Donn Byrne

Just who, what, and when was this fellow Donn Byrne and from whence did he appear? Was he an Irish American or an American Irishman? Was he a boxer or was he an author? He was born Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne in 1889 and was an author who made a nice living in that occupation, with thirteen novels and three collections of short stories to his credit, plus assorted other writings. And yes, he was also an amateur boxer. As from whence he appeared, he certainly regarded himself to be an Irishman from head to heels and always acted as if he were one.

But he was an American too—USA type— for he was born in New York City and lived there for about the first three months of his life, then returned there to live again about two decades later as a young adult. He was also a US American because New York is where he settled down with Dorthea Cardogan (aka Dolly Byrne, author, playwright, screenwriter) the English woman he took for his wife (though he did meet her in Dublin and wed her in Buenos Aires) and it’s in New York where he first discovered that he could be, then showed he would be a successful author.

Yet one must also acknowledge that, starting from roughly the age of three months on up through adolescence and slightly beyond, he was raised in County Armagh, a hilly region of northern Ireland. Furthermore, after his second (but only willful) stint in America, he returned to Ireland to live, work, raise a family and further his authorial career, then tragically died there too when a malfunctioning steering gear in his auto forced him off a cliff and into a bay at high tide where he drowned at thirty-eight years of age. As a final point in this debate, it should be known that several months before his tragic death, he wrote a letter to a friend in which he said “That I was born in America is not my fault at all.” Considering this along with some of the other evidence just cited, let’s decide that Donn Byrne was an American Irish author and be done with it.

But not done with him just yet. Let’s dig a little deeper for more information on this Irish author, and let’s attempt to discover what made him so good while wondering why he has been largely forgotten. Donn Byrne (aka Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne, but known to friends and classmates in Ireland as Brian O’Beirne) always had a way with words and abiding interest in the entire lexicons of both English and Gaelic. As young lad in County Armagh, a hilly region in northern Ireland, he assisted in arranging the language festivals that he won over and over to the grumbling dismay of his competitors. All the same, they couldn’t help but like the boy for his singing, fun-loving charm, nimble wit, self-assurance, and friendliness.

Although especially eager to engage in conversations in which he could attain or convey knowledge about northern Ireland folklore and tradition, he was always ready to talk to anyone about anything. For his interests ran as wide as they ran deep, with a passion for outdoor activities, hunting and fishing, as well as a love of horses and dogs and every kind of furry species. In addition, although relatively small in size as a boy, he was also gifted athletically. Eventually, as he advanced in age and size, he won the lightweight boxing championship at Trinity College in Dublin while attending that institution to study romance languages and Irish literature (unsurprisingly he won various prizes and scholarships in these intellectual activities as well).

The illustrated boxing stories in this small collection of two Donn Byrne stories demonstrate why he was able to succeed as an author. He drew upon a wide breadth of  athletic, sportsman, and full-blown social activities to invent stories, then conveyed them in words he absorbed during his life-long love of words, carefully choosing and arranging them just so, as all good authors do. For all writers love language to a certain degree and some undoubtedly could match his love, knowledge, and use of language. But few could match his melding of language and fun-filled experience because few lived their lives as vigorously as he did.

So why is he now largely forgotten when other writers from his era never will be? Probably because he was Irish first, then American. He was full steam ahead as an author for three years in America until he left to live in Ireland, financially broken because of his and Dolly’s too vigorous lives and profligate ways. But he loved his Ireland—he was happy to return—and because of his love of the land and its people, he began to mix Irish tales of the countryside into his repertoire of novels and stories.However, though finely executed, they did not have the same market impact as the fiction he had written in the USA.

Also, it’s impossible to ignore that he died at a very young age while still formulating and expertly conveying wide-ranging stories, some of them reflecting on the Irish countryside, but, as before, most of them based upon his unreformed hyperactive life. His famous contemporaries would almost all live longer lives with more productive time that expanded their repertoire, which also helped enhance the posterity of their work. So had Donn Byrne lived longer, who can tell whether he might have retained the fame he once briefly held. One can only speculate