I
THOMAS D'ARCY M'GEE'S NARRATIVE OF 1848
Early on Saturday the 22nd of July I left my pleasant home in Cullenswood, near Dublin, to which I was never to return. On reaching the city I found a telegraphic despatch from London had been just published, announcing the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and that the "extraordinary powers" to be conferred on the Lord Lieutenant would be forwarded to Dublin on the following Monday. It was contended on all hands that the hour for action or submission or flight for the Confederates was now come. Of "The Council of Five,"[16] there were then in Dublin but three members. One is now in Van Diemen's Land; the others were Mr. Dillon and myself. We had a hasty meeting in the old Council Rooms of the Irish Confederation. They decided to proceed that evening to Enniscorthy to advise with Smith O'Brien, and, as I understood, to proceed with him to the district between the Suir and the Shannon, and to operate from that basis according to circumstances and their own best judgment.
A gentleman had arrived in Dublin that morning with a proposition which decided my movements and led me into some singular situations.
He was a professional man, by birth an Irishman who had resided a long time in Scotland. He had one only son, two rifles, and £120 in money, which he brought as his offering to the country. He informed us that several hundred Irishmen in Scotland had been all the year preparing for this event, that they had a good share of arms and ammunition, and that if any plan could be devised to bring them into Ireland, they could be relied on for courage and endurance. I do not mention this gentleman's name, because I do not know but he is still under the laws of England.
We perceived, on consultation, that if it were possible to land 400 or 500 staunch men in the north-west—say, at Sligo or Killala—where the Government were completely off their guard (all their anxieties being centred on the south), an important movement might follow in Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Mayo. It would be like hitting the enemy in the back of the head. It would necessarily draw off some of the forces from Munster, through the valley of the Upper Shannon, which, with its continuous chain of lake, bog and mountain frontier, would be difficult ground for the movements of a regular army.
It was necessary, as our informant said, that "someone with a name" should go over and concert with the Irishmen in Scotland the mode and time of action, and I was the only person at hand willing for that service. For my encouragement, Meagher assured me I would be "as famous as Paul Jones" if I got the men out of the Clyde, and Mr. Dillon suggested as a landing-place "the old ground, Killala."
That afternoon I left Dublin, and on Tuesday morning I was in Scotland.
I cannot give the exact particulars of my movements while there. All who were in my confidence are still in Scotland, with the exception of Mr. Peter M'Cabe of Glasgow, now in the United States. I will only say that I visited and consulted our friends in four of the principal towns—Edinburgh included. I attended meetings of the clubs and in each instance instituted committees. I obtained in a few days a list of nearly 400 men, pretty well equipped, ready for the risk. A sub-committee surveyed the Broomielaw and the Clyde, and although their report was unfavourable to the attempt of getting out in one body, a gentleman, now in America, gained over the crew and officers of an Irish steamer to take us as passengers from Greenock where the tides in a few days would answer for departure about ten o'clock at night. The arms were to be previously shipped as merchandise or luggage, and the destination was to be Sligo.
These arrangements occupied from Tuesday till Friday of the last week of July. In the meanwhile, the London Journals arrived with news that O'Brien and his friends had been received with open arms in the south, and great excitement and suspicion of strangers arose in Scotland. In the Reading Room at Paisley I read myself in The Hue and Cry. One paper stated I was in Waterford, another said I was "revelling among the clubs in the Co. Dublin." The Times did me the honour to couple me with Meagher, calling us "the two most dangerous men now abroad." No one suspected my real locality.
On Friday I was in Edinburgh intending to return to Glasgow, when Mr. ——, accompanied by a friend suddenly joined me. I saw they were a good deal agitated. They told me a Scotch mechanic who had been formerly in Dublin had seen me in the streets of Glasgow opposite Wellington statue, and that the news was "all round town." They added that the magistrates were in secret sitting, and as the writ of Habeas Corpus is unknown to the law of Scotland, I would be certainly arrested and summarily imprisoned if I returned. They were instructed to advise me to go to Ireland through the north of England, to prepare our friends in and about Sligo, and that they would complete the project which they had begun, and which was now in promising forwardness. I complied and Mr. ---- handed me a purse, as a personal gift from the Committee. This purse contained twelve or thirteen sovereigns, the only public money I received in this enterprise. After purposely driving to the West of Scotland depot [railway terminus] we returned to the North British, and my friends saw me off a station or two on the way to Newcastle-on-Tyne. I slept that night in Newcastle.
Between Newcastle and Carlisle the next day (Saturday) I had for a fellow passenger the Rev. Thresham Gregg[17] who was on a lecturing excursion against the Pope in the north of England. I had been introduced to him a year or two before and supposed he knew me. He certainly looked very hard at me from under his travelling-cap, with his half-shut cunning eyes. I had in my hand "Bradshaw's Railway Guide," which he asked to see. At the way stations he kept constantly inquiring the distance to Carlisle, and I sorely suspected he meant to "peach." He did not, however, though I still think he must have known me.
In Carlisle I met at dinner two Dublin priests (one from Westland Row chapel). They were bound on a pleasure-trip for Loch Katrine and the Trossachs. They informed me that I was "proclaimed," and seemed surprised at my returning. We parted very cordially and that night I went to Whitehaven where I had to wait over Sunday for the Belfast steamer.
In Whitehaven (by accident) I met with Mr. James Leach, the well-known Chartist, with whom I had some conversation unnecessary here to be repeated.
