The Collegians

Gerald Griffin (1803-40), born in Limerick of middle-class Catholic parents, went to London in 1823 to eke out a living in journalism. His collection of regional tales, Holland-tide, brought him some success, and he returned to Ireland where he produced a number of stories and novels set in Munster. Troubled by an unrequited love and increasingly uncertain about the morality of writing fiction, Griffin joined the Christian Brothers and destroyed almost all his unpublished work. In 1839 he b...