William Carleton

William Carleton (20 February 1794, Prolusk (often spelt as Prillisk as on his gravestone), Clogher, County Tyrone – 30 January 1869, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin) was an Irish writer and novelist. He is best known for his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry a collection of ethnic sketches of the stereotypical Irishman.

Carleton's father was a Roman Catholic tenant farmer, who supported fourteen children on as many acres, and young Carleton passed his early life among scenes similar to those he later described in his books. Carleton was steeped in folklore from an early age. His father, who had an extraordinary memory (he knew the bible by heart) and as a native Irish speaker, a thorough acquaintance with Irish folklore, told stories by the fireside. His mother, a noted singer, sang in Irish. The character of Honor, the miser's wife, in Fardorougha, is said to be based on her.

Carleton received a basic education. As his father moved from one small farm to another, he attended various hedge schools, which used to be a notable feature of Irish life. A picture of one of these schools occurs in the sketch called "The Hedge School" included in Traits and Stories of Irish Peasantry. Most of his learning was gained from a curate, Father Keenan, who taught a classical school at Donagh (County Monaghan) which Carleton attended from 1814 to 1816. He studied for the priesthood at Maynooth, but left after two years. Carleton had hoped to obtain an education as a poor scholar at Munster, with a view to entering the church; but he was shaken by an ominous dream, the story of which is told in the Poor Scholar, and he returned home. An amusing account of this period is given in the sketch, "Denis O'Shaughnessy".

Aged about nineteen, he undertook one of the religious pilgrimages then common in Ireland. His experiences as a pilgrim, narrated in "The Lough Derg Pilgrim," made him give up the thought of entering the church, and he eventually became a Protestant.

His vacillating ideas as to a mode of life were determined by reading the picaresque novel Gil Blas (by Alain-René Lesage, 1668–1747). He decided to try what fortune had in store for him. He went to Killanny, County Louth. For six months he served as tutor to the family of a farmer named Piers Murphy. After some other experiments he set out for Dublin, arriving with two shillings and sixpence in his pocket.

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