On Tuesday morning I arrived in Belfast. Two policemen entered the cabin as I was leaving it, and having been at the meeting which occasioned the Hercules Street riot,[18] I thought they would recognise me. They did not, however, and at 8 o'clock (after leaving a note for a dear and trusted friend of Mr. Duffy's, to mark my whereabouts) I was safely embarked on the Ulster railway for Armagh. At Aughnacloy a detective gave me a light, and before I went to bed (in Enniskillen) had read the proclamations against the leaders of the Southern movement, on the gates of the Barrack. The next morning I reached Sligo by the Leitrim road.
This was Wednesday morning, August 2nd.
At the Hibernia Hotel, where I stopped as Mr. Kelly (my travelling baptism), I saw for the first time in ten days the Irish papers. The Dublin Freeman and Saunder's News Letter were on the table. I read the list of the places where, and the clergymen by whom, the Southern movement had been "denounced," on Sunday, July 23rd and Sunday, July 30th. The same papers contained Lord Clarendon's wily letter to Archbishop Murray, offering to alter the statutes of the new colleges and to remodel the Bequests Bill so as to content the Catholic clergy, and artfully complimenting Pius IX. The game of the Government was clear—it was to separate the clergy from the people in the coming struggle.
The evening of my arrival in Sligo, I conferred with a few friends. The place chosen was "a shell house" in the demesne of Hazelwood on the shores of Lough Gill. Of those who formed that conference one at least, Mr. William M'Garahan, is now in America. We ascertained the garrison of Sligo to be but ninety men—the barrack to be surrounded by a common eight-foot wall, and the local authorities to be completely lulled to sleep. The circumstances were as favourable as could be expected.
But there never had been in Sligo or Leitrim any local Confederate or even "Repeal" organisation. The only local societies were secret—Molly Maguires and Ribbonmen. It was necessary to get into communication with them and late the next night Dr. ——, a Confederate, introduced me to one of their leaders, on a road which crosses a hill to the south of the town. This gentleman I found wary, resolute, and intelligent. He said: "I have no doubt of what you say, but I must have certain facts to lay before our district chiefs. At present we don't know what to believe. One day we hear one thing—another, another. Bring us by this day week assurances that the South is going to rise or has risen, and we will raise two thousand before the week is out." I agreed to do so and he in the meantime went to prepare his friends.
I returned to my confidants of the first conference and "reported progress." It was rather difficult to find a trusty messenger. I volunteered to go myself, but they would not hear of it. At last a man who could be depended on was obtained, and, armed with certain passwords (unintelligible except to those for whom they were intended) he left to go through Roscommon and Westmeath into Tipperary by Borrisokane and Nenagh.
Simultaneously with this, agents went abroad in the country, and I, by the advice of the local leaders, went to lodge under Benbulben in the character of a Dublin student in search of health and exercise during the summer vacation. Within a week we expected to be openly arrayed against the authorities, and no man that I saw shrank from the prospect.
From my lodgings under Benbulben I made a visit to Bundoran to meet some friends from Donegal who were anxious to consult me as to the state of the county. By an odd chance I lodged in the same house with the stipendiary magistrate, Sir Thomas Blake, and had to go through his bedroom to my own. We met frequently but he was quite unsuspicious. He has, I find since, been dismissed from his office, after an ineffectual search for me through the county, a month from the time we had lived under the same roof.
While our messenger had gone south there arrived one from our friends in Scotland. Him I sent back the same night to expedite affairs there. In the meanwhile, on such maps as we had, my friends and I studied the roads and the formation of the country. There is in this part of Ireland a plateau of about twenty-five miles square of broken or mountainous ground. Of this district Ballinamore in Leitrim might be considered the centre; there are but three main roads leading through it—the Boyle road, the Red Lion road, and the Ballysodare road—which could all be easily rendered impassable, passing as they do over rapid streams, through narrow defiles or across extensive marshes. There is no great military depot within the district—Enniskillen, Athlone, and even Castlebar being within the spurs of the mountains. Sligo, its chief town was, as we saw, poorly garrisoned, and yet as a seaport of the second class it contained many things of the greatest use in a military movement—as lead, arms, canvas, tools, money, ships' stores, breadstuffs, types for proclamations and even some small cannon. From three to five thousand men it was calculated, could be well-equipped and could maintain themselves for three months within this district, with tolerable prudence and exertion. Before the time expired we hoped to receive help and officers from abroad, and afterwards to be able to undertake greater things.
We could not but remember that this was the district chosen by Owen O'Neill after his arrival from Spain in 1645 and that it was here he "nursed up" by slow degrees the army which fought at Benburb, and which in Napoleon's opinion, but for the premature death of Owen, would have checkmated Cromwell. The ground once chosen by a great general for its natural capabilities may safely be chosen again, and usually is, as in Hungary for instance. The very posts and battlefields held and fought by Bem and Dembinski were the same whereon Huniad and Corvinus, four and five hundred years ago, fought against the Turks and Bosmens. Thus we had the sanction of a great example and the stimulus of an inspiriting tradition to point to for the choice of the ground.
We had not long to wait for news from the South—it came of itself. On Saturday the 5th of August Mr. O'Brien was arrested in Thurles. His companions, it was said, were fled hither and thither; but, at all events, his arrest had proved that, at that time, the South would not rise in arms against the Government.
This was the interpretation universally put upon it in the north-west. It was in vain I said, "There are other men as brave and as good who are still free and from whom we will hear better news." Those to whom I spoke were incredulous. Still I must do the people of the county the justice to say that in a meeting of their district-leaders at —— it was discussed for two successive nights with great animation whether or not the district should rise even then. The parties for and against a rising were nearly balanced, but the latter prevailed on the argument that unless it was general it would be fruitless.
