Emily Lawless

The Hon. Emily Lawless (17 June 1845 – 19 October 1913) was an Irish novelist and poet from County Kildare. According to Betty Webb Brewer, writing in 1983 for the journal of the Irish American Cultural Institute, Éire/Ireland: "An unflagging unionist, she recognised the rich literary potential in the native tradition and wrote novels with peasant heroes and heroines, Lawless depicted with equal sympathy the Anglo-Irish landholders."

Biography

She was born at Lyons House below Lyons Hill, Ardclough, County Kildare. Her grandfather was Valentine Lawless, a member of the United Irishmen and son of a convert from Catholicism to the Church of Ireland. Her father was Edward Lawless, 3rd Baron Cloncurry (d. 1896), thus giving her the title of "The Honourable". In contrast her brother Edward Lawless was a landowner with strong Unionist opinions, a policy of not employing Roman Catholics in any position in his household, and chairman of the Property Defence Association set up in 1880 to oppose the Land League and "uphold the rights of property against organised combination to defraud". The prominent Anglo-Irish unionist and later nationalist, Home Rule politician Horace Plunkett was a cousin. It is widely believed that she was a lesbian and that Lady Sarah Spencer, dedicatee of A Garden Diary (1901) was her lover.