This chapter looks at the work of John and Michael Banim, who emerged as important Catholic novelists in the late 1820s. Their work attempted to capture the energy of O’Connellite politics in fiction, blending rhetorical set pieces with melodramatic incident. Public speech and oratory become centrally important to their work, and the influence of Richard Lalor Shiel on John Banim in particular becomes clear on reading his work.

This chapter looks at a minor controversy in the life of Charles Robert Maturin to consider his work in the light of sectarian tensions during the ‘Second Reformation’: the energised push by the Church of Ireland to convert the Catholic population in the 1820s. The role eloquence plays in Maturin’s work will be looked at and considered in relation to wider issues surrounding religious rhetoric and Gothic writing.

This introduction provides an introduction to the historical and theoretical frameworks for looking at Irish literature in the Romantic period. It considers the place of the Irish language in characterising Irish eloquence, and argues that British critics also linked Irish eloquence to Gothic excess. It introduces some of the main authors that will be looked at in greater depth later, including Maria Edgeworth, Sydney Owenson, Thomas Moore, and Charles Maturin.

This chapter looks at the work of Sydney Owenson, focusing on two novels, The Wild Irish Girl and Woman; or Ida of Athens. It considers the way in which Owenson crafted a powerful model of female eloquence in response to the perceived failures of more mainstream political speech. It looks at the legacy of the Volunteer movement of the 1780s as well as the Irish-language background of her work. It also notes the publication of Gilbert Austin’s Chironomia, an important rhetorical treatise, and the links between his work and Owenson.