For ten dismal days I remained in this neighbourhood, hoping against hope and endeavouring to make others do the same. The proposals I then made, the result of desperation, I will not repeat, for now, even to myself, I confess they look wild and extravagant. But I felt the whole futurity of shame that awaited us for abandoning the country without a blow. It was well advanced in August before I could persuade myself that no hope remained. The Treasurer of our Scotch Committee came to Ireland expressly to urge me to consult my own safety in flight, in which he was joined by the whole of my local associates. Successively arrived the news of Meagher, Leyne and MacManus being taken. Then indeed I knew "all was up." Then, indeed, I felt the force of what I had long before prophesied—"What if we fail?" I resolved not to be taken if I could help it, and acted accordingly. After some personal adventures in Donegal and Derry (with which I will not trouble the reader) I saw the last of the Irish shore early in September, and on the 10th of October reached Philadelphia.
I close here with this reflection: Had I been transported or hanged, I have no doubt full justice would be done me, because it would be nobody's interest to do me injustice. Had I kept silent, I might have lived an easy, prudent, reputable sort of life enough. But I established a journal on reaching America, and whereas my spine is not made of whalebone nor my conscience of indiarubber, I spoke the truth as I knew it in all things freely—thereby offending divers parties. This, I believe, could not be helped. After nearly a year of silence[19] I have at last (in self-defence) written this narrative, of which I assure the readers they never would have heard a word from me, but that misrepresentations not to be borne demanded its publicity. Those who from want of information misrepresented me hitherto can do so no more; and those who, knowing these facts, yet wilfully maligned me, I have now deprived of the power to do me further injury. Truth is powerful, and this is truth.
THE PROCLAMATION OF DOHENY AND HIS COLLEAGUES
By the Lord Lieutenant General and General-Governor of Ireland
A PROCLAMATION
CLARENDON—
Whereas we have received information that THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, JOHN B. DILLON and MICHAEL DOHENY have been guilty of treasonable practices, now we the Lord Lieutenant being determined to bring the said THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, JOHN B. DILLON and MICHAEL DOHENY to justice, do hereby offer a reward of
THREE HUNDRED POUNDS
to any person or persons who shall secure and deliver up to safe custody the person of any one of them, the said THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, JOHN B. DILLON and MICHAEL DOHENY.
And we do hereby strictly charge and command all justices of the peace, mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, constables and all other of her Majesty's loyal subjects to use their utmost-diligence in apprehending the said THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, JOHN B. DILLON and MICHAEL DOHENY.
Given at her Majesty's Castle of Dublin, this 28th day of July, 1848.
By his Excellency's Command,
T.N. REDINGTON.
"THE HUE AND CRY"
The official description of himself read by Thomas Darcy M'Gee was more accurate and less intentionally insulting than the official descriptions of most of his colleagues compiled in Dublin Castle and published in the Hue and Cry of July 27th, 1848. Probably no other official document issued to the public in the last hundred years by Dublin Castle has equalled this stupid malignity. "Sketches of Doheny and some of the Confederate leaders, modelled upon the descriptions of burglars and murderers, that ordinarily adorn the Hue and Cry were," wrote Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, a generation later, "issued for the enjoyment of loyal persons." The Freeman's Journal of the day wrote that the public who were acquainted with the appearance of the gentlemen described will read with feelings of contempt the malignant effort to insult and wound the relatives of the men proscribed by the issue of a written caricature of their persons. This remarkable production of the genius and spirit of Dublin Castle, read as follows:—
DESCRIPTION OF PERSONS CHARGED WITH
TREASONABLE PRACTICES
WILLIAM SMITH O'BRIEN.—No occupation; forty-six years of age; six feet in height; sandy hair; dark eyes; sallow, long face; has a sneering smile constantly on his face; full whiskers; sandy; a little grey; well-set man; walks erect; dresses well.
THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER.—No occupation; twenty-five years of age; five feet nine inches; dark, nearly black hair; light blue eyes; pale face; high cheekbones; peculiar expression about the eyes; cocked nose; no whiskers; well-dressed.
JOHN B. DILLON.—Barrister; thirty-two years of age; five feet eleven inches in height; dark hair; dark eyes; thin sallow face; rather thin black whiskers; dressed respectable; has bilious look.
MICHAEL DOHENY.—Barrister; forty years of age; five feet eight inches in height; fair or sandy hair; grey eyes; coarse red face like a man given to drink; high cheekbones; wants several of his teeth; very vulgar appearance; peculiar coarse unpleasant voice; dress respectable; small short red whiskers.
MICHAEL CREAN.—Shopman at a shoe-shop; thirty-five years of age; five feet eight inches; fair or sandy hair; grey eyes; full face; light whiskers; high fore-head; well-set person; dress, dark shooting frock or grey tweed, and grey tweed trousers.
FRANCIS MORGAN.[20]—Solicitor; forty-three years of age; five feet eight inches in height; very dark hair; dark eyes; sallow broad face; nose a little cocked; the upper lip turns out when speaking; rather stout; smart gait; black whiskers.
PATRICK JAMES SMITH.[21]—Studying for the bar; twenty-nine years of age; five feet nine inches in height; fair hair; dark eyes; fair delicate face and of weak appearance; long back; weak in his walk; small whiskers; clothing indifferent.
JOHN HETHERINGTON DRUMM.[22]—Medical student; twenty years of age; five feet three inches in height; very black and curly hair; black eyes; pale delicate face; rather thin person; delicate appearance; no whiskers; small face and nose; dressed respectably; Methodist.
THOMAS D'ARCY M'GEE.—Connected with the Nation newspaper; twenty-three years of age; five feet three inches in height; black hair; dark face; delicate, pale, thin man; dresses generally black shooting coat, plaid trousers, light vest.
