Log in

Radical Translations
  • Date
  • False: false attribution such as false place of imprint or false date
  • Fictional place: false imprint contains a fictional, invented place of imprint or date
  • Form: type or genre of writing.
  • Female
  • Male
  • Language
  • Noble: person was born noble.
  • Place
  • Role: the main role of a person or organization in relation to a resource.
  • Subject: content, theme, or topic of a work.
  • Uncertainty: information could not be verified.

Patrick Wogan

1740 – 1816-02-28 Dublin English Main: Dublin bookseller publisher Wogan, Patrick, 1740?-1816 (viaf) Wogan, Patrick (cerl)

Contributions

  1. The history of the Revolution of France. Translated from the French translation publisher

Knows

Notes

Based at 20 Old Bridge Street and Lower Ormond Quay.

Wogan was born in obscure circumstances and nothing is known of his early life. Practising as a publisher from 1771, in 1773 he moved to Old Bridge Street, where he was based for 34 years. From 1775–1782 he was in partnership with Patrick Bean and Wight Pike, ironmongers, and from 1809–1810 with John Cumming.

One of the few Catholics in the book trade, he began printing Catholic catechisms and sermons in English and Irish, and was committed to championing Catholic rights. After the death of James Hoey in 1775, he was regarded as the main Catholic bookseller in Dublin. Wogan's main income came, however, from supplying textbooks to country towns. He also sold French textbooks, including Abel Boyer's 'Complete French master' in 1793, and Antoni Porny's 'French grammar' in 1803.

According to an unsigned, undated document in the possession of Dublin Castle, part of the strategy of Robert Emmet for his planned rebellion of 1803 was to occupy Wogan's shop and so command a narrow passage from Bridge Street to Merchant's Quay; however, Wogan was not a revolutionary and probably knew nothing of the plan.

Already a successful bookseller who in 1781 was advertising for printers, bookbinders and apprentices, Wogan further prospered after 1794 when he bought, on the death of Robert Jackson (1748–93), the copyright to six lucrative almanacs including Grant's and The Lady's Almanack.

He died on 28 February 1816 aged 76, having been married three times. His only son, Patrick Wogan, died in New York in November 1804 aged 27. David Wogan, possibly a nephew, succeeded him at 20 Bridge St. (1808–14) when he moved to Ormond Quay.

For more on Wogan's career, see James W. Philips, 'Printing and bookselling in Dublin, 1670–1800' (1998); Máire Kennedy, 'French books in 18th-century Ireland' (2001); and Ruán O'Donnell, 'Robert Emmet and the rising of 1803' (2003).