"Denis Florence MacCarthy (1817-1882) was an Irish poet, translator, and biographer, born in Lower O'Connell Street, Dublin. In April 1834, before turning seventeen, MacCarthy contributed his first verses to the Dublin Satirist. He was one of a coterie of writers whose works appeared in the Nation, which had been started by Charles Gavan Duffy in 1842. Writing under the pseudonym ""Desmond"", most of MacCarthy's patriotic verse appeared in this organ. In 1846, he was called to the Irish bar, but never practised. In the same year he edited The Poets and Dramatists of Ireland, which he prefaced with an essay on the early history and religion of his countrymen."