JOSEPH BRENNAN.—Sub-Editor of the Felon newspaper; five feet six inches in height; dark hair; dark eyes; pale, sallow face; very stout; round shoulders; Cork accent; no whiskers; hair on the upper lip; soft, sickly face; rather respectably dressed, a little reduced.
THOMAS DEVIN REILLY.—Sub-editor of the Felon newspaper; twenty-four years of age; five feet seven inches in height; sandy coarse hair; grey eyes; round freckled face; head remarkably broad at the top; broad shoulders; well-set; dresses well.
JOHN CANTWELL.—Shopman at a grocer's; thirty-five years of age; five feet ten inches in height; sandy hair; grey eyes; fair face; good looking; short whisker, light; rather slight person, dresses ... Supposed a native of Dublin.
STEPHEN J. MEANY.—Sub-editor of Irish Tribune; twenty-six years of age; five feet eleven inches in height; dark hair; full blue eyes; dark face; small whiskers growing under the chin; smart appearance; was a constable of the C Division of Police, discharged for dirty habits; stout person; generally dressed in black.
RICHARD O'GORMAN, Junior.—Barrister; thirty years of age; five feet eleven inches in height; very dark hair; dark eyes; thin long face; large dark whiskers; well-made and active; walks upright; dresses black frock coat, tweed trousers.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] After the merging of the Irish Confederation in the abortive Irish League, and the consequent dissolution of the Executive of the Confederation, a Council of Five was elected to direct the Confederate Clubs until the new organisation was perfected. The five elected were John Blake Dillon, Thomas Francis Meagher, Richard O'Gorman, Junior, Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee, and Thomas Devin Reilly. The five never met. O'Gorman was out of Dublin when the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended.
[17] The Rev. Thresham Gregg was a notorious and blatant "anti-Popery" preacher of the period whom the wits of Young Ireland frequently made the butt of their jests. Apart from his bigoted sectarian obsession, he was, however, in several respects decidedly nationalistic, and steadily preached support of home trade and manufactures to his audiences. There can be no reasonable doubt that he recognised M'Gee. In this connection it may be stated that the Orangemen expelled from membership of their body Stephenson Dobbyn, an Orangeman who acted as a spy for Dublin Castle upon the Young Irelanders—drawing a clear and proper line between forcibly opposing their fellow countrymen and acting as spies for England upon them.
[18] Hercules Street in Belfast, now swept away, was chiefly inhabited by butchers who were almost all Catholics and fervent O'Connellites. When the Young Irelanders attempted to hold a meeting in Belfast shortly after O'Connell's death, the butchers made a fierce attack upon them.
[19] This narrative was written at the beginning of 1850
[20] Law Agent to the Dublin Corporation.
[21] Patrick Joseph Smyth
[22] Sub-editor of the Nation; afterwards a clergyman.
ANGLESEY, LORD (1768-1854).—Henry William Paget, who lost a leg at Waterloo and erected a monument to its memory. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1828-9, 1830-3.
ANTISELL, DR. THOMAS.—A Dublin surgeon and chemist of distinction, author of various pamphlets and addresses to the Royal Dublin Society on the geology of Ireland, reafforestation, and the sanitary conditions of Irish town-life. He supplied a large part of the capital to found the Irish Tribune. After the failure of the insurrection he went to the United States where he had a distinguished scientific career.
BANTRY, LORD.—(1801-1884) William Hare White, third earl, Lieut-Col, of the West Cork Artillery. The title became extinct in 1891.
BARRY, MICHAEL JOSEPH (1817-1889).—A Cork barrister, editor of "The Songs of Ireland" in the Library of Ireland, and author of several martial pieces, including "The Flag of Green." After the failure of the insurrection he renounced Nationalism and subsequently became a Dublin Police Magistrate.
BARRETT, RICHARD (17— -1855).—Brother of Eaton Stannard Barrett of Cork, the once famous author of "All the Talents." A journalist of fortune who changed sides with agility and enlisted under O'Connell in his latter years, having formerly vilified him.
BRENAN, JOSEPH (1828-1857).—The youngest of the Young Ireland leaders. Edited Fullam's Irishman in 1849 and unsuccessfully attempted to revive the insurrection in Waterford and Tipperary. On his failure he emigrated to the United States and died in New Orleans.
BRODERICK, CAPTAIN.—Inspector-General of Repeal Reading Rooms. He quitted Conciliation Hall after the death of O'Connell and died mentally afflicted.
BRYAN, MAJOR.—Of Raheny Lodge, Co. Dublin. Major Bryan acquired a moderate fortune in Tasmania and returned to Ireland where he joined the Repeal movement. He left Conciliation Hall with the Young Irelanders.
CAMPBELL, SIR JOHN (1779-1861).—Author of the "Lives of the Lord Chancellors." A Scots Tory politician, raised to the peerage subsequent to his connection with Ireland, and finally Lord Chancellor of England.
CANGLEY, DAVID (18— -1847).—A barrister and one of the hopes of Young Ireland. Ill-health pursued him through life and ended it prematurely.
CANTWELL, JAMES.—A Dublin mercantile assistant and, later, a restaurant-proprietor. One of the Council of the Confederation who supported Mitchel's policy.
CARLETON, WILLIAM (1794-1869).—Author of "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry."
CAVAIGNAC, LOUIS EUGENE (1802-1857).—One of the most distinguished of the French Generals in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. On the establishment of the second Republic he was appointed Minister for War, and when the "Reds" threatened its stability he was invested with the dictatorship and speedily crushed the insurrection. In the contest for the Presidency the glamour of Louis Napoleon's name defeated Cavaignac. After Napoleon's coup-d'etat Cavaignac retired into private life. He had sympathies with Ireland, and in 1848 gave private assurances that in the event of an Irish insurrection winning initial successes, he would bring the influence of France to bear on England to force her to concede terms to Ireland.
