Here are some sources of further information, scholarship or criticism relating to Eilís Dillon and her work.{{LINK to all the books on this page}}
As well as Inside Ireland (1982), Eilís Dillon wrote an autobiographical essay for Contemporary Authors Autobiography, volume 3, edited by Adele Sarkissian, published in 1986 by Gale Research Company, Book Tower, Detroit, Michigan 48226. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 84-647879. ISBN 0-8103-4502-1. ISSN-0748-0636.
Some genealogical information on her family may be found in Burke’s Irish Family Records, London, Burke’s Peerage Limited, 1976, s.v. Dillon. See also Eilís Dillon, “A Victorian Household”, in Victorian Dublin, edited by Tom Kennedy, Dublin, Albertine Kennedy Publishing with the Dublin Arts Festival, 1980, pp.64-71. ISBN 0 906002 05 2.
In 2006 her mother’s memoirs appeared posthumously, edited with skill and sensitivity by Honor O’Brolchain: Geraldine Plunkett Dillon, All in the Blood: A memoir of the Plunkett family, the 1916 rising and the War of Independence, Dublin A&A Farmar, 2006.
Eilís Dillon’s working drafts are held in the Manuscripts collection of the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.
The copyright to her work is held by the Eilís Dillon Literary Estate, 16 Prince Edward Terrace, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, to whom all enquiries should be addressed.
Her work is discussed in several published sources; her historical novels were studied in a thesis written by Christine A. Walker for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Irish Studies at the National University of Ireland Galway in 1995.
A 1997 article on her books for young people set in Ireland is Suzanne Rahn, “‘Inishrone Is Our Island’: Rediscovering the Irish Novels of Eilís Dillon”, in The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children’s Literature, Volume 21 No. 3, special number on Irish children’s literature. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press. ISSN 0147-2593.
Some recent critical or biographical work:
Studies in Children’s Literature, 1500-2000, edited by Celia Keenan & Mary Shine Thompson. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004. See the essay by Ciara Ní Bhroin, ‘Forging national identity: the adventure stories of Eilís Dillon’
Treasure Islands: Studies in Children’s Literature, edited by Mary Shine Thompson & Celia Keenan.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006, 219pp. This book contains three essays on Eilís Dillon:
Nancy Watson, ‘Traditional loyalties and liberal values in Eilís Dillon’s The Island of Ghosts’ (pp. 172-186)
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, ‘Daddies and telephones: the wild and the tame in children’s literature’ (pp. 187-199)
Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, ‘Growing up in a writer’s head’ (pp. 200-208)
The Politics and Poetics of Irish Children’s Literature, by Nancy Watson, with a foreword by Declan Kiberd.
Dublin, Ireland & Portland, Oregon, 2009: Irish Academic Press, 2009, 187pp.
See Chapter 2, ‘Post-Independent Ireland: Eilís Dillon’ (pp. 19-42): ‘I begin with Eilís Dillon because I see her work as being “foundational”… ‘ (p. 19)
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