[2] The son of Thomas Maunsell Waller, of an Irish baronetical family, and Margaret Vereker,[1] Waller was born in Finnoe, County Tipperary, studied at Trinity College, Dublin (BA, 1831) and was called to the Irish Bar in 1833.
[3] He held the position of vice-president of the Royal Irish Academy from 1864 and was appointed Registrar of the Rolls Court in 1867.
[6] Many of his odes and poems were set to music by Irish composers, including Joseph Robinson, James Cooksey Culwick, Robert Prescott Stewart, Michael William Balfe, and George Alexander Osborne, Stewart being particularly fond of his works.
He also wrote words for compositions by George Alexander Macfarren, Charles Oberthür, and Franz Wilhelm Abt.
[3] He was responsible for the explanatory notes and a life of the author in a new edition of "Gulliver's Travels" written by Dean Jonathan Swift.