JOHN O’DONOVAN, LL. D., EDITOR OF THE ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS.
The life of my early manhood is full of my acquaintance with John
O’Donovan, the great Irish scholar; and when now--forty years after
that acquaintance--I am writing my “recollections,” it would not be
right to pass the old times by, and pass the old friends by, without
saying a word about them. I will, therefore, devote this chapter to
the letters of John O’Donovan that are here before me. When writing
to me he used to touch upon all subjects: Genealogy, politics, public
men, history, seanachus, sinsearacht, his family, his friends and his
children. His son Edmond, whom I knew when he was a child, and who,
when grown into manhood, became active and prominent in the Fenian
movement, and active and prominent as a war correspondent in Asia and
Africa, for the London journals--killed in the Soudan, or some other
expedition--will be recognized in these letters of his father that I
am going to show you. I will also show you, at the end of the chapter,
three letters of Edmond’s own.
The old Dublin _Penny Journal_ of my boyhood days was a very
interesting journal to read. In it were papers on Irish genealogy,
written by John O’Donovan. I was interested in the genealogy of my own
name, and in the nickname of “Rossa” attached to it; because it it was
only in whispers, my father and the families of his five uncles who
lived in the town, would speak that nickname--though all the neighbors
around called them “Muintir-a-Rossa.” The secret of the privacy was
this: The nickname came to the family from their having owned the
lands around Rossmore some generations before that, and from their
having been deprived of those lands because they would not change their
religion and go to church. The Hungerfords and the Townsends and the
Bernards and the other “people of Quality” around, were in possession
of those lands now; my people were defeated in the battle for their
rights; they were allowed, here and there, by the Cromwellians, to live
as tenants on their own lands, but if they stuck to the name “Rossa,”
which the people gave them, it would imply that they held fast to the
desire “to have their own again,”--and that was a desire they did not
want to make manifest.
Reading John O’Donovan’s papers in the _Penny Journal_, I took it in my
head to write to him. I have not a copy of the letter I wrote, but the
nature of it may be judged by this letter of reply that I received from
him:
DUBLIN, NO. 36 UPPER BUCKINGHAM ST.
December 24th, 1854.
DEAR SIR--It amused me very much to learn that you have taken
me for a Protestant! I have not the honor of having had one
Protestant ancestor, from 1817 to 493, when St. Patrick cursed
our ancestor Lonan, in the plain of Hy-Figenti. We have all
remained unworthy members of the Church of Rome ever since!
(The Protestant wives all turned to mass.) But I am sorry to
think, and to be obliged to confess that we have not been a
pious, wise or prudent race, and I am convinced that we are
doomed to extinction.
Many curses hang over us! (if curses have aught of force in
modern times). Saint Patrick cursed Lonan in 493; the holy
Columb MacKerrigan, Bishop of Cork, cursed our progenitor
Donovan (from whom we all descend), and our names Donovanides,
in the year 976, in the most solemn manner that any human being
ever was cursed or denounced; and, so late as 1654, a good
and pious Protestant woman’s family (the children of Dorothy
Ford), cursed Daniel O’Donovan of Castle Donovan, and caused
a “braon-sinshir,” or corroding drop, to trickle from a stone
arch in Castle Donovan, which will never cease to flow till the
last of the race of the said Daniel O’Donovan is extinct. It
appears, from the depositions in Trinity College, Dublin, that
the said Daniel O’Donovan and Teige-a-Duna McCarthy hanged the
said Dorothy Ford at Castle Donovan, to deprive her and her
family of debts lawfully due unto them.
You and I escape this last curse, but we reel under that
pronounced by the Holy Columb (if indeed, its rage is not
spent). God’s curse extends to the fifth generation, but I
believe man’s goes further. But in addition to these ancient
maledictions, I, and my unfortunate sept of Ida in Ossory labor
under two other denunciations which hang over us like two
incubi!
I return you my warmest and best thanks for your kind
invitation to Skibbereen, and hope to make a tour thither next
autumn, but I will not be very troublesome to you, as my stay
will not be long.
Wishing you many happy returns of this holy season, I remain
yours truly,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
To Mr. Jeremiah O’Donovan-Rossa.
I have about thirty or forty of those letters of John O’Donovan,
written from the year 1854 to the year of his death, 1862. They are
very interesting to me and to men like me. They may never see the
light of day if I pass them by now. But, I cannot publish the whole of
them; I will run through them and show you the ones that I consider
interesting, as throwing some light on the character, the thoughts,
the opinions, and the genial family surroundings of the greatest Irish
scholar of this century. His next letter is this:
DUBLIN, Dec. 31st, 1854.
DEAR SIR--The old name of Castle Salem was Kilbritton. This
castle was the chief residence of McCarthy-Reagh, by whom it
was erected. The O’Donovans had nothing to do with this castle,
notwithstanding the authority of the ignorant historian Dr.
Smith!
The Professor Donovan, who wrote the article on coffee in
1834, is my friend Michael Donovan, of No. 11 Clare street,
Dublin, who is a very distinguished chemist and member of our
Royal Irish Academy, where he frequently reads papers on the
most scientific subjects. He wrote several works which were
published in Lardner’s Cyclopedia, on galvanism, chemistry,
domestic economy, etc. He has made a discovery in chemical
science which he has as yet failed to establish; that is,
the process of turning water into gas. He was given up the
Gas-house at Dover to test this discovery; the house got
burned, for which he had to stand his trial; but he succeeded
in proving that the house was burned by the workmen, who were
prejudiced against him. His father was born at Kilmacow,
near the River Suir, in the county of Kilkenny, within sight
of where I was born. I was born in 1809 in the parish of
Atateemore, in the barony of Ida, and county of Kilkenny.
But we are not in any way related. His grandfather turned
Protestant about the year 1750, since which period his family
have been the wealthiest Donovans in Ireland, except perhaps,
those of Ballymore, County Wexford.
You may rely on it that “Felicitas Columba” knows nothing
of the O’Donovans-Rossa except what I have published in the
appendix to “The Annals of the Four Masters.” I have no
sympathy with falsehood in any shape or form, and a lie (white,
black or red,) coming from a minister of any religion, (which
I am told “Felicitas” is), is doubly hideous. We have truths
in vast abundance, and the discovery of them in history and
science is a praiseworthy result of patient investigation;
but no false assertion should be ventured upon. Truth will
ultimately triumph over falsehood, and those who have attempted
to sustain false assertions, are contemptible in the estimation
of the honorable, and the lovers of true truth. Believe me to
be yours sincerely,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
I here pass by some letters on genealogy, which may be considered
interesting only to myself and to my family name and connections, and
come on to this one:
DUBLIN, 29th May, 1856.
JEREMIAH O’DONOVAN-ROSSA,
DEAR SIR--Please read the enclosed American letter and return
to me. It is rather to show the spirit of the Irish mind
in America. I would do anything in my power to encourage
nationality, because we are becoming extinct very rapidly.
I have it in contemplation to try and notice the three branches
of our sept in the “Danish wars” to be published by Dr. Todd.
