Handy Andy

Samuel Lover (1797-1868) was an Irish songwriter and novelist, as well as a painter of portraits, chiefly miniatures. He was the grandfather of Victor Herbert. Lover produced a number of Irish songs, of which several - including: The Angel's Whisper, Molly Bawn, and The Four-Leaved Shamrock - attained great popularity. He also wrote some novels, of which Rory O'More (1836) (in its first form a ballad), and Handy Andy (1842) are the best known, and short Irish sketches, which, with his songs, he combined into a popular entertainment called Irish Nights. He joined with Dickens in founding Bentley's Magazine. His other works include: Songs and Ballads (1839), Characteristic Sketches of Ireland... (1845), He Would be a Gentleman; or, Treasure Trove and Legends and Stories of Ireland.