IRBIT, a town of Russia, in the government of Perm, 110 m. N.E. of
Ekaterinburg, and on the Irbit river. Pop. (1860) 3408, (1897) 20,064.
It is famous for a great fair, held since 1643, which lasts from the 1st
of February to the 1st of March (O.S.), and at which are sold (to an
average annual value of over L4,000,000) cottons, woollens, flax and
hemp, silks, leather, metals, metallic and other manufactured goods,
furs, hides, felt, raw wool and tea.
IRELAND, JOHN (1761-1842), English divine and dean of Westminster, was
born at Ashburton, Devonshire, on the 8th of September 1761, his father
being a butcher in that town. For a short time he worked in a
shoemaker's shop. Subsequently he proceeded to Oxford, and in due course
took holy orders. Through the interest of the earl of Liverpool he was
in 1802 appointed a prebendary of Westminster Abbey, in 1815 he was
promoted to the deanery of Westminster, and from 1816 to 1835 he was
also rector of Islip, Oxfordshire. In 1825 he gave L4000 for the
foundation at Oxford of four "Ireland" scholarships of the value of L30
a year each, "for the promotion of classical learning and taste." He
also gave L500 to Westminster school for the establishment of prizes for
Latin hexameters. He died at Westminster on the 2nd of September 1842,
and was buried in the abbey.
IRELAND, JOHN (1838- ), American Roman Catholic prelate, was born at
Burnchurch, County Kilkenny, Ireland, on the 11th of September 1838. In
1849 he was taken to the United States by his parents, who settled at St
Paul, Minnesota Territory. After being educated in France for the
priesthood, he returned to the United States in 1861; he was ordained at
St Paul and in the following year he accompanied the 5th Minnesota
Volunteer Infantry south as chaplain. Subsequently he became rector of
the cathedral at St Paul, and in 1870-1871 represented Bishop Thomas
Langdon Grace (1814-1897) at the Vatican council at Rome. In 1875 he was
appointed bishop of Nebraska, but at the urgent request of Bishop Grace
the appointment was changed so that he might remain at St Paul as
bishop-coadjutor with the right of succession; at the same time he was
made titular bishop of Maronea. In 1884 he succeeded to the bishopric,
and in 1888 he became the first archbishop of the see. His liberal views
gave him a wide influence and reputation both within and without the
church, and he came to be looked upon as a leader of the "American" as
distinguished from the "Roman" party in the clergy. His views were,
however, opposed by several leading Catholics; and several of his
administrative acts, notably his plan for the partial taking over of
control of the parochial schools by the local authorities (known from
the town in which it was first attempted, "the Faribault plan"), were
strenuously attacked. He was prominently identified with the planting of
Catholic communities or colonies in the North-West, with the
establishment of the Catholic University at Washington, and with the
Catholic total abstinence movement. The degree of LL.D. was conferred on
him by Yale University in 1901. He published _The Church and Modern
Society_ (1896).
IRELAND, WILLIAM HENRY (1777-1835), forger of Shakespearian manuscripts,
was born in London in 1777. His father, Samuel Ireland, was an engraver
and author, and dealer in rare books and curios. In 1794 young Ireland,
with his father, visited Stratford, where he met John Jordan, a local
poet who had published a deal of gossipy matter about Shakespeare and
had even forged the will of the poet's father. Seeing his own father's
credulous interest, Ireland conceived the idea of doing a little forgery
on his own account. He copied, in ink which had all the signs of age,
Shakespeare's style and handwriting, and produced leases, contracts with
actors, notes, receipts, a profession of faith, and even a love letter
to Anne Hathaway with an enclosed lock of hair, to the delight of his
unsuspecting father, and the deception of many scholars who attested
their belief in the genuineness of his finds. These he accounted for by
inventing an ancestor "William Henrye Irelaunde," to whom they had been
bequeathed by Shakespeare in gratitude for rescue from drowning. At last
the discovery of a whole new play named _Vortigern_ was announced.
Sheridan purchased it for Drury Lane Theatre, and an overflowing house
assembled on the 2nd of April 1796 to sit in judgment upon it. But away
from the glamour of crabbed handwriting and yellow paper, the feeble
dialogue and crude conceptions of the tragedy could not stand the test,
and its one representation was greeted with shouts of laughter. Its fate
prevented the composition of a series of historical plays, of which
_Henry II._ had already been produced by this audacious forger. Samuel
Ireland the elder had published in 1795 the _Miscellaneous Papers and
Legal Instruments under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare;
including the Tragedy of King Lear and a small fragment of Hamlet_
(dated 1796). He had the fullest belief in their authenticity, but the
hostile criticism of Malone and others, and the unsatisfactory account
of the source of the papers, made him demand a full disclosure from his
son. Harassed by the success of his own deceit, which had carried him
far beyond his first intention, Ireland at last confessed his fraud, and
published (1796) an _Authentic Account of the Shakespearian MSS._, and
in 1805, a more elaborate _Confession_, entirely exculpating his father
and making a full admission. The elder Ireland felt the disgrace very
bitterly, and it probably hastened his death, which occurred in July
1800. After the exposure Ireland was forced to abandon both his home and
his profession. He wrote several novels of no value, gradually sank into
penury, and died on the 17th of April 1835.
The more interesting publications on the Ireland forgeries are:
_Inquiry into the authenticity of certain Papers, &c., attributed to
Shakespeare_, by Edmond Malone (1796); the elder Ireland's
_Vindication of his Conduct_ (1796); _An Apology for the Believers in
the Shakespeare Papers_ (1797), and a _Supplemental Apology_ (1799),
both by George Chalmers; and pamphlets by Boaden, Waldron, Wyatt, Webb
and Oulton. _Vortigern_ was republished in 1832. The elder Ireland's
correspondence with regard to the forgeries is preserved in the
British Museum, with numerous specimens of his son's talent. Ireland's
career supplied the subject-matter of James Payn's novel _The Talk of
the Town_ (1885).