I have furnished him with very many notes on other subjects
and families, and I feel satisfied that he will insert what I
intend to furnish him on the three septs of our family, namely,
Clan-Cahill, MacEnesles and Clan-Loughlin. Of the first, Morgan
O’Donovan, of Montpelier, Douglas, Cork, is decidedly the head
and chief representative; of the second, either you or some one
of your relatives; and of the third, my old friend Alexander
O’Donovan, of Kilrush (if he be alive), or his next of kin.
I am of a senior branch of the Clan-Cahill, and, as we always
believed, descended from the eldest son, Donell O’Donovan, who
died in 1638; but we lost our birthright by the crime of our
ancestors, by the just decree of the laws of God and man, and
we ought to be thankful for not having become extinct; for
we are widely spread throughout Leinster and America, and we
are likely to last to the end of time. Behold us all in the
following table:
1. Donal O’Donovan, married to Joanna McCarthy, of Castle
Donovan, who died A. D., 1638.
2. Edmond, married to Catharine de Burgo, killed 1643.
3. Conor, married to Rose Kavanagh.
4. William, married to Mary Oberlin, a Puritan, died 1749.
5. Edmond, married to Mary Archdeacon, died 1798.
6. Edmond, married to Ellen Oberlin, died 1817.
7. John O’D. L.L. D., married to Mary Anne Broughton of
Cromwellian descent.
8. Edmond, born 1840, died 1842; John, living, born 1842;
Edmond, living, born 1844; William, living, born 1846; Richard,
living, born 1848; Henry, dead, 1850; Henry, born 1852, living;
Daniel, living, 1856.
Eight sons, without any daughter intervening, is a sort of
effort of nature to preserve the name.
I can hardly believe that Mr. John D’Alton will live long
enough to bring out another edition of his book, because he is
very old and feeble. I shall, however, write him a note on the
subject of your branch of our sept Hy-Donovane, which I hope
he will be tempted to print (if he prints at all), because
one of them--Captain Donell Boy MacEnesles O’Donovan was very
distinguished, and was restored to property under the Act of
Settlement and Explanation. If he does not print it, I shall be
on the lookout for some other national work in which to insert
it. In the meantime, I hope you will now and again, write to
me, and believe me to be your affectionate clansman,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
Next comes this letter:
DUBLIN, June 12, 1856.
DEAR SIR--I have just received your letter dated 9th inst.,
enclosing note from my neighbor John D’Alton, which I can
hardly read, the handwriting is so unearthly. I did not pass
through Skibbereen at the time you mention. So that you might
have looked for me, but I fear you would have learned that I
was in the North, among the Presbyterians. I am very glad that
you have satisfied yourself that you are of the MacEnesles
O’Donovans, (MacAneeis is the local name), because I had
written in my published pedigree of the O’Donovans, before I
ever had the honor of receiving any communication from you on
the subject, the following sentence:
“The editor has not been able to identify any living member of
this sept,” (of MacEnesles).
Aneslis, who was the second son of Crom O’Donovan, 1254,
had four sons, Donogh More, Rickard, Walter and Randal, who
became the founders of four distinct septs, who all bore the
generic tribe-name of Clann Enesles, or MacAneeis, and whose
territories are mentioned in various inquisitions, etc. The
townland of Gortnascreena, containing three plough-lands
(in the parish of Drimoleague), belonged in the year 1607 to
the Sliocht Randal O’Donovan. In the same year the sept of
MacEnesles possessed the townlands of Barnahulla, (now Butler’s
gift), and also the lands of Meeny and Derryclough Lower, in
the parish of Drinagh.
On the 20th of August, 1632, Dermot MacTeige MacEnesles
O’Donovan was possessed of the lands of Lisnabreeny, west of
the parish of Glenawilling, or Kilmeen, and I take this Dermot
to be your ancestor.
If you descend from Dermot MacTeige MacEnesles, who lived at
Lisnabreeny in 1632, and may have lived down to 1688, you do
not want many generations in your line, with your present
knowledge.
I will do all I can to fill up this chasm. You come of an older
sept than Rickard O’Donovan, the clerk of the Crown. Yours ever
sincerely,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
In reply to that letter, I wrote the following one to John O’Donovan, a
copy of which I find among my old Irish papers:
SKIBBEREEN, June 14, 1856.
DEAR SIR--I have received your welcome letter and am convinced
beyond a doubt that I am descended from Dermot MacEnesles,
who, as you say lived at Lisnabreeny in the year 1632.
I made mention to you in one of my former letters, of a
great-grandaunt’s daughter of mine, Nance Long, (that time
living), who was a bit of a genealogist, and I am sorry that
she forfeited my good opinion of her veracity, by telling me
that her grandfather Teige a Rossa was a grandson of Teige
MacAneeis, who lived in Glean-a-Mhuilin; and, as I thought
there was no MacAneeis, but the first named, I believed her
as much as I would believe a man of the present day who would
tell me he was a grandson of Brian Boru. She also said it was
her grandfather who first came from Kilmeen to the neighborhood
of Ross Carbery, where her uncle Denis (my great-grandfather)
married Sheela Ni Islean, or Julia O’Donovan-Island. She used
to speak much on the downfall supposed to be brought upon the
Rossa family on account of such an alliance. To use her own
words, her “grandfather was deprived of all his land by the
Cromwells; and the Donovan Islands, having come by riches some
way, were glad to catch any of the family.”
If you had any truthful correspondent about Ross, when editing
your “Annals of the Four Masters,” he would or should have
told you of my Clan-Donovan, my grandfather and five brothers
of his (all with families), were then living at Milleenroe and
Carrigagrianane. The names of these six brothers, Anglianized
were: Jer, Denis, Conn, Dan, Flor and John. I was surprised
they did not perpetuate the name of Teige, and on making
inquiries to that effect, I learned that they had an uncle of
the name who was a poet, was considered eccentric, and was
known by the cognomen of Teige-na Veirsee; and they feared the
eccentricity may follow the name. But the present generation
(mostly now in America), have adopted it again.
As you have helped me, down as far as Dermot, son of the above
Teige MacEnesles, I will give you the descent from him, and if
it agrees with the intervening time, there can be no reason to
doubt its correctness.
My father, Denis, was born about the year 1790, married in
1818, and died in 1847. He was son of Jer, son of Denis, son of
Teige. The old woman’s grandfather and his grandfather, being
Teige MacEnesles, or Teige MacAneeis, he must have been the son
of the Dermot MacTeige MacEnesles mentioned in your letter.
Yours, ever obliged,
JER. O’DONOVAN-ROSSA.
That letter brought this reply:
DUBLIN, June 23, 1856.
DEAR SIR--I have received yours of the 14th inst., and was glad
to learn that there is a representative of the second branch
of the O’Donovans, namely of MacEnesles, locally shortened to
MacEneeis. I will prepare any note you like on this sept, and
your descent therefrom for Mr. Alton’s second edition of his
thick book on King James II.’s Army list, but I suppose he will
want you to pay for giving it insertion.
Mr. Windele, of Cork, tells a story about the O’Connells of
Bally Carbery, in Kerry, which affords a fair specimen of the
kind of family history given by “Felicitas Columba” and other
writers like him.
On one occasion, McCarthy More sent to the Castle of Bally
Carbery for tribute, but the lord of the castle took the
messenger and hanged him. Now who was O’Connell of Bally
Carbery? He was McCarthy More’s constable, holding three acres
of land, and the wardship of the castle.
