Joseph Cooper Walker
antiquary (1761–1810)
Joseph Cooper Walker (c.1762–1810) was an Irish antiquarian and writer.
Life
Walker was born in Dublin and educated under Thomas Ball. An invalid with acute asthma, in his earlier years he travelled a great deal for his health, and for many years lived in Italy. Walker's main work is Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (1786), an important source for, among others, the life of the Irish harper Turlough Carolan. Lesa Ní Mhunghaile is of the view that the translations of Irish poems in this publication were influenced by Ossian, but also were considered by the author to improve on the originals. Walker's Historical Essay on the Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish (1788) was also concerned with the recovery of the Irish past. Walker was aware of the tension between national revival and the bardic note of loss.
Walker was one of the original members of the Royal Irish Academy and contributed papers to its Transactions. Besides his more important writings (see below) he also wrote "Anecdotes on Chess in Ireland", a paper contributed to Charles Vallancey's Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis. He also left works in manuscript, including a journal of his travels and materials for Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers of Ireland.
“Joseph Cooper Walker” enters the record as antiquary (1761–1810). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Joseph, Cooper and Walker can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 3, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q17102480. VIAF identifies the subject as 56962566. The Library of Congress control number is n87817870. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1762, 1810, 1786 and 1788.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joseph Cooper Walker” 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.