Eliza Jane White (fl. 1862–1901), who published as Ida L. White, was an Irish poet, republican, feminist, atheist, and anarchist.

Life

Eliza Jane White[1] was born Eliza Jane Cameron, and was from Portrush, Northern Ireland.[2] White lived at The Tryst, Lyle Hill, Ballymena. She was a feminist and republican.[3]

She published under the name Ida.[4] Alongside Frances Browne, Elizabeth Willoughby Treacy, and Mrs Ralph Varian, White is regarded as part of the Irish Weaver tradition. John Hewitt described White and Varian as "remarkable if scarcely relevant ladies". He was more admiring of White's politics.[5] Two of her volumes of poetry were published in 1874 and 1890 respectively, though the material appears to have been written before 1870.[6]

She was the wife of George White (died 1876), editor and founder of the Ballymena Observer.[4][7] They married on 1 December 1862.[2] She had three daughters, Violet Victoria, Ethelwynne Alberta, and Pansy.[8] After her husband's death, she moved to Belfast, and later to Brompton, London. She declared herself an atheist, and became estranged from her daughters when the co-trustee of her husband's will, a dean, commenced a chancery case against her which lasted eleven years.[9] She was imprisoned in Holloway, London in early 1888,[10] and spent some time living in Paris as an exile. It is also recorded that she made a public attack on the Czar of Russia.[3][5] The attack involved White posting the heir to the Russian throne a fragment of rusty chain while he was visiting London, alongside a published letter. The chain was a metaphor for the "tyranny and cruelty which prevailed in the throughout the Russian Empire." She was quoted in The Sun in 1893, saying "I make war on emperors and kings." She was inspired by the writings of George Kennan and from meeting Feliks Volkhovsky.[9] While in Paris she wrote for the French anarchist newspaper, Le Libertaire, and in 1895 described attempting to use her home in Ireland as a safe house for exiled London anarchists.[11] It is thought she died in Paris in the early 20th century.[12]

In his 1912 dictionary of Irish writers of English verse, David James O'Donoghue observes that "she appears to hold very advanced opinions".[4]

Bibliography

  • Lady Blanche, and Other Poems, by Ida, London, Hamilton Adams; and Belfast; C. Aitchison, 1875.[3]
  • The Three Banquets, and Prison Poems, London, 1890.[4]
  • The Flowers Of Lyle And Elegiac Verses[12] London, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1901.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Calendars of Wills and Administrations, 1858 - 1922". www.willcalendars.nationalarchives.ie. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Announcements". Belfast News-Letter. 3 December 1862.
  3. 1 2 3 Reilly, Catherine W. (2000). Mid-Victorian poetry, 1860-1879 : an annotated biobibliography. London: Mansell. p. 492. ISBN 978-1-84714-179-8. OCLC 228658603.
  4. 1 2 3 4 O'Donoghue, David James (1912). The Poets of Ireland: a biographical and bibliographical dictionary of Irish writers of English verse. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Company. p. 478.
  5. 1 2 Herbison, Ivan (20 December 2013). "Beyond the rhyming weavers". Études irlandaises (38–2): 41–54. doi:10.4000/etudesirlandaises.3503. ISSN 0183-973X.
  6. ↑ Newmann, Kate. "Ida White: Poet and revolutionary". The Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  7. ↑ ""The Collegiad" or Will of Widow Magee". Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  8. ↑ "Funeral of George White". Ballymena Observer. 3 May 1876.
  9. 1 2 "Mrs "Ida" White Socialist". Ballymena Observer. 21 July 1893.
  10. ↑ "Ode to Death". Ballymena Observer. 14 January 1888.
  11. ↑ Bantman, Constance (2013). The French Anarchists in London, 1880-1914 : Exile and Transnationalism in the First Globalisation. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-84631-797-2. OCLC 863822181.
  12. 1 2 "Ida White". Black Star. February 1984.
  13. ↑ "New Book of Poems by "Ida"". Ballymena Observer. 24 May 1901.
  • Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Irish Women Poets, pp. 238–39,Anne Ulry Colman, Kenny's Bookshop, Galway, 1996. ISBN 0-906312-44-2.
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