This description of history is truly disgraceful, in any
country whose history is known. The Red Indians, who have
no documents, may enjoy any stories of this kind that are
consistent with their traditions; but the Irish have records
which leave no room for fictions like that given by Windele.
I met a young friend of yours in the college the other day,
whose name is O’Mahony. He is a Protestant, but a very
intelligent, nice young fellow.
Yours truly,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
That O’Mahony was Thaddeus, the brother of James O’Mahony of Bandon,
of whom I spoke in a previous chapter. In a subsequent letter my
correspondent says:
“Your friend O’Mahony has been recently married, and I am told that he
gives out that he was once a priest.”
I don’t think he was ever a priest, but I think he had an uncle a
priest. His mother’s name was Kearney; she lived and died a Catholic,
and I think she had a brother, a Father Kearney, who was stationed one
time, somewhere near Bandon. Yes, Thaddeus O’Mahony of Trinity College,
married a Protestant, became a Protestant minister, and died--I don’t
know what.
Writing July 3, 1856, John O’Donovan says: “What puzzles me most is,
why the epithet, or appellative of Rossa clings to your sept. The
O’Donovans of Rossmore are mentioned in an inquisition taken at Cork on
the 3d of April, 1639, when Thaddeus MacDonogh O’Donovan was ten years
dead, leaving a son, Teige O’Donovan, his son and heir, who was of age
when his father died.
“Where is Rossmore situated, and what reason have you for believing
that your appellative of Rossa is not derived from that place.”
I told John O’Donovan that that was the place from which the
appellative of Rossa was derived. That the family lived there; that
the family tradition was, that they were driven out of it by fines,
inquisitions and confiscations--fines for not attending service in the
Protestant churches--inquisitions into titles to property, when they
had no titles but what belonged to them as being Irish, and owners of
the soil upon which they and their fathers were born; and consequent
confiscation of their lands, for not paying the fines, and for not
being able to show an English title to their property. That is how
nearly all the lands of all the old Irish families were confiscated
into the possession of the descendants of the Englishmen who hold
them to-day. The more modern and more distinguishing appellative of
Rossa--from Rossmore--followed my family when they were driven from
Rossmore, and the Clan-name of MacAneeis (MacAeneas) was dropped from
the tongues of the people.
Rossmore is the same place as Kilmeen, and Lisnabreeny, and
Glean-a-Mhuilin are neighboring townlands in the parish of Rossmore or
Kilmeen.
This is the next letter:
August 26th, 1857.
DEAR SIR--When I arrived here yesterday, the servant girl told
me that a young Mr. O’Donovan had called early in the morning.
I thought it might be Mr. John O’Donovan of Enniscorthy, but
I have since seen him and he told me it was not he. I thought
it might be Henry Donovan the mathematician, but I find it was
not. After making several inquiries among my Donovan friends,
I have come to the conclusion that it must be you. The girl
describes the gentleman who called, as about twenty-three years
old; brown-haired, tall, and thin in the face. He had with him,
she says, a countryman from Clare or Kerry.
I waited within in the evening till 8 o’clock yesterday.
I am going to the Arran Islands in the Bay of Galway on the 3d
of September, with the British Association, and on my return I
am thinking of going to the South to see my O’Donovan friends.
I make my first appearance at 11 o’clock to-morrow, before
the Savans of Europe, on “The characteristics of the Old
Irish Race”. I feel rather nervous, but I hope I won’t fail
altogether.
Should you come to Dublin soon again, please to let me know
where a note could find you, and how long you will remain, for
then I will be able to go for you, or send a messenger.
I stay within this evening till 8 o’clock, expecting you
might call; but I must go out then, as a member of the British
Association.
Yours sincerely,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
The English war of the Indian Mutiny was going on in the year 1857.
England was blowing the Sepoys from the cannon’s mouth; and whenever
England won a battle there were days of fasting and prayer declared in
England--and Ireland, too--to give thanks to God. Of course, it was
taken for granted that God was at the side of England--for England had
the heavy cannon, and the giant powder, and the mitrelleuse artillery.
I suppose I, in writing to John O’Donovan, told him that I fasted
fiercely, and prayed hard one of those days, as I find he makes
allusion to the matter in this letter:
DUBLIN, October 9th, 1857.
DEAR SIR--I was much amused by your description of the
braon-sinshir which is likely to extinguish us all. Deborah
Ford was hanged about Shrovetide, 1641, by O’Donovan (Daniel,
son of Donell, son of Donell-na-g Croicean,) and Teige-a-duna
McCarthy of Dunmanway. If the drops had ceased on the death of
the late General O’Donovan of Bawnlahan, in 1829, the tradition
would have been oracular; but the drops are likely to continue
to fall as long as the grouted arch retains its solidity. Drops
of this kind are shown in various parts of Ireland. A drop
like these fell on the tomb of O’Fogarty at Holy Cross Abbey,
but ceased when the last of the race was hanged at Clonmel for
Whiteboyism! Another braon aillse continued to fall on the tomb
of the White knights at Kilmallock, till the last of the direct
descendants of these knights died without issue.
What the drops of Castle Donovan may do it is hard to divine.
I do not believe that the Clan-Donovan are a long-lived or a
prudent race. They are all fond of their drop, and I believe
that they are likely to become extinct in Ireland, or to be
removed westward to the new world by the steady encroachment of
the Saxon race.
The drops will surely outlive the present Montpelier family,
but they have nothing to say to the murder of Deborah Ford.
They should have ceased at the extinction of the head of the
Bawnlahan family in 1829. But this family is not yet extinct,
and the deadly drops hang over them like fatal swords.
There were O’Donovans at Crookhaven, whose pedigree is
preserved. Is Timothy O’Donovan of Arhahill still living? Is
Richard Donovan of Lisheens House at Ballincolla still living?
I was glad to hear that you fasted and prayed on Wednesday
last. In the last century, the Milesian Irish showed a great
disinclination to pray for the success of the arms of England.
Timothy O’Sullivan wrote about 1800, on the proclamation of
George III.
Go sintear mo phiob-sa le ramharcorda, choi’che ma ghiodhfiod
air maithe leosan--
“May my windpipe be stretched by a very stout cord,
If e’er for their welfare, I pray to the Lord.”
But we are getting more and more English and loyal every
century. Timothy O’Donovan of the Cove, is one of the highest
Tories you have in Cork County--though a great Papist; and so
is his relative Rickard Donovan, clerk of the Crown.
The O’Donovan writes to me--October 8th, 1857. “We have just
now an abatement of an awful storm and deluge of rain, such
as rarely occurs. I trust it may not have damaged those two
noble ships, Austrian and Great Britain, that left this port on
Monday and Tuesday for India, with 2,000 soldiers.”
Yours as ever,
J. O’DONOVAN.
Irish tories are those Irishmen who side with the government of Ireland
by England. The O’Donovan of Montpelier was a tory and a Protestant;
Timothy O’Donovan of O’Donovan’s Cove, was a tory and a Papist. Those
two held landlord possession of lands that belonged equally to their
clansmen; England protected them in that landlord possession of the
robbery from their own people, and that is why and how those Irish
landlords all over Ireland back England in maintaining a foreign
government in their native land.
