 He attended a Catholic school and furthered his own education at the British Museum.He began his journalistic work by writing for the Dublin papers upon subjects relating to Irish music, art, and literature.A founder-member of the Irish Literary Society in London, he was also vice president of the National Literary Society, Dublin, and the compiler of a biographical dictionary, "The Poets of Ireland" (1891–93; revised edition, 1912), with entries on 2,000 authors.