Short answers, pulled from the story.
Edward Dowden (the 3rd of May 1843 - the 4th of April 1913) was an Irish critic, professor, and poet born in Cork. He became professor of oratory and English literature at Dublin University in 1867 and was widely recognized for his work on Shakespeare and Shelley.
Dowden is best known to the general public for The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in 1886. His 1875 study Shakspere: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art was translated into German and Russian and made him prominent as a Shakespeare critic.
In 1878 the Royal Irish Academy awarded Dowden the Cunningham gold medal for his literary writings, especially in the field of Shakespearean criticism.
Dowden's biographical and critical concepts about Shakespeare are played with by the character Stephen Dedalus in the library chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses. Leslie Fiedler later revisited the same concepts in The Stranger in Shakespeare.
Dowden identified Shelley as the author of a review in The Critical Review of December 1814, described Shelley's Philosophical View of Reform, found an unknown pamphlet by Bishop Berkeley, and discovered a Narrative of a Prisoner of War under Napoleon published in Blackwood's Magazine. He also located a manuscript diary of Fabre d'Eglantine and a record by Dr Wilhelm Weissenborn of Goethe's last days.
From 1896 to 1901, Dowden served as commissioner of education in Ireland. He was also trustee of the National Library of Ireland, secretary of the Irish Liberal Union, and vice-president of the Irish Unionist Alliance.