And here, I may as well pause to let my readers see some old historical
records that will corroborate what I, in a previous chapter, said about
my people being deprived of their lands because they would not turn
Protestant; not alone my people, but all the people of the old blood of
Ireland from Cork and Kerry to Donegal and Antrim.
The Skibbereen _Eagle_ of February 19, 1898, reprinting a historical
paper about my native diocese, from the _Lamp_, says:
Though the diocese of Ross was small, it was not too small to tempt
the rapacity and greed of the Reformation leaders. A certain William
Lyons, who was an apostate from the beginning, was appointed Protestant
Bishop of Ross in 1582. He met with a characteristic reception from the
brave and zealous priests and people of Ross. All the plate, ornaments,
vestments and bells connected with the cathedral and monastery, as well
as a chime of bells in solid silver, valued at £7,000, were secreted in
the strand at Ross Bay. And so well was the secret kept, that though
the priest and friars were tortured and hanged--in the hope that love
of life would tempt them to disclose the hiding place, the treasure
remained undiscovered to this date.
The people were not behind hand in their opposition. Determined that
the residence that had been consecrated by so many saints and patriots
should not be contaminated by the presence of an apostate, they set
fire to the old Episcopal mansion, so that the intruder to the See of
Ross had to report to the Commissioners, in 1615, that on his arrival
he found no residence, “but only a place to build one on.” Lyons,
however, was not to be denied a place whereon to lay his head. He built
himself a house at the cost of £300, a large sum for those days, “but
in three years it was burned by the rebel, O’Donovan.” The Protestant
Bishop, for want of something better to do, turned planter; for we
have a record that he was commissioned “to find out ways and means to
people Munster with English inhabitants.”
Elizabeth at this time was Queen of England, and in the first year of
her reign were passed these laws:
First year of Elizabeth, Chapter 2, Section 8. And all and every
person or persons inhabitating within this realm shall diligently
and faithfully resort to their Parish church or chapel, or to some
usual place where Common Prayer and other Service of God is used or
ministered, upon pain that every person so offending shall forfeit for
every such offence twelve pence, to be levied by the church wardens of
the parish, by way of distress on the goods, lands and tenements of
such offender.
Statute 23 of Elizabeth, Chapter 2, says:
“And be it likewise enacted, that every person who shall say or sing
mass, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall forfeit the sum of two
hundred marks, and be committed to prison in the next jail, there to
remain by the space of one year, and from thenceforth till he have paid
the said sum of two hundred marks. And that every person who shall
willingly hear mass, shall forfeit the sum of one thousand marks, and
suffer imprisonment for a year.
“Be it also further enacted that every person above the age of fourteen
years who shall not repair to some church, chapel or usual place of
Common prayer, but forbear the same, contrary to the tenor of a statute
made in the first year of Her Majesty’s reign, for uniformity of
Common prayer, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall forfeit to
the Queen’s majesty for every month which he or she shall so forbear,
twenty pounds of lawful English money.”
The 29th statute of Elizabeth, Chapter 6, Section 4, says:
“And be it also enacted that every such offender in not repairing to
Divine Service, who shall fortune to be thereof once convicted, shall
pay into the said receipt of the exchequer, after the rate of twenty
pounds for every month. And if default shall be made in any part of
any payment aforesaid, that then, and so often, the Queen’s Majesty
shall and may by process out of the said exchequer, take, seize and
enjoy all the goods, and two parts as well of all the lands, tenements
and hereditaments, leases and farms of such offender, as of all other
lands, tenements and hereditaments liable to such seizure, leaving the
third part only of the same lands, tenements and hereditaments, leases
and farms to and for the maintenance and relief of the same offender,
his wife, children and family.”
Elizabeth dies in the year 1603 and James I. comes to the throne. He
makes all haste to confirm all that Elizabeth had done to plunder and
persecute Irish Catholics, and gets his Parliament to pass these acts:
Statute 1, James, Chapter 4. “And be it further enacted by authority
of this present parliament, that where any seizure shall be had of the
two parts of any lands, tenements, hereditaments, leases or farms, for
the non-payment of the twenty pounds due, and payable for each month,
according to the statute in that case made and provided; that in every
such case, every such two parts shall, according to the extent thereof,
go toward the satisfaction and payment of the twenty pounds due and
payable for each month, and unpaid by any such recusant.”
Statute 3 of James, Chapter 4, says:
“Inasmuch as it is found by daily experience, that many of His
Majesty’s subjects that adhere in their hearts to the Popish religion,
by the infection drawn from thence, and by the wicked and devilish
counsel of Jesuits, Seminaries, and other like persons dangerous to
the Church and State, and so far perverted in the point of their
loyalties, and due allegiance unto the King’s Majesty, and the Crown
of England, and do the better to cover and hide their false hearts,
repair sometimes to church, to escape the penalty of the laws in behalf
provided.
“Be it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the lords
spiritual and temporal, and the commoners in this present parliament
assembled: That every Popish recusant, convicted, or hereafter to be
convicted, which heretofore hath conformed him or herself, and who
shall not repair to church and receive the sacrament of the Lord’s
supper, he or she shall, for such not receiving, lose and forfeit for
the first year, twenty pounds a month; for the second year for such not
receiving, forty pounds a month, until he or she shall have received
the said sacrament as is aforesaid.
“And if after he or she shall have received the said sacrament as is
aforesaid, and after that, shall eftsoons at any time offend in not
receiving the said sacrament as is aforesaid by the space of one whole
year; that in every such case the person so offending shall for every
such offence lose and forfeit three-score pounds of lawful English
money.”
Then, to meet the cases of estated and wealthy Catholics who would
rather pay the fines and forfeits of twenty, forty and sixty pounds,
than attend the Protestant churches, an act was passed to deprive them
of two-thirds of their lands, tenements, leases and farms. Here are the
words of that act:
“Now, forasmuch as the said penalty of twenty pounds monthly is a
greater burden unto men of small living, than unto such as are of
better ability, and do refuse to come unto Divine Service as aforesaid,
who, rather than they will have two parts of their lands to be seized,
will be ready always to pay the said twenty pounds, and yet retain in
their own hands the residue of their livings and inheritance--being
of great yearly value, which they do for the most part employ to the
maintenance and superstition of the Popish religion. Therefore, to the
intent that hereafter the penalty for not repairing to Divine service
might be inflicted in better proportion upon men of great ability: Be
it enacted that the King’s Majesty, his heirs and successors, shall
have full power and liberty to refuse the penalty of twenty pounds a
month, and thereupon to seize and take to his own use two parts in
three of all the lands, tenements, hereditaments, leases and farms, and
the same to remain to his own and other uses, interest and purposes
hereafter in this act provided, in lieu and in full recompense of the
twenty pounds monthly.”
I heard at my father’s fireside, before I was able to read a book,
about those laws which I am now copying from an old law book of the
seventeenth century. All my readers are victims of these laws. Father
Campbell and Father Brown, the priests of my parish to-day, are victims
of them. They, and the many other good priests who are tenants on the
estate of the _United Irishmen_ newspaper, ought not to blame me much,
if I was ever during my life, ready and willing to join any society
of Irishmen that were aiming at destroying English rule, and English
government in Ireland.
I am not done with John O’Donovan’s letters. I regard them as
historical--historical, after we are all dead; so I let you see some
more of them.
DUBLIN, October 24, 1858.
