Elizabeth O'Shea Dillon

Elizabeth O'Shea Dillon was born in 1842 in Nenagh, County Tipperary. Her parents were John and Mary Anne O'Shea (née Gill) of Summerhill, Nenagh. Her father was a journalist with The Nenagh Guardian. Her mother was a sister of the editor-proprietor of the Tipperary Advocate, Peter E. Gill, and the aunt of T. P. Gill. Her older brother John Augustus was a soldier, journalist and novelist, and her sister Marion emigrated to the United States where she married Robert Roosevelt. Another sister, Margaret (Mrs Kelly) (1854–1927) was noted as being fluent in a number of languages, and translated French works, and her brother Robert Gabriel (1854?–1882) was the London political correspondent for the Freeman's Journal.[1]

Dillon wrote a number of novels, including Sal o' the Wig which in 1869 was serialised in the Shamrock. Her 1884 Dark Rosaleen is considered her major work. It is a roman à clef about John Kenyon as the character Rev. John Kennedy. Kenyon was a close family friend of both the O'Sheas and the Gills. It was published under the name "Mrs J.J. O'Shea Dillon". Dark Rosaleen was serialised in William O'Brien's United Ireland.[1][2][3][4][5] Sal o' the Wig also drew on the stories relating to Kenyon, with this book drawing on the tales about the priest's house keeper, Sara Kennedy.[6]

She married Frederick William Dillon (born 1860),[7] BL in 1883, and left Ireland to live in Nagpur, India some time after that. Her father-in-law was an official at the high court of Allahabad, India, Luke Dillon. She died in 1900.[1]

• The bride of Raltard
• The last of the leprechauns
• Sal o' the Wig
• Dark Rosaleen (1884)[1]