The origin of life: a reply to Sir Oliver Lodge

Joseph McCabe, a well-known Irish author and journalist, was one of the most prolific and influential writers of popular atheism in the twentieth century. Born in 1867, he came from a family of eleven children and was the eldest son. His father ran a small drapery business which went bankrupt during the recession of 1876 and the family lived in cramped conditions for many years. In 1892, Joseph McCabe entered journalism as a reporter on The Catholic Universe newspaper and then worked as an assistant editor with the Dublin Daily Express. He became editor of The Nationalist weekly paper United Ireland in 1900 where his articles on working-class issues attracted much attention.