CAVANAGH, JOHN.—President of the Fitzgerald Confederate Club, Harold's Cross, Dublin. Wounded at Ballingarry, he was brought to Kilkenny, where he was concealed and cured by Dr. Cane, and later smuggled to France, whence he proceeded to the United States, became an officer in the army and was slain in the Civil War.
"CHRISTABEL" (1815-1881).—Miss M'Carthy, of Kilfademore House, Kenmare, afterwards Mrs. Downing. A Popular poetess of the period, usually using the nom-de-guerre of "Christabel." Her best-known poem is "The Grave of MacCaura." She assisted Doheny and Stephens to escape.
CLARENDON, EARL OF (1804-1870).—George Villiers, the fourth earl, according to his English biographers, represented the highest type of English politician and English gentleman. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1846-1852. He hired the editor of an obscene journal in Dublin to publish libels upon the moral character of the Young Irelanders, and conducted the affairs of the country from March to June, 1848, under this man's advice. He paid £3,400 for the services rendered and a demand for further payments led to a public disclosure of the facts. At the time Clarendon hired James Birch, Birch had completed a sentence of imprisonment for criminal libel.
CLEMENTS, EDWARD.—A barrister. One of O'Connell's "tail" in Conciliation Hall. The attempt of O'Connell to provide "poor Ned Clements" with a Government situation precipitated the rupture with Young Ireland.
CONWAY, M.G.—A journalist of ability and no principle who followed the path of fortune. He professed ultra-Catholic views while O'Connell was in the ascendant. After O'Connell's death he abjured Catholicism to ingratiate himself with the Ascendancy element.
CRAMPTON, JUDGE (17— -1858).—Philip Crampton, called to the Bar 1810, Solicitor-General 1832, and raised to the Bench 1834. One of the judges at O'Connell's trial, a strong Tory but a clever lawyer.
CREAN, MICHAEL.—Like M.G. Conway, a Clare man, but of the opposite type. Crean worked in Dublin as a shopman and with Hollywood was one of the two trades-union leaders on the Council of the Confederation, where he opposed Mitchel's policy. After the failure of the insurrection he went to the United States.
CROLLY, DR. (1780-1849).—Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1835 until his death.
DAUNT, W.J. O'NEILL.—A Co. Cork gentleman, one of O'Connell's first Protestant supporters in the Repeal Movement. He was elected for Mallow, but unseated. He ceased to attend Conciliation Hall after the rupture with the Young Irelanders. Many years later he took a prominent part in the Home Rule movement.
DAVIS, THOMAS (1814-1845).—The founder and inspiration of the Young Ireland movement. Son of an English father of Welsh descent and an Irish mother. From the inception of The Nation newspaper until his death he was the chief writer of that journal.
DILLON, JOHN BLAKE (1816-1866).—The close personal friend of Thomas Davis and with him one of the founders of the Nation. On his return from exile he attempted to found an Irish Party in alliance with the British Radicals and sat in the British Parliament for Tipperary.
DOYLE, DANIEL.—A Limerick solicitor who acted with John O'Donnell and O'Gorman in inciting Limerick county to insurrection in July, 1848. After the failure he escaped across the water.
DUFFY, CHARLES GAVAN (1816-1903).—One of the three founders of the Nation and its editor from 1842 to 1854, when he left Ireland for Australia where he became Prime Minister of Victoria. In 1873 he received a knighthood.
"EVA" (1825-1910).—Miss Mary Kelly of Galway, afterwards Mrs. Kevin Izod O'Doherty. One of the chief poets of the Nation.
FERGUSON, SAMUEL (1810-1886).—A Belfast barrister and, save Edward Walsh, the most Gaelic of Irish poets in the English language. Ferguson took a leading part in the Protestant Repeal Association in 1848 and afterwards became one of the first of Irish archaeologists. In 1878 he was knighted.
FITZGERALD, JOHN LOYD.—Of Newcastle West, Limerick. A lawyer of high standing.
FITZSIMON, CHRISTOPHER.—Son-in-law of Daniel O'Connell, elected to the British Parliament for Co. Dublin. He deserted Repeal to support the Government and was rewarded with the post of Clerk of the Hanaper. His desertion caused the representation of the Co. Dublin to revert to the Unionists for half-a-century.
GRAY, SIR JOHN (1815-1875).—A medical doctor and owner of the Freeman's Journal, publicly supporting O'Connell, but personally in sympathy with Young Ireland. He sat in the British Parliament subsequently for Kilkenny and was an active member of the Dublin Corporation.
GRATTAN, HENRY, JUN.—Son of the great Grattan and member for Meath, 1831-52. An honest but weak politician.
GREY, EARL (1802-1894).—Third Earl. Colonial Secretary in the British Liberal Government, 1846 to 1852.
HALPIN, THOMAS M.—Secretary of the Confederation, and a Dublin working-man. According to Meagher he failed to transmit instructions to the Dublin Confederate Clubs to rise in insurrection in the streets of the capital when the fight opened in Tipperary. Halpin denied emphatically having received such orders. After the insurrection he made his way to the United States.
HEYTESBURY, LORD (1779-1860).—William A'Court, British Envoy in Spain and Naples, and Ambassador in Portugal and Russia. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1844-6.
HOGAN, JOHN (1800-1858).—One of the greatest of modern sculptors. With MacManus and other artists he presented O'Connell with the "Repeal Cap," modelled on the Irish Crown.
