Callanan, Jeremiah J(oseph) (1795-1829)

Irish poet. Callanan was born in Cork and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He is notable for a handful of poems, most of them very free variations of Gaelic originals. His ‘Outlaw of Loch Lene’ (1828) is the best known and most haunting.

After college, Callanan returned to Cork and led a life of almost total indolence. Occasionally he made excursions into western Cork with a view to gathering Gaelic material and translating it, but whatever he may have gathered has disappeared. He died in Lisbon while working there as tutor.