Author: O'Sullivan, Michael John
Biography:
O’SULLIVAN, Michael John (1794-1845: DIB)
The main source of information is a memoir prefixed to O’Sullivan’s posthumous A Fasciculus of Lyric Verses (1846); the account is long on detail but short on facts. He was the son of Daniel Sullivan, a woollen draper in Cork, but the name of his mother is not known. He studied at John Maginn’s Classical Academy on Marlborough Street in Cork and met William Maginn, writer and journalist, who was then teaching at the school. He did not attend university but, having decided on a career in law, was at the Middle Temple in 1815—as noted on the title page of his one book of verse—and admitted to King’s Inn, Dublin, in 1817. He practiced law only briefly before turning to journalism. He served as the editor of the Dublin Freeman’s Journal and Theatrical Observer; later he edited other periodicals including the Star. The Duke of Leinster, Grand Master of the Freemasons’ lodge in Ireland, appointed him Poet Laureate of the lodge. He wrote very successful dramatic adaptations of poetry by Lord Byron and Thomas Moore (qq.v.). His Art of Learning Languages, a translation from the French of M. Weiss, was published in 1817. Through William Maginn, O’Sullivan contributed verse to the short-lived Fraser’s Literary Chronicle (1835-36). No record has been located for his death but the date usually given is 1845. (“Memoir,” A Fasciculus of Lyric Verse [1846]; DIB 1 Oct. 2021) SR
Other Names:
- M. J. Sullivan