The famous novelist was born in Yorkshire, England, on this day but did you know Charlotte Bronte had strong Irish links? Made a household name by her written works such as "Jane Eyre", Charlotte Brontë "spoke with a strong Irish accent", honeymooned in Ireland and had familial connections to the Emerald Isle.
The famous novelist was born in Yorkshire, England, on this day but did you know Charlotte Bronte had strong Irish links? Made a household name by her written works such as "Jane Eyre", Charlotte Brontë "spoke with a strong Irish accent", honeymooned in Ireland and had familial connections to the Emerald Isle.
“I wanted to claim Charlotte Brontë as one of our own because she is,” said Irish actress Maxine Linehan, who portrays Brontë, the author of Jane Eyre, in the one-woman show Brontë: A Portrait of Charlotte by William Luce.
“Charlotte’s schoolmates have remarked that she spoke with an Irish accent,” says Linehan. “Her father, Patrick, was born in County Down at Emdale, Drumballyroney, near Rathfriland, about 20 miles from my own home place in Newry. The more research I did, the more I saw the profound influence their Irish heritage had on Charlotte and her sisters.”
Patrick, whose family name was originally Brunty, an Anglicized version of O’Pronntaigh – a family of hereditary scribes (appropriate, that) – was the oldest of 10 children. His father, Hugh, a farm laborer had eloped with his mother, Alice McClory, when her family objected to the marriage, perhaps because Hugh was an outsider, born in southern Ireland and adopted by an uncle – a tale that resona