THOMAS CROFTON CROKER 1798-1854

The good fairies were certainly present at Thomas Crofton Croker's christening in 1798. When you think of the gifts they gave him: charm, conviviality, the gift of friendship, an insatiable curiosity coupled with application, and of course the great good fortune to have been born in Cork.

The charm and conviviality would open many doors to him, in Cork, later in London and discount the fact that the fairies were niggardly in handing out physical attributes. "Little as a dwarf, keen eyed as a hawk and of easy prepossessing manners... something like Tom Moore"...this is how Walter Scott described him in later years. The diminutive figure, affectionately known as 'Crofty' numbered the brilliant William Maginn and William Thackerey among his friends and he, who was encouraged by Tom Moore, would later extend his own encouragement and help to the young Maclise. Crokers curiosity would lead him to travel through Cork and Kerry where he would encounter a different Ireland and collect songs, poems, folklore and traditions. Application would spur him on to publishing this material.

Cork, in the early part of the nineteenth century, was a prosperous city and a centre of cultural and scientific activity. Literary societies flourished and many of the merchant princes and bankers were generous patrons of the arts. Names like Sheridan Knowles, the dramatist, Maclise and Hogan, the artists, writers like Maginn, Mahony and Callanan are some of the brilliant performers on the stage with the Cork Library, the Royal Cork Institution, Cork Philosophical and Literary Society forming the backdrop. When Maginn wrote the song, Cork Is The Eden For You. Love And Me, he was not using typical Cork exaggeration!

Croker's interests were many, antiquarian, artistic, musical, literary. These interests he reflected in the six volumes of his correspondence, indexed by Sheila Kennedy and held by Cork City Library. But it is as folklorist and storyteller that he will be best remembered. Wherever stories are told, the legends he so lovingly and painstakingly collected will be retold.

In 1824, Researches In The South Of Ireland was published

by John Murray, with illustrations by Croker's wife and her brother. This was a compilation of travel notes, antiquarian information and folklore. The interest it aroused encouraged Croker to present in 1825, Fairy Legends of The South of Ireland. The first edition was published anonymously. Again it was received enthusiastically and sold out in a week. The Brothers Grimm translated it into German in 1825 and a French translation appeared in 1828. But success often brings controversy and so it was with The Fairy Legends. A second edition illustrated by Maclise, was also published anonymously! In 1828, the second series of Legends was published and this contained only Croker's name. There was immediate reaction as there had been many collaborators in the first edition. Professor B.G. McCarthy in an article in Studies 1943, quotes some "rather libellous' lines by A.A.Watts..

 

..See Crofton Croker,

That dull, inveterate, would-be joker,

I wish he'd take a friendly hint,

And when he next appears in print,

Would tell us how he came to claim,

And to book prefix his name....

Those Fairy legends, terse and smart,

Of which he penned so small a part,

Wherefore he owned them all himself,

And gave his friends nor fame, nor pelf"

One explanation was that Croker had lost his original manuscripts and was working to a deadline. The stories were old, familiar tales and Croker's friends willingly helped him to retell the tales, Dr. Maginn, David Pigot, Thomas Keightley and Mr. Humphries all helped in the race against time.

The important thing is that Croker understood the importance of the oral tradition. He saw the riches, he gathered, he retold, he left us a rich, rich legacy. Croker died at the age of 57 on the 8th August 1854.

Patricia Egan