MY DEAR FRIEND--My second son, Edmond, desires me to send to
you his first attempt at painting the armorial bearings of the
O’Donovans. He drew them very well in pencil, but he spoiled
his drawing in laying on the colors, at which he is not yet
sufficiently expert. He has been about a year at drawing under
the tuition of Mr. Bradford of the Jesuits’ Seminary, No. 6
Great Denmark street, but I have determined upon _with_drawing
him from this amusement, as he was spending all his time at
drawing cats and dogs, and neglecting his more important
duties. He has been put into Homer and Euclid this quarter,
which will occupy all his time.
A young friend of mine, William John O’Donovan of the Middle
Temple, London, has been making researches in London about
O’Donovans, and has found some particulars about the sept of
Kilmeen, or Mac Enesles, which escaped me. I will write to him
on the subject when I hear of his arriving in London. He is a
very young man of some fortune, and a most enthusiastic herald
and genealogist.
Since I wrote to you last, I lost my only brother, and am now
the last of my generation. He left one grandson of the ominous
name of Kerrigan (which was the name of the old bishop of Cork
who left a curse on our race for their having murdered Mahon
King of Munster, the brother of Brian Boru). My brother’s
daughter, Adelia ni Donovan was married to Thomas Frederick
Kerrigan, the only son of an old merchant of New York. She
had no money, of course, and the old man turned his son out
of doors for this imprudent marriage. Then the son went to
California, where he went through a variety of adventures. At
length the father died, and the hero of California has returned
to his wife and child, and taken his father’s place in New York.
I enclose you his note to me, from which I infer that he
believed I had known all about my brother’s death; but I had
not known a word about it except in a dream, from which I would
venture to calculate the minute at which he died.
The enclosed extract from a note from the Reverend Mr. Hayman,
Protestant minister of Youghal, reminded me of you, and I send
it, hoping that you will be able to tell me something about
the Nagles mentioned by him. I remain, dear sir, yours ever
sincerely,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
* * * * *
DUBLIN, 36 UPPER BUCKINGHAM STREET, October 25, 1858.
DIARMUID O’DONNOBHAIN (MAC ENESLES, ROSA-MHOIR.)
MY DEAR FRIEND--The O’Donovan and I are good friends? He seems
to me to be a kind and good man, and really an Irishman of
some spirit. I gave the young gentleman of the Inner Temple,
London, a letter of introduction to him last August, and he
spent about ten days with him at Montpelier, while he was
examining the registry of Cork, for O’Donovan Wills. He told me
that The O’Donovan treated him with great urbanity, hospitality
and kindness. This young gentleman is of the Wexford Sept of
the Hy-Figenti; is about twenty-six years old, six feet two
inches tall; a Protestant, (but he is likely to be fished up
by the Pope some day or another, like the Ramm of Gorey!)
Next year, during the vacation, he promises to examine the
Herbert documents for me. Herbert had given me permission to
examine his papers several years since, but I have not been
able to take time to go to Killarney. This young gentleman
has been in receipt of £350 per annum in right of his mother,
who died when he was eighteen months old. His father, who is
about sixty-seven years old, married a young wife a year or
two since, but he will leave this young Mr. John O’Donovan
£400 a year in addition to what he has already. He is the
cousin-german of the Captain E. O’Donovan, who took the Russian
battery at Alma, and of Henry O’Donovan who was shot through
the head at the taking of the Little Redan at Sebastopol.
As I feel convinced that you take a great interest in all true
branches of our name, I enclose you a letter from a Daniel
Donovan of Queenstown (Cove of Cork) who appears to me to be
a very respectable and worthy man, though little known in his
neighborhood, except as a baker. Who is he? I firmly believe
that the name will become important again, though now sunk low
enough as regards landed property.
I forgot to ask you in my last letter what happened to our
American friend, your cousin Florence, who expected to be
appointed Consul at Cork. Has he written to you since? Has he
any desire to return home?
I do not believe that my ancestor Edward comes under the curse
of the Braon-Sinshir of Dorothy Ford, for he was killed by a
cannon ball, which I think I have, about six years before she
was hanged by Daniel O’Donovan and Teige-a-doona McCarthy;
but I labor under the curse of the holy Bishop Kerrigan, and
so do you, and the whole race; but I believe--hope--it lost
its withering force, or that its fulminatory influence was
nearly spent after the fifth generation. Curses among the Jews
exhausted themselves in the fifth generation. The Irish belief
is that the curse returns on the pronouncer if it was not
deserved. Our ancestor really deserved the curse pronounced on
him.
Let me congratulate you on the subject of your many sons. I am
particularly fortunate in that respect, for I have no daughter
to run away with any Kerrigan; but, as the Emperor of China
said: “Where there are many sons, there are many dangers.”
Excuse hurry, late toward midnight, and after a hard day’s
work. My sight is failing.
Yours sincerely,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
* * * * *
DUBLIN, Nov. 10, 1858.
MY DEAR FRIEND--You will oblige me by returning to me the
descent of the Rev. Mr. Hayman of Youghal (with any remarks
you have to make on the Nagles), at your earliest convenience.
I want to try what my grenadier namesake in London can make
of it. He is pedigree-mad, if any man ever was so, and would
read a whole library for one fact relating to any branch of the
O’Donovans.
Write me such a note as I can send him (without making any
allusion to Protestants) and I will get him to make any
searches you like about the Kilmeen or Glean-a-Mhuilin Sept.
My eldest boy John entered Trinity College, Dublin, on the 5th
instant, and was admitted to contend for mathematical honors.
He feels himself like a fish out of water among the Tory
Protestants, after leaving the Jesuit fathers of Great Denmark
street.
It is reported here that a young Ireland war is beginning to be
organized in Cork and Kerry, but I do not believe it. You need
not make any allusion to this in your notes, because my young
friend is an aristocrat, though he hates the Saxons more than I
do.
Yours in great haste,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
The “Young Ireland War” as he calls it, got me into prison a few weeks
after he wrote that letter. He wrote it on the 10th of November, 1858.
I was arrested on the 5th of December, and kept in Cork Jail until
August, 1859; but that did not make John O’Donovan afraid of writing to
me. I wrote to him on some subjects from Cork Jail. He was in England
at the time, and I got this letter from his son Edmond, who was then
fifteen years old.
DUBLIN, June 20, 1859.
MR. O’DONOVAN ROSSA, COUNTY JAIL, CORK.
SIR--My father and my brother John are at present in Oxford,
else you would have long since received an answer to your
letter. As you would probably wish to write to him again,
I send you his address, which is in care of Dr. Bandenel,
Bodleian Library, Oxford. We expect them home about the 24th of
July.
I remain your, etc.,
E. O’DONOVAN.
That is the Edmond O’Donovan who became so celebrated as a war
correspondent in Asia and Africa, for the London papers, and who was
killed in the Soudan in the year 1882. About June the 14th, 1859, his
father wrote me this letter:
DEAR SIR--I have received your letter of the 5th instant, and
was glad to hear that your enthusiasm had not cooled down. I
was, since I wrote to you last, away in the beautiful land
of the Saxon, where they seem to know as much about us as
they do about the Pawnee Loups of North America. I worked
in the British Museum, the Tower of London, the State paper
office, the Lambeth Library, all in London, and in the Lambeth
Library at Oxford. The State papers are full of most curious
information relating to Ireland, which will be published
some time between this and the day of judgment, for the
enlightenment of posterity, but not in our times.