HOLLYWOOD, EDWARD.—A silk-weaver and, with Michael Crean, an artisan leader. He acted as treasurer of the Davis Confederate Club. Arrested in Wicklow with D'Arcy M'Gee for sedition, but the prosecution was abandoned. After the insurrection he escaped to France, and some years later returned to Dublin.
HOLMES, ROBERT (1765-1859).—Brother-in-law of Thomas Addis and Robert Emmet, and a vehement opponent of the Union in 1799-1800. He declined to accept promotion at the Bar while the Union endured.
HUDSON, WILLIAM ELIOT (1797-1853).—Described by Thomas Davis as the best man and the best Irishman he ever knew. A man of fortune and culture who devoted his leisure and his wealth to helping every movement for the betterment of Ireland.
HUME, JOSEPH (1777-1855).—An English politician who sat in the British Parliament for English, Irish, and Scotch constituencies as Tory and later as Radical. Chief author of the Radical shibboleth, "Peace, Retrenchment and Reform."
IRELAND, RICHARD.—A barrister, one of the founders of the Protestant Repeal Association in 1848. He emigrated to Australia afterwards and became Attorney-General of Victoria.
KENYON, FATHER (18— -1869).—Curate and afterwards Parish Priest of Templederry in Tipperary. A strong opponent of the "Old Irelanders" and the close political and personal friend of John Mitchel.
LALOR, JAMES FINTAN (1810-49).—Son of Patrick Lalor, M.P. of Queen's Co. A vigorous writer whose agrarian doctrine was converted by Henry George into Land Nationalisation—which it was not. He contributed to the Nation and the Felon, 1847-8, and attempted an insurrectionary conspiracy, 1849.
LAMARTINE, ALPHONSE DE (1790-1869).—Minister for Foreign Affairs in the French Republican Government. The British Ministry through Lord Normanby threatened him with the possible rupture of diplomatic relations if he gave an encouraging reply to the Young Ireland deputation. Politically Lamartine was more of the school of the British Whigs of his period than of any native French school. His high character and literary abilities were held in deserved esteem by his countrymen, but as a man of affairs he was never really successful.
LANE, DENNY (1818-95).—A Cork commercial man who identified himself prominently with the Young Ireland cause in Munster. Author of "Carrigdhoun" and some other popular ballads.
LAWLESS, HON. CECIL.—Son of Lord Cloncurry. An O'Connellite Repealer and somewhat virulent opponent of the Young Irelanders who nicknamed him "Artful Cecil."
LEDRU-ROLLIN, ALEXANDRE (1808-74).—Minister of the Interior in the French Republican Government of 1848. He was connected with Ireland by marriage and strongly sympathised with its people.
LEFROY, BARON (1776-1869).—One-time member for Trinity College in the British Parliament. Subsequent to 1848 promoted Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, and although he became incapable of discharging the office he refused to resign it until he had passed his ninetieth year.
LEYNE, MAURICE RICHARD (1820-1854).—The only member of the O'Connell family who identified himself with Young Ireland. He was an occasional contributor to the Nation from 1844 to 1848 and in June of that year, on the eve of the insurrection, formally joined Young Ireland. On the revival of the Nation in 1849 he joined Duffy in its editorship.
LOUIS NAPOLEON (1808-1873).—Son of the King of Holland, nephew of the great Napoleon, President of the second Republic and, after the coup d'etat and the plebescite, Emperor of France. Napoleon while in exile manifested some sympathy with Ireland, and as a member of the French Republic was, like Cavaignac, willing to intervene on this country's behalf with England if the Young Irelanders had succeeded in winning initial engagements against the British forces in the field.
MACHALE, ARCHBISHOP (1791-1881).—"John of Tuam"—the greatest of the Irish prelates of his time. He was in partial sympathy with the Young Irelanders, but opposed to them on several educational questions.
MACNEVIN, THOMAS (1810-1848).—A leading Young Irelander and college friend of Davis. Author, in the Library of Ireland, of "The Confiscation of Ulster" and "The History of the Volunteers."
MACMANUS, TERENCE BELLEW (1823-60).—A prosperous Irish merchant in Liverpool who relinquished his prosperity to join in the insurrection. He escaped from the British penal colonies to the United States and died there in poor circumstances.
MACLISE, DANIEL (1806-1870).—One of the first painters of his time. He refused the presidency of the British Royal Academy.
M'CARTHY, DENIS FLORENCE (1817-1882).—One of the chief poets of the Nation, afterwards Professor of English Literature in the Catholic University.
M'GEE, THOMAS DARCY (1825-1868).—Son of a coast-guard at Carlingford, Louth. M'Gee between the ages of seventeen and twenty won a remarkable reputation as a journalist in the United States and came back to Ireland to take up the editorship of the Freeman's Journal, which he relinquished to join the Nation staff. After the failure in 1848 Bishop Maginn procured his escape to America disguised as a priest. M'Gee, Devin Reilly and Doheny quarrelled in the United States, and M'Gee's political views gradually modified. He proceeded to Canada, entered politics, and became one of the first statesmen of the dominion and a member of the Government. In that position he was continually attacked by a section of the Irish as a renegade, and the bitterness of his replies inflamed feeling. In April, 1868, he was assassinated by an alleged Fenian. Local and sectional political hatreds appear, however, to have had more to do with the murder of M'Gee than his virulent denunciations of the Fenians.
