GRIFFIN (O'GRIoBTA, O'GREEVA), GERALD (1$O3 184o), Irish novelist and dramatic writer, was born at Limerick. Having written a tragedy, Aguire, which was highly praised by his friends, he set out in 1823 for London with the pur pose of "revolutionizing the dramatic taste of the time by writ ing for the stage." In spite of the recommendations of John Banim, he had a hard struggle. The Noyades, an opera entirely in recitative, was produced at the English Opera House in 1826; and the success of Holland Tide Tales (1827) led to Tales of the Munster Festivals (3 vols., 1827), which were still more popular. In 1829 appeared his fine novel, The Collegians, afterwards suc cessfully adapted for the stage by Dion Boucicault under the title of The Colleen Bawn. He followed up this success with other novels, and a number of lyrics touched with his native melancholy. But he became doubtful as to the moral influence of his writings, and sought admission into a society of the Christian Brothers at Dublin, in Sept. 1838, under the name of Brother Joseph. He died at Cork of typhus fever on June 12, 184o. Before adopting the monastic habit he burned all his manuscripts; but Gisippus, a tragedy which he had composed before he was 20, accidentally escaped destruction, and in 1842 was put on the Drury Lane stage by Macready with great success.
The collected works of Gerald Griffin were published in in eight volumes, with a Life by his brother William Griffin, M.D.; an edition of his Poetical and Dramatic Works (1895) by C. G. Duffy ; and a selection of his lyrics, with a notice by George Sigerson, is included in the Treasury of Irish Poetry, edit. by Stopford A. Brooke and T. W. Rolleston (19oo).