of Tuscany. He died in Florence on 23 May 1851. His remains were conveyed back to Ireland by a British ship-of-war, and interred at Long Orchard, near Templetuohy, County Tipperary. George W. E. Russell said of him:Sheil was very small, and of mean presence; with a singularly fidgety manner, a shrill voice, and a delivery unintelligibly rapid. But in sheer beauty of elaborated diction not O'Connell nor any one else could surpass him. Works Shiel's play, Adelaide, or the Emigrants, was performed at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin, on 19 February 1814, with success, and, on 23 May 1816, it was performed at Covent Garden in London. The Apostate, produced at the latter theatre on 3 May 1817, established his reputation as a dramatist. His other principal plays are Bellamira (written in 1818), Evadne (1819), Huguenot (produced in 1822) and Montini (1820). In 1822, Sheil began, with William Henry Curran, to contribute to the New Monthly Magazine a series of papers entitled "Sketches of the Irish Bar". Curran in fact did most of the writing. These pieces were edited by Marmion Wilme Savage in 1855 in two volumes, under the title of Sketches Legal and Political. Sheil's Speeches were edited in 1845 by Thomas MacNevin. Family In 1816, Shiel married a Miss O'Halloran, niece of Sir William MacMahon, Master of the Rolls in Ireland. They had one son, who predeceased Sheil. His wife died in January 1822. In July 1830, he married Anastasia Lalor Power, a widow. He then added the middle name Lalor. Further reading William McCullagh Torrens, Memoirs of the Right Honourable Richard Lalor Sheil (2 vols, 1855). References External links "A Greenwich Pensioner!" 1838 caricature of Richard Lalor Shiel MP 1791 births 1851 deaths Irish male dramatists and playwrights Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Masters of the Mint People educated at Stonyhurst College Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Politicians from County Kilkenny UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1832–1835 UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 UK MPs 1841–1847 UK MPs 1847–1852 Alumni of Trinity College Dublin 19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Louth constituencies (1801–1922) Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Tipperary constituencies (1801–1922) Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Waterford