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James Berry (writer)

Irish writer (1842–1914)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ6129737 ↗
Source-derived summary

James Berry (1842–1914) was an Irish writer and farmer.

Early life

Berry born in Bunowen, Louisburgh, County Mayo. Through visiting his uncle Father Ned O'Malley, the parish priest in Carna, County Galway, he met and married Sarah Greene, a local woman. They lived together in Carna and went on to have 11 children.

Career

From 1910 to 1914 Berry had a column in The Mayo News under the title Tales of the West – Recollections of my Early Boyhood (reprinted in 1927). The column centered on tales he heard during his youth growing up in Mayo and described events from the Famine years such as the Doolough Tragedy. In 1967, a collection of his stories was published as Tales of the West of Ireland by Gertrude M. Horgan of Aquinas College (Michigan). Berry's Letters to the Editor of the Connaught Telegraph were published as columns in that newspaper during the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Some of these 19th century letters advocated for the Irish peasantry and described the horrific abuses inflicted upon them by the Anglo-Irish landlord class.

Death

Berry died on 4 June 1914 and was buried in Mynish cemetery, Carna.

Editorial summary

“James Berry (writer)” enters the record as irish writer (1842–1914). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what James, Berry and writer can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1842, 1914, 1910, 1927—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1842-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around James, Berry and writer.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“James Berry (writer)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, James, Berry and writer provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6129737. VIAF identifies the subject as 69224515. The Library of Congress control number is n88613541. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1842, 1914, 1910 and 1927.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “James Berry (writer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow James Berry (writer) primary sources, James Berry (writer) archive and James research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “James Berry (writer)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “James Berry (writer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.