John Collins of Myross, the last Irish poet and antiquary of
Carbery was an Irish Senachy without any critical knowledge
whatsoever.
The tribe of the O’Donovans which he calls MacAeneas or
MacAongus, had never any existence under that appellation,
but the O’Donovans of Glenawilling, are frequently mentioned
in old Irish pedigrees, under the name of MacEnesles, and
in the public records under that of MacEnesles-Mac-I-Crime.
This MacEnesles family was the third (second by descent) most
important sept of the O’Donovans of Carbery, and the descent
of their ancestor Aneslis, or Stanislaus, is given thus by
MacFirbis:
1. Donovan, ancestor of the O’Donovans, slain, 977, by Brian
Boru.
2. Cathal, fought at Clontarf, 1014.
3. Amhlaff or Auliffe, flourished 1041.
4. Murrough.
5. Aneslis.
6. Raghnall or Reginald.
7. Mulrony.
8. Crom, slain, 1254, by O’Mahony in Glanachryme near Dunmanway.
9. Cathal, a quo Clancahill, anciently of Castle Donovan in
Drimoleague.
Aneslis, a quo MacEnesles of Glenawilling.
Loughlin, a quo the Clan Loughlin of Cloghatradbally.
10. Donogh More, son of Aneslis.
The pedigrees of the Clancahill of Castle-Donovan, and of the
Clan Loughlin of Kilmaccabee and Reenogriana are preserved, but
that of the sept of Mac Enesles (now locally Mac MacIninish)
has been entirely neglected. The last distinguished man of the
sept was Captain Daniel Boy O’Donovan of Kilcoleman, who had
served his Majesty faithfully beyond the seas, 1641. In 1632,
Dermod MacTeige MacEnesles O’Donovan possessed the lands of
Lisnabreeny West, in the parish of Kilmeen; but here I lose
sight of them altogether! They had no local historian. Aneslis
their ancestor had four sons, Donogh More, Rickard, Walter and
Randal, who became the founder of four distinct septs generally
called in the public records, Slught Eneslis MacIcroyme. Denis
na Meeny, so much talked of by John Collins, was one of this
sept. Yours ever sincerely,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
After I came out of jail, our correspondence continued; I will continue
it here by showing you this letter:
DUBLIN, March 1, 1860.
MY DEAR FRIEND--I have just received your note, and was glad
to see your handwriting. I should be glad to contribute in any
way to illustrate the literature of old Ireland, but my hands
are more than full just now. I have too many irons in the fire,
so that some of them must get burned. My boys are of no help
to me, because they have too many studies to attend to, and I
do not like to interrupt them. I have the eldest in Trinity
College, and three others at the Jesuits’ Grammar School, where
they are making considerable progress in classic and science.
I have buried the youngest, Morgan Kavanaugh O’C. O’D., who
died on the 11th of February, 1860, at the age of one year and
forty-nine days, so that I calculate he went off the stage of
this world without any stain from ancient or modern sin. I
have no reason to be sorry for his departure from this wicked
world. But his mother is so sorry after him that she refused to
take food for two days, which has brought her to the brink of
insanity.
I was glad to learn that Henry O’Donovan, Esq., of Lissard,
had an heiress. He may have a house full of children now, of
both sexes, as he has broken the ice, notwithstanding the
curse of the Coarb of St. Barry. Our ancestor Donobhan, son of
Cathal, was certainly a singularly wicked and treacherous man,
but it is to be hoped that his characteristics have not been
transmitted, and therefore that the curse of the good Coarb of
St. Barry has spent its rage long since. But still if you view
the question fairly, you will incline with me to believe that
the curse still hangs over us:
1. Castle-Donovan was forfeited in 1641, and given away,
forever.
2. My ancestor Edmond killed the son of O’Sullivan Beare, and
was killed himself in 1643, leaving his descendants landless.
Right!
3. The race of Colonel Daniel O’Donovan became extinct in 1829,
in the person of General O’Donovan, who left the small remnant
of his patrimonial inheritance to Powell, a Welshman. Curse!
4. The present O’Donovan is childless. His brother Henry has
one daughter, who, if she be the only heir, will leave the name
landless.
These four reasons, adding to them your imprisonment in 1859,
convinces me that the curse of the good Coarb still hangs over
us all. But I hope we may escape it in the next world!
John O’Mahony (the descendant of the real murderer of Mahon,
King of Munster), who was proclaimed here in 1848, is now
in America, a greater rebel than ever. His translation of
Keating’s history of Ireland is rather well done.
Wishing you every happiness, I remain dear sir, yours ever,
J. O’DONOVAN.
* * * * *
DUBLIN, March 21, 1860.
MY DEAR FRIEND--I have promised to write for Sir Bernard Burk’s
“Family Vicissitudes” a few articles on fallen Irish families,
and I was thinking of giving a note of James O’Donovan
of Cooldurragha, whom you told me was in the poorhouse,
Skibbereen. You mentioned to me that he had no son. Perhaps
you might not think it troublesome to ask himself if he would
like this notice of him to appear. If he should like it, you
will oblige me by letting me know exactly what he has to say
on the “vicissitudes” of his family. I know you have a quick
apprehension and a lively imagination, and I will therefore
expect from your pen a curious story from the dictation of
James O’D. himself, on the vicissitudes of his family. I
believe that his descent is pure, and that he is now the senior
representative of Donogh, the fourth son of O’Donovan by the
daughter of Sir Owen McCarthy-Reagh. This is a high descent for
one who is a porter in the poorhouse, and I think his story
might be worked up into a narrative that might do justice to
the genius of Plutarch.
Your friend Edmond, the painter, has got free access to the
records of the Ulster King’s Tower. I am almost afraid to let
him indulge his tastes for heraldry; but I am willing to let
him go there every second day, on condition that he will not
neglect his classical studies. Should you be writing to your
cousin Florence, of New York, you will oblige me by asking him
to call on my nephew-in-law, Thomas Francis Kerrigan, telling
him that I wish them to become acquainted.
This has been a very severe March, but as you have youth,
health and enthusiasm on your side, you must have come off more
scathless from the effects of it than one who is a regular
Mananan Mac Lir--a regular thermometer--from the effects of
rheumatism.
Yours, ever sincerely,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
As he asked me to see James O’Donovan, I saw him. He was a porter at
the entrance gate of the Skibbereen Poorhouse, at a salary of twelve
pounds a year.
When he would have a vacation day, he’d come into my house in town. One
day I told him what John O’Donovan wanted me to get from him. He did
not like to give it; he was afraid it would injure him. Henry O’Donovan
brother to “The O’Donovan” was an ex-officio poor law guardian; Powell,
the Welshman, who inherited the lands of General O’Donovan was an
ex-officio P. L. G., and if he, James, got anything published about
who and what he was, they may think he had some design upon ownership
of the lands of the O’Donovan clan, which they held because their
fathers and their kin turned Protestant, while James’ fathers remained
Catholics, and so lost their patrimony; so James did not like to give
me the information John O’Donovan wanted, for fear it would--to the
loss of his situation--prejudice the landlord guardians against him,
most of whom were the possessors of the plundered property of the
people.
