Daft Eddie or the Smugglers of Strangford Lough: A Tale of Killinchy

Daft Eddie; or, the Smugglers of Strangford Lough: A Tale of Killinchy first appeared as a serial in the author’s own newspaper, the North Down Herald and Bangor Gazette, in 1889. Based on actual events in the Ards peninsula, County Down, during the Eighteenth Century, it tells the tale of a band of local smugglers that went by the name of ‘The Merry Hearts of Down’. But its criminal activities extended well beyond mere smuggling, and in his novel Lyttle relates a story of kidnap, extortion and murder. The eponymous hero, Eddie, is a simple lad from Mahee Island in Strangford Lough who shadows the gang’s every move and aids in the search for an abducted magistrate and his daughter.

This new edition includes an introduction to the author and his work, additional footnotes, and a glossary of words used in the dialogue.

Wesley Greenhill Lyttle was born in Newtownards, County Down, in 1844 and pursued several occupations before founding the North Down Herald newspaper in 1880. He was the author of a number of books, perhaps the most enduringly popular of which is the novel Betsy Gray, or Hearts of Down. Through his writing he has left an invaluable record of life and language in North Down and the Ards during the Nineteenth Century. He died on 1st November, 1896, and is buried in the grounds of Bangor Abbey.