MAGINN, EDWARD, D.D. (1802-1849).—Son of a farmer at Fintona, Tyrone, Dr. Maginn entered the Church and speedily became noted for his vigour of intellect and strength of character. In 1845 he was appointed coadjutor-Bishop of Derry, and created Bishop of Ortosia in the Archbishopric of Tyre. A strong advocate of Repeal and tenant-right, he gradually attorned to the Young Irelanders when he discovered that the Whig Government had bought up Conciliation Hall. In 1848 he sent Sir John Gray to Gavan Duffy offering to take the field at the head of the priests of his diocese if the insurrection were held back until the harvest had been reaped. The sudden suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, however, forced the Young Irelanders' hands two months too soon.
MANGAN, JAMES CLARENCE (1803-49).—The first of the poets of the Young Ireland period. He declined to write for any but the Irish public, and died in poverty.
MARTIN, JOHN (1812-1875).—A landed proprietor of Co. Down. On his return from transportation, he re-entered Irish politics; was elected in 1870 to the British Parliament, for Meath, and played a leading part in founding the Home Rule movement.
"MARY" (1828-69).—With "Eva" and "Speranza" one of the triumvirate of the women-poets of the Nation: Miss Ellen Mary Downing of Cork—afterwards a nun, Sister Mary Alphonsus.
MEAGHER, THOMAS FRANCIS (1823-67).—Son of the O'Connellite member of the British Parliament for Waterford. He escaped from the British Penal colonies to the United States in 1852 and served as Brigadier-General on the Federal side during the civil war. When Acting-Governor of Montana he was drowned in the Mississippi.
MEANY, STEPHEN JOSEPH.—A journalist, imprisoned in 1848 under the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act. In the United States he became a leader of one of the wings of the Fenian Brotherhood and, returning to Ireland in 1866, he was arrested on the way in London and sentenced to a term of penal servitude.
MELBOURNE, LORD (1779-1848).—William Lamb, second Viscount, Chief Secretary of Ireland, 1827-8, and Premier of England with brief intervals from 1834 to 1841.
MILEY, JOHN, D.D. (1805-1861).—Curate at the Catholic Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, and private chaplain to O'Connell. He was the intermediary in arranging the reunion of the O'Connellites with the Young Irelanders in the stillborn Irish League. In 1849 he was made Rector of the Irish College at Paris. On his return to Ireland he was appointed parish priest of Bray. He was an eloquent preacher, and author of several works on the Papacy.
MITCHEL, JOHN (1818-75).—A solicitor of Banbridge, and one of the first Irish Protestants of note to join the Repeal Association. From the death of Davis until the end of 1847 he was the chief writer of the Nation newspaper. On his escape from the British penal colonies in 1853 he settled in the United States, and took an active part on the Confederate side in the civil war. He returned to Ireland a few months before his death, and was elected member of the British Parliament for Tipperary, as a demonstration of hostility to British Government in Ireland.
MOORE, JUDGE.—Richard Moore, called to the Bar in 1807, acted for the defence in the trial of O'Connell and the Traversers, Liberal Attorney-General in 1846 and "almost Lord Chancellor." He was raised to the Bench in 1847 and died in 1858.
MONAHAN, JAMES HENRY (1804-78).—Attorney-General in 1848, Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas, 1850.
NAGLE, DR.—"A Dublin doctor without patients," who acted as a handyman for John O'Connell. He was devoid of ability. Subsequently he received a small Government post.
O'CONNELL, DANIEL (1775-1847).—Successor to John Keogh in the leadership of the Irish Catholics, and although his actual achievements were not so much greater than those of Keogh and Sweetman, their brilliancy threw the fame of his predecessors into the shade, where it still rests.
O'CONNELL, MAURICE (1802-53).—Eldest son of Daniel O'Connell, and a member of the British Parliament. He was the cleverest and most national of O'Connell's children.
O'CONNELL, MORGAN JOHN (1804-85).—Second son to Daniel O'Connell. He served under General Devereux in South America, entered the British Parliament as a Repealer, deserted Repeal, and was appointed Assistant-Registrar of Deeds.
O'CONNELL, JOHN (1810-1858).—The chief political assistant of his father, Daniel O'Connell. After the collapse of the Repeal Association he received a place from the British Government.
O'CONNELL, DANIEL, JUN. (1815-1897).—The youngest of O'Connell's sons. He sat in the British Parliament until 1863, when he was appointed to a Government post.
O'CONOR DON, THE (1794-1847).—Repeal M.P. for Roscommon. He deserted to the Liberals, and was made a Lord of the Treasury.
O'DEA, PATRICK.—The Young Ireland leader in Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
O'DOHERTY, KEVIN IZOD (1823-1895).—Son of a Dublin solicitor. After his release from transportation he settled in Australia and became prominent in its politics and medical science. In 1885 he returned temporarily to Ireland, and sat for a brief period in the British Parliament as Parnellite member for Meath.
O'DONNELL, JOHN.—A Limerick solicitor and an ardent Young Irelander. When Richard O'Gorman came to Limerick to urge the people to arms, O'Donnell travelled through the county with him as his aide-de-camp. On the news of the outbreak in Tipperary, O'Donnell, Doyle and Daniel Harnett raised the country around Abbeyfeale, cut off the mails and pitched an insurgent camp outside the town where the Abbeyfeale men waited for O'Gorman, who was elsewhere in the county, to take command. Before his arrival the news of the collapse at Ballingarry arrived and the Abbeyfeale Camp broke up. O'Donnell escaped from the country with O'Gorman.
O'DOWD, JAMES.—A Conciliation Hall lawyer. Afterwards appointed to a legal position in connection with the London Custom house.
O'DWYER, CAREW.—Repeal M.P. for Louth, 1832-5. He deserted Repeal and received a minor position in the Exchequer Court.
O'FLAHERTY, MARTIN.—A Galway solicitor and a member of the Irish Confederation.
