Irish Monthly

The first two years of the magazine were difficult, but in 1875 Rosa Mulholland arrived to help out, followed shortly by friends of Russell, including Aubrey de Vere, John O'Hagan and Sarah Atkinson, which helped put the magazine on a firm footing.

[1] Among the early contributors to the magazine were Denis Florence MacCarthy, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, Charles Gavan Duffy, Stephen Brown, Emily Hickey, Dora Sigerson, T. A. Finlay, Archbishop Healy, D. Bearne, Rose Kavanagh, John O'Leary and his sister Ellen.

These were members of the Irish cultural and nationalistic circles of the time, which included the likes of W. B. Yeats and George Sigerson, and many young writers flocked to the magazine as an outlet for their talents.

Matthew Russell was impressed by Wynne's poems, and offered to pay for the publication of some; a collection, called Whisper!, was published in 1891.

[2] Among the writers "discovered" by the Irish Monthly are: Oscar Wilde, M. E. Francis, Katharine Tynan, Hilaire Belloc, Patrick Augustine Sheehan, and Alice Furlong.