Skip to main content

Author: McKinley, John

Biography:

MCKINLEY, John (fl 1819-21)

He was from Dunseverick, a hamlet near the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim, but no other biographical information has been located. His poem, “Stanzas to Mr. William Shannon, Bushmills” was published on 23 Aug. 1845 in the Coleraine Courier and is dated 12 Aug. from Dunseverick Castle. Possibly he is the John Mckinley who was born in 1798 and died at Rathlin Island on 2 Aug. 1870. The subscription list to his Poetic Sketches is extensive and the address “To the Reader” acknowledges William Hamilton Drummond’s (q.v.) precedent in writing on the Giant’s Causeway. It states that McKinley had just six months schooling. Some of his poems are written in Ullans or Ulster Scots, and two are addressed to Dr James McDonnell of Belfast, a keen supporter of Gaelic culture. (ancestry.co.uk 22 Sept. 2021; Coleraine Courier 23 Aug. 1845)

 

Books written (2):

2nd edn. Dublin: R. Milliken, B. Dugdale, W. Pickering, and J. Cumming, 1821