I told that to John O’Donovan, telling him I did not like to press
James to give me his story.
The next of his letters is this:
DUBLIN, March 24, 1860.
MY DEAR FRIEND--I have received your letter, and was
exceedingly sorry to hear you had lost your wife--a great
loss in case of ardent affection on both sides; but you are
young and vigorous; and time, the dulce molimen--the soft
soother--will finally reduce your grief to “a softer sadness.”
Your imprisonment must have weighed heavily upon her spirits.
My nephew-in-law seems to be a sensible man of the world. He
seems to be a great Catholic. Of his politics I know nothing,
but calculate that they are ultramontane; and I think Finghin
Ceannmor and he would agree very well. I have no faith in
politics of any kind, nor have I any trust in Whig or Tory.
I was glad to learn that poor James was in good health, and
not utterly destitute. I hope you will be able to get out
of him all the Shanachus that he has in his head about the
Clann-Donnabhain. I am sure it would offend him to hear that
Donell-na-g Croicean, who died in 1584, was unquestionably a
bastard--Teige, his father, was never married. Donell-na-g
Croicean “kept” Eileen ni Laoghaire--Ellen O’Leary, but
afterward married her. Domhnall, their son, married Juana,
daughter of Sir Owen McCarthy.
Daniel, their first son, is the ancestor of General O’Donovan,
of Bawnlahan, who died in 1829. Teige, their second son, is the
ancestor of Morgan, now O’Donovan. Donogh, the fourth son is
the ancestor of James of Cooldurragha.
It is useless to tell him this, because he would not believe
it, though it was sworn to by “Sir Finghin O’Driscoll, and
divers other good and trustworthy witnesses”; but he heard from
the Clan-Loughlin and other septs of the O’Donovans, that such
was the tradition.
This illegitimacy of the senior branch is, in my opinion,
another result of the curse of the good Coarb of St. Barry.
I have given in the Appendix to the Annals, all that I could
find about James’ pedigree; but what I want from him now is
his story of how the property gradually passed from him and
his ancestors, giving dates as often as possible, and also the
cause of the loss of the lands. It is very curious how the
descendants of the youngest son, Kedagh, succeeded better than
any of the rest, except the Protestants.
How many acres did James farm when he was married?
My western correspondents always speak of him as a poor,
struggling farmer, but a man of strict probity and high
principles. Does any other male descendant of his ancestor
Donogh or Denis survive? If there is none, does it not strike
you that the curse is at work in removing the name out of
Clancahill? I am actually superstitious on this point. I
believe that most members of the family are high-minded,
and remarkably honest, but I believe, also, that they are
reckless, addicted to drink, and irritable to a degree that
counterbalances all their amiable characteristics. I am
anxious to preserve a memorial of James, as by all accounts,
he has been a virtuous, honest and honorable man; and only
unfortunate, as being overwhelmed by adverse circumstances, or
perhaps, as not having sufficient craft or cunning to grapple
with the world. I enclose you the Jesuits’ letter about my
boys. These Jesuits are very clever. I also enclose a note from
W. J. O’Donovan of the Protestant sept of Wexford, who beats
us all hollow in enthusiasm for the name and its pedigree.
Hoping that you keep up your spirits, I remain, dear sir, yours
ever sincerely,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
* * * * *
DUBLIN, March 27, 1860.
MY DEAR FRIEND--You told me when last in Dublin, that the
family of Deasy were Irish, and were called in Irish,
O’Daosaigh. Are you quite certain that the O’ is prefixed to
the name by the Irish-speaking people of the County of Cork?
We have in the County Kilkenny a family of the name of O’Daedi,
anglicized Deady, and I have been long of the opinion that your
Deasys of County Cork are the same. You have a Dundeady in the
parish of Rathbarry, in your county, a well-known promontory.
You will oblige me exceedingly by asking James of Cooldurragha,
whether the Deasys are a Cork family, and what the name is
called by the Irish-speaking people. Please to ask James the
following questions:
First.--Are there O’Deadys and O’Deasys in the County Cork?
Second.--If not; how long have the O’Deasys been in the County
Cork; and where did they come from? What is the tradition?
We have O’Deadys in Ossory, but believe that they came from
Munster; and John MacWalter Walsh, in his dirge, lamenting the
downfall of the Irish, sets down O’Deady as one of the Irish
chieftains next after O’Coileain, now Collins. This looks odd;
for I cannot find any Irish chieftain of the name of O’Deady
in the Irish annals, or Irish genealogies. I have several
relatives of this name.
Third.--How long have the Deasys of your county (of whom is the
Attorney-General Rickard Deasy) been in the County Cork? Are
they aborigines or late comers? If aborigines, where were they
seated? If late comers, how is it known that they are of Irish
descent? How long are they among the rank of the gentry? Are
there many of the name in the county? Are they a clan anywhere?
I suppose they are O’Deadys.
Fourth.--Did James ever hear of a sept of the O’Donovans in
the County of Cork, who were not descended from Crom, or the
Donovan who captured Mahon, King of Munster at Bruree? It
appears there was a sept of the O’Donovans of the same race as
O’Driscoll of Colthuighe, before the race of the treacherous
Donovan of Bruree had settled in the O’Driscoll territory; but
I fear they cannot now be distinguished. They were seated in
Tuath-Feehily, near Inchydoney, on the Bay of Clonakilty.
Yours ever,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
* * * * *
DUBLIN, March 29, 1860.
MY DEAR FRIEND--I return you the letters of Donal Oge and
Edward O’Sullivan (Edward, the Cork butter merchant, now
dead--1898), and thank you most heartily for the read of them.
Donald Oge (Dan McCartie, now in New York--1898), seems very
clever, but the other seems wild. Your cousin, Finghin Ceannmor
and my nephew-in-law in New York may be of mutual advantage to
each other, as they seem bent on business and industry. I fear
your political friends are too sublime in their notions to herd
with either of them.
You will oblige me by getting hold of Shemus of Cooldurragha
soon as you can, or his brother. Have they any share of
education? I suppose John Collins was their chief tutor.
I was often invited by the O’Donovan and his brother Henry to
visit them, but I have never been able to spare time. I thought
to send Edmond last year, but his mother would not let him go.
Next summer or autumn I may take a stroll to the Southwest with
one or two of the boys, to show them gentes cunnabula nostrae.
Meantime, believe me, yours ever,
S. O’DONOBHAN.
* * * * *
DUBLIN, April 20, 1860.
MY DEAR FRIEND--Many thanks for your letter about the Deasys. I
fear that their pedigree is not on the rolls of time, and that
we can never discover any more about them.
Your observations about the Pope have amused me very much. My
faction of boys are divided into two deadly political enemies
to each other on the subject, and I can hardly keep them from
fighting on the subject. One party is for our Holy Father the
Pope and his temporal power, and another for ceding him his
spiritual power only. They are all for Napoleon; which, in
my opinion, is not fair, and they hope that the Bourbons will
never be restored.
My eldest son John, got the prize for chemistry in the Museum
of Industry here, which was a great effort for him, being just
turned off seventeen and having to contend with the practical
young chemists of Dublin.
