44 JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY. The Biolographical Rev. John Boyce, Sketch of D.D. (1810--1864) By the Very Rev. Charles Boyce, P.I'., (Juvcrna Pre~sl. John B:oyce, Priest, Doctor of Divinity, noveiist and l€cturer, was torn ~~t Conegai and died at Wc1·cc~ter, U:S.A. He is chiefly re1r..embcred in County Donegal as Paul Peppergrass, the author of "Shandy Maguire," whilr· in the New World he is aoclla:imed as the first catholic novelist of New England. E11gen~ Di:!Twent rccentlv de~cribrd him as "a pries~ who adopted a ilew method in fiction·-. and hailed him as the precursor of Monsignor Benson a.nd Ca.non Sheehan. F\liher J1:lhn Bo~. the friend of Dickens and Lever. was even something mere than tha.t, foe· his novels and le.ctures were, like the man himself, an unlift and a ra.y of hope and encouragement to the fio~s<tm and jetsam of the Ir!sh R•:ite who fled from fa.mine and eviction in Ireland, only t<J be engulfed in the squalor of Amer ican slums or offPred a.s the chopcst form of hum:m sacrifice en the altar of A.mr-rica.n Progrress. A f.ew yeaa·s a.go a. simple and t::i.steful r:i~moriaJ, to this-"the grea.te.st. Irish w·riter or h:s day," was erected on the bri.dgc ove-r the Eske at Donegal. Th~ lat:~2t tribntc to Dr . Bov·C·e is from the pe-n Oil' his g-re-atnephew who i3 a son of J.ercme Boyce, Peet a.nd An tiqua.ry of Done'5:al. "The Biogmpbical Sketch of Rev. John Boyce, D.D.," \s a timelv work with a we·:ilth of fa.milv 1.~· a cU ti'cn "\vJ1i.ch should prove of great ao~<:>l~ta.ncc to a full-length biographer. J, C. i\'lcD. VERY REV, JOHN BOYCE, D.D. PAUL PEPPERGRASS
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