limavaddy.

7. Cork.

15. Galway - “Kilroy’s Hotel” - Galway Nights’ Entertainments, First Night; An Evening with Captain Freeny.

23. Ballinasloe to Dublin.

31. Templemoyle, Derry.

8. From Cork to Bantry; with an Account of the City of Skibbereen.

16. More Rain in Galway - A Walk There, and the Second Galway Night’s Entertainment.

24. Two days in Wicklow.

32. Dublin at Last.