My second son, Edmond, is actually mad at his heraldic
studies, though I have been constantly telling him that it is
an obsolete science, and that mankind will soon do very well
without it. But my admonition is slighted, and he continues
to cultivate the old knightly science. You will soon see some
of his doings in my article on Wilhelm Count Gall Von Bourkh
of the Austrian service, from whose brother Walter we descend
collaterally.
My third son, William, is the cleverest of all, and is likely
to become a Jesuit or a Passionist. He is entirely for the Pope
and his temporal power; and inclines to sneer at the _Nation_
and _Irishman_ equally. We get both these eccentric Irish
newspapers. My fourth son Richard is all for statistics and
geography. He knows more of European statistics than any boy of
his age in the world (except, perhaps, some of the mnemonistic
students) but he is wicked and selfish and will be very lucky
if he is not yet killed fighting against the niggers.
Hoping to hear of your second marriage (which is a right,
natural and proper thing), I remain, dear sir, your well wisher,
JOHN O’DONOVAN.
While I was in prison, from 1865 to 1871, Edmond O’Donovan was taking
an active part in Fenian politics. In that enterprise he had traveled
through Ireland, England, Scotland, and had made a few visits to
America. After I left prison and came to America, I got this letter
from him;
COUNTY DURHAM, ENGLAND, May 9, 1872.
MY DEAR ROSSA--Twenty times within the past four months, I
have sat down with the intention of writing you a long letter;
but as often those circumstances over which one has no control
interposed their ill-favored presence. Even as it is, I cannot
catch time for an interchange of thoughts, and only scribble a
few lines to ask you to get our friend whom it concerns to look
after two gentlemen of my acquaintance, now on your side of the
Atlantic, and who complain they can’t get credit among you.
Their names and addresses are as follows: Thomas Smith and Owen
Murray, late of the North of England. Address, under cover, to
John Kelly, Spuyten Duyvil, Westchester County, N. Y. If you
would kindly see after this I would be obliged.
I duly received your card, per favor of Mr. Scanlan, to whose
letter, by the way, I have never since replied, and about which
you must apologize for me, should you see him, as he is an old
and valued friend.
I address this to the private address on your card--under
cover, to Mrs. Kelly.
I have been reading your letters to the Dublin _Irishman_ with
great interest, and having the misfortune to know something
about the United States, through two visits made during your
imprisonment, I can thoroughly appreciate and feel for your
unenviable position of nineteenth century knight-errant and
Paladin in the cause of distressed virtue.
Be assured that if ever I take up such a rôle--and you must
pardon my saying so--I will display greater discrimination
in the choice of a sphere of action. I know well the retort
that will spring to your lips--that those “who live in glass
houses should not throw stones”--and, that those who constitute
themselves champions of a lot of “coundfounded, hairy, greasy
foreigners” should not talk of wisdom. But, after all, you know
what the United States Germans say--“the longer a man lives,
the more he finds out,” and I can only say in the words of the
immemorial schoolboy, “I’ll never do it again, sir.”
I was a prisoner of war in Bavaria when I read of your release,
and, would you believe it, it was a Roman Catholic clergyman
who brought me the news, and was actually--he said--glad to
hear of it.
Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction--and as the Turcos
used to exclaim, “Be chesm, on my head and my eyes be it,” if
what I tell you isn’t correct.
Time, paper and nonsensical ideas being all run out--with best
respects to Mrs. O’D. and all old friends, I remain ever yours,
E. O’DONOVAN.
P. S. Excuse rubbish; the fact being that I am writing a book
on metaphysics, and under the circumstances, you cannot expect
common sense.
E. O’D.
P. A. Collins, of Boston, was active in Fenian politics those days. So
was Colonel Tom Kelly, one of the men rescued in Manchester. This is a
letter written by Edmond O’Donovan to P. A. Collins:
MY DEAR MR. COLLINS--Should any question arise as to the part
which Colonel Kelly intends playing in the present arrangement
for unifying the I. R. B., of Great Britain--and should
any doubt arise as to his abiding by the decision of the
committee--a member of which you are, I beg to state that I am
authorized by Colonel Kelly to speak for him in the matter, and
hold myself in readiness to appear before the convention, or
any committee appointed by them to investigate the true state
of the case.
Furthermore, I am authorized by Colonel Kelly, should such be
necessary for the harmonious working of the parties, to lay
before you his complete and entire resignation of all claims to
authority over any branch of the organization, either here or
in Great Britain and Ireland. Your obedient servant.
E. O’DONOVAN.
P. A. Collins, Esq.
When Edmond was in Asia and Africa, some of the native tribes made him
their king. I take from Appleton’s Encyclopedia this account of how he
came by his death:
“The battle ground had been selected by the Mahdi with his usual
sagacity. It was a narrow rocky passage between wooded hills, in which
he had placed the guns and rifles captured in former engagements,
in positions where they could be used with effect, but where it was
impossible for General Hicks to deploy his artillery. Into this
ambuscade the Egyptian advance was led by a treacherous guide. The army
of Hicks Pasha was totally annihilated. The troops are reported to
have fought three days without water, until all their cartridges were
expended. General Hicks then ordered a bayonet charge, but the army was
immediately overwhelmed, and not a man escaped. The commander-in-chief,
with Alla-ed-Din, Governor General of the Soudan, Abbas Bey, Colonel
Farquahar, Major Von Seckendorf, Massy, Warner and Evans, Captain
Horlth and Anatyaga, Surgeon-general Georges Bey, Surgeon Rosenberg,
O’Donovan the well-known war correspondent, a number of Egyptian pashas
and beys, and all the officers, who numbered 1,200, and soldiers of the
army, were slain.”
In a book bearing the title of “Mr. Parnell, M.P., and the I. R. B.” I
read this passage:
“The most distinguished literary man ever known to be in the ranks of
Fenianism was undoubtedly Edmond O’Donovan, who was a ‘V,’ or organizer
for the North of England, and afterward the well-known Asiatic traveler
and writer.”
Looking at the death of the three eldest sons of John O’Donovan--John,
Edmond and William--I cannot help thinking on what their father says
about his being almost superstitious on the head of that holy curse
pronounced against the name. John was drowned while bathing in the
river at St. Louis; Edmond was slain in Africa; and William died here
in New York a dozen years ago; I saw him buried in Calvary Cemetery.
The three were actively connected with the Fenian movement in Ireland.
I don’t know I may blame myself for having anything to do with that
connection.
The father, John O’Donovan, died in the year 1862, at the age of
fifty-three, and his co-laborer in Celtic literature, Eugene Curry,
died a few months after. God be merciful to them, and to all the souls
we are bound to pray for!
Another word; a few words; these few verses from a poem written by
Thomas D’Arcy McGee on the death of John O’Donovan will end this
chapter:
And thus it is, that even I,
Though weakly and unworthily,
Am moved by grief
To join the melancholy throng
And chant the sad entombing song
Above the chief:
Too few, too few, among our great,
In camp or cloister, church or state,
Wrought as he wrought;
Too few, of all the brave we trace
Among the champions of our race
Gave us his thought.
Truth was his solitary test,
His star, his chart, his east, his west;
Nor is there aught
In text, in ocean, or in mine,
Of greater worth, or more divine
Than this he sought.
With gentle hand he rectified
The errors of old bardic pride,
And set aright
The story of our devious past,
And left it, as it now must last
Full in the light.