Talk:Tiger Roche

A fact from Tiger Roche appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 26 September 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that William Makepeace Thackeray may have based the novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon on exploits of the notorious soldier and duelist Tiger Roche?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2006/September.

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A Note on Sources[edit]

The text of the article from Harper's is identical to that found on the web at http://www.eiretek.org/lemoncms/data/books/60y/chapter10.htm in External Links. Both were presumably written by John Edward Walsh, though the Harper's article has no by-line. An account of Walsh's life, his interest in Roche, and the reasons for his anonymity, can be found here. The Walsh article ends abruptly, but so, apparently, does Roche's known history. Walsh is confused on dates, because he gives the year of Roche's passing to India as 1778, but the year of his subsequent trial as 1776! This was a probably merely an uncaught typographical error. Boylan's account seems to be a direct extract from Walsh's, providing no new details except for corrected dates (which I used) and a sentence explicitly confirming that there is no further information. The account of Somerville-Large also seems to be based largely on Walsh's, though Somerville-Large introduces a few obvious errors (for instance, he claims that Tiger was the younger brother of Sir Boyle Roche, when it is clear from the dates of their births that this is not correct). I suspect that no other sources exist, but I would love to be shown wrong. ubiquity 12:49, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Speculation[edit]

Roche's trial was the year of his brother Boyle's election to the Irish Parliament, and a year before Boyle's being made baronet. Tiger might have been a significant embarrassment to his family (who probably thought he was safely on his way to the other side of world, but here he was back in London, on trial for murder!). Could Tiger's complete disappearance be the result of encouragement and incentive from his family? ubiquity 12:49, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Military Project and Infobox[edit]

I did not sign Tiger up for the Wikipedia Military Biography project, or give him a military infobox, because (a) I don't think enough is known about his military career to provide specifics and (b) his military career was interrupted by scandal and murder. I'd be happy to discuss the matter if anyone cares. ubiquity 15:13, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Real name?[edit]

Does any source list his real name? Seems odd to have a long biographical piece and identify only his nickname. Jeff Worthington 16:37, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't found one, and believe me I've looked. ubiquity 17:06, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The recent release of sources onto Google Books has revealed his Christian name to be David. I'll have to troll through and see if they have any other useful information that can be added. Choess 01:44, 24 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I got all excited about this until i read the article you mention (from The Gentleman's Magazine). The David "Tiger" Roche mentioned in that article was the son of a James Roche from Cork. If Tiger Roche was Boyle Roche's brother, his father was Jordan Roche of Dublin. So either there were two Tiger Roches, or my sources that claim that Tiger Roche and Boyle Roche were brothers are in error, or the author of the Gentleman's Magazine article is in error somewhere. Keep looking. :-) ubiquity 05:51, 24 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Notes and Queries, 4th series, ix 262, 234 (1872), available from Google Books: "His wife was not the daughter of...as Sir Jonah Barrington states, Sir John Cave...Sir Jonah Barrington writes, no doubt, equally at random, when he terms Sir Boyle Roche 'Gentleman Usher' instead of Master of Ceremonies at the Court of Dublin; and it may therefore be worth while to inquire further whether Sir Jonah be right in his assertion that Sir Boyle 'was brother to the famous Tiger Roche...'". Ruvigny's Jacobite Peerage, also online there, states that Dominick Roche, created Viscount Cahiravahilla and Baron Tarbert by James II, had grandsons Thomas Roche of Dublin, esq. and Sir Boyle Roche, son of Jordan Roche, in 1787; David is not mentioned. Check! Choess 06:20, 24 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Barrington is not the only person to assert that Boyle Roche was brother to the Tiger Roche of my article. However, I don't know whether my other sources were just taking Barrington's word for it. Looking at the dates there is a problem. Tiger was born in 1729, Boyle in 1736. But Tiger was born in Dublin and educated in Dublin, while Boyle was born in County Galway. Did the family move back and forth? Honestly, I don't know. But for the time being I'm going to assume my sources are correct when they assert they are brothers. --ubiquity 21:45, 24 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Substantial amounts of text taken from another source?[edit]

It would appear to me that almost all of the text is taken from the external link, http://www.eiretek.org/lemoncms/data/books/60y/chapter10.htm. However, this is so blatent that I figure someone must have a release for it. It should probably be posted here, especially with it appearing on the front page.131.107.0.73 17:44, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I see, it was written in 1852. That would explain it. :) 131.107.0.73 17:46, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have reduced the amount of text taken from the Walsh link, and added some other sources. However, see my note above (A Note on Sources). It is hard to avoid taking text from Walsh, because basically his is the only source there is.ubiquity 21:17, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tone[edit]

I added the tone tag, as the article is rather florid and tall-tale ish --Awiseman 18:13, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, I'll try to fix. ubiquity 19:00, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed, I hope. ubiquity 21:18, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

So I found this article as I was doing more research on the Roche lineage (I am a direct descendent of Tiger Roche, as it turns out), and even I can agree that this is written like a children's fable. I am not experienced enough in Wiki guidelines, but I would love it if someone can come in an essentially overhaul this article with a more neutral verbiage. 45.73.149.202 (talk) 16:04, 28 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]