O'GORMAN, RICHARD, JUN. (1826-1895).—Son of Richard O'Gorman of the Woollen Hall, one of the foremost Dublin merchants and Catholic leaders in the Emancipation struggle. O'Gorman settled in New York after his escape and became a judge of the Superior Court.
O'HEA, JAMES.—A lawyer described by Davis as of "vast abilities."
O'LOGHLEN, SIR COLMAN (1819-1877).—Second baronet, son of the Master of the Rolls. Afterwards M.P. for Clare, a Privy Councillor and Judge-Advocate-General.
O'MAHONY, JOHN (1816-1877).—A gentleman-farmer of ancient lineage and high scholarship. After the second attempt to kindle insurrection he fled to the Continent and later proceeded to the United States, where with Doheny and Stephens he founded Fenianism.
PEEL, SIR ROBERT (1788-1850).—Chief Secretary for Ireland and organiser of the "new police"—hence "peelers." In politics an opportunist, opposing and supporting Catholic Emancipation and Free Trade. Premier of England, 1834-5, 1841-6.
PENNEFATHER, BARON (1773-1859).—Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, 1821, and for thirty-eight years a judge.
PIGOT, CHIEF BARON (1797-1872).—Son of Dr. Pigot of Mallow and one of the founders of the attempted National Whig Party in the period 1820-30. He was a cultured man and an upright judge.
PIGOT, JOHN E. (1822-1871).—Eldest son of Chief Baron Pigot and the intimate comrade of Thomas Davis. Author of many ballads and articles in the Nation and other National journals, and an ardent collector of Irish music.
PLUNKET, LORD (1764-1854).—William Conyngham Plunket, member for Charlemont in the Irish Parliament and a bitter opponent of the Union. Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1830 to 1841.
RAY, THOMAS MATTHEW (1801-1881).—A Dublin trades-union leader of great organising ability, appointed by O'Connell secretary of the Repeal Association. Subsequently Assistant-Registrar of Deeds.
REILLY, THOMAS DEVIN (1823-1854).—One of the Nation staff and one of the few leading Young Irelanders who supported Mitchel on the division in the Confederation in 1848. In the United States he won a foremost position as a political writer.
REYNOLDS, JOHN.—An Alderman of the Dublin Corporation and M.P. for Dublin City in the British Parliament, 1847-52. Subsequently Lord Mayor. He was utterly corrupt and a mob-leader.
ROEBUCK, J.A. (1801-79).—An English politician who professed Independent views, and from the violence of his denunciation of his opponents was nicknamed "Tear 'em."
RUSSELL, LORD JOHN (1792-1878).—Liberal Prime Minister of England, 1846-52, and again, 1865. He successfully opposed Lord George Bentinck's proposal to preserve the Irish from famine and pauperism by undertaking the construction of railways.
SAVAGE, JOHN (1828-1888).—One of the founders of the Irish Tribune. After the complete failure of the insurrection, he escaped to the United States where he became eminent in literature and for a time head of the Fenian movement.
SHEIL, RICHARD LALOR (1791-1851).—Dramatist, orator and politician. Deserted Repeal and was made British minister at Florence. Subsequently Master of the Mint.
SHIELDS, JAMES, GENERAL (1807-1879).—Born near Dungannon, Shields emigrated in early life to the United States, where he attained distinction in journalism and subsequently celebrity as a lawyer. On the outbreak of war with Mexico, he forsook the Bar for arms, and as a soldier acquired even higher renown. In 1848 he was chosen as governor of Oregon, and was considered one of the ablest of the United States Generals. His political views being in sympathy with the Young Irelanders, several of them looked towards Shields as another Eoghan Ruadh, who would accept the call of his country and return to lead the Irish once they had taken the field. Subsequently Shields engaged in the Civil War on the Northern side, and, although a comparatively old man, distinguished himself by defeating General Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Winchester, although his army was inferior in numbers and he had been wounded at the opening of the fight.
SMYTH, P.J. (1826-1885).—One of the youngest of the Young Ireland leaders. He escaped from Ireland to the United States after the collapse of the insurrection, and carried out the rescue of Mitchel from Van Diemen's Land. On his return to Ireland he re-entered politics, and sat in the British Parliament successively for Westmeath and Tipperary.
STANLEY, LORD (1802-1869).—Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the British Liberal Government, 1846-52.
STAUNTON, MICHAEL.—Proprietor of the Morning Register newspaper and an alderman of the Dublin Corporation. His memory survives as the involuntary agent of bringing Duffy and Davis together—and thus leading to the foundation of The Nation.
STEPHENS, JAMES (1825-1901).—A Kilkenny railway employe. Afterwards chief organiser of the Fenian movement, of which, with O'Mahony and Doheny, he was one of the founders.
TORRENS, JUDGE.—Called to the Bar, 1798, raised to the Bench, 1823, where he sat for thirty-three years.
WILDE, SIR THOMAS (1782-1855).—Lord Truro, Attorney-General to the British Liberal Government in England, 1846; afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Lord Chancellor of England, 1850-2.
WILLIAMS, RICHARD DALTON (1822-1862).—One of the most popular of the poets of the Nation. The Government prosecution failed in his case, and he emigrated to the United States where he became Professor of Belles Lettres in the University of Mobile.
WYSE, SIR THOMAS (1791-1862).—One of O'Connell's lieutenants in the Catholic Association, of which he wrote a history. He declined to support Repeal, but favoured what is now known as Federal Home Rule, served as a Lord of the Treasury in Melbourne's administration, and afterwards for many years as British minister at Athens. He was a man of superior character to the ordinary type of place-seekers, and his writings won him a temporary European reputation.