Thomas Crofton Croker

Thomas Crofton Croker was born in Cork the son of an army major. He was apprenticed to a merchant, but began collecting legends, folk songs, and keens in southern Ireland on his travels. He moved to England in 1819 to work for the Admiralty and in 1825 he published his most popular book, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. Later followed Legends of the Lakes (1829), the Adventures of Barney Mahoney (1852), and an edition of the Popular Songs of Ireland (1839). The stories, poems and songs he brought to a wide readership in turn inspired Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies and were translated into German by the Brothers Grimm. Croker was made a member of the Irish Academy in 1827, and was a founding member of the Camden and Percy Societies and of the British Archaeological Association. He died in London in 1854.