Our readers will not perhaps be displeased if we introduce Captain
O'Donahue more particularly to their notice: we shall therefore devote
this chapter to giving some account of his birth, parentage, and
subsequent career. If the father of Captain O'Donahue was to be
believed, the race of the O'Donahues were kings in Ireland long before
the O'Connors were ever heard of. How far this may be correct we cannot
pretend to offer an opinion, further than that no man can be supposed to
know so much of a family's history as the descendant himself. The
documents were never laid before us, and we have only the positive
assertion of the Squireen O'Donahue, who asserted not only that they
were kings in Ireland before the O'Connors, whose pretensions to
ancestry he treated with contempt, but further, that they were renowned
for their strength, and were famous for using the longest bows in battle
that were ever known or heard of. Here we have circumstantial evidence,
although not proof. If strong, they might have been kings in Ireland,
for there "might has been right" for many centuries; and certainly their
acquirements were handed down to posterity, as no one was more famous
for drawing the long bow than the Squireen O'Donahue. Upon these
points, however, we must leave our readers to form their own opinions.
Perhaps some one more acquainted with the archives of the country may be
able to set us right if we are wrong, or to corroborate our testimony if
we are right. In his preface to "Anne of Geierstein," Sir Walter Scott
observes, that "errors, however trivial, ought, in his opinion, never to
be pointed out to the author without meeting with a candid and
respectful acknowledgement." Following the example of so great a man,
we can only say, that if any gentleman can prove or disprove the
assertion of the Squireen O'Donahue, to wit, that the O'Donahues were
kings of Ireland long before the O'Connors were heard of; we shall be
most happy to acknowledge the favour, and insert his remarks in the next
edition. We should be further obliged to the same party, or indeed, any
other, it they would favour us with an idea of what was implied by a
king of Ireland in those days; that is to say, whether he held a court,
taxed his subjects, collected revenue, kept up a standing army, sent
ambassadors to foreign countries, and did all which kings do nowadays?
or whether his shillelagh was his sceptre, and his domain some
furze-crowned hills and a bog, the intricacies of which were known only
to himself? whether he was arrayed in jewelled robes, with a crown of
gold weighing on his temples? or whether he went bare-legged and
bare-armed, with his bare locks flowing in luxurious wildness to the
breeze? We request an answer to this in full simplicity. We observe
that even in Ireland now, a fellow six feet high, and stout in
proportion, is called a "prince of a fellow," although he has not
wherewithal to buy a paper of tobacco to supply his dhudeen: and,
arguing from this fact, we are inclined to think that a few more inches
in stature, and commensurate muscular increase of power, would in former
times have raised the "heir-apparent" to the dignity of the Irish
throne. But these abstruse speculations have led us from our history,
which we must now resume.
Whatever may once have been the importance of the house of O'Donahue,
one thing is certain, that there are many ups and downs in this world;
every family in it has its wheel of fortune, which revolves faster or
slower as the fates decree, and the descendant of kings before the
O'Connor's time was now descended into a species of Viceroy, Squireen
O'Donahue being the steward of certain wild estates in the county of
Galway, belonging to a family who for many years had shown a decided
aversion to the natural beauties of the country, and had thought proper
to migrate to where, if people were not so much attached to them, they
were at all events more civilised. These estates were extensive, but
not lucrative. They abounded in rocks, brushwood, and woodcocks during
the season; and although the Squireen O'Donahue did his best, if not for
his employer, at least for himself; it was with some difficulty that he
contrived to support, with anything like respectability (which in that
part of the country means "dacent clothes to wear"), a very numerous
family, lineally descended from the most ancient of all the kings of
Ireland.
Before the squireen had obtained his employment, he had sunk his rank
and travelled much--as a courier--thereby gaining much knowledge of the
world. If, therefore, he had no wealth to leave his children, at all
events he could impart to them that knowledge which is said to be better
than worldly possessions. Having three sons and eight daughters, all of
them growing up healthy and strong, with commensurate appetites, he soon
found that it was necessary to get rid of them as fast as he could. His
eldest, who, strange to say, for an O'Donahue, was a quiet lad, he had
as a favour lent to his brother, who kept a small tobacconist and
grocer's shop in Dublin, and his brother was so fond of him, that
eventually O'Carroll O'Donahue was bound to him as an apprentice. It
certainly was a degradation for the descendant of such ancient kings to
be weighing out pennyworths of sugar, and supplying halfpenny papers of
tobacco to the old apple and fish women; but still there we must leave
the heir-apparent while we turn to the second son, Mr Patrick
O'Donahue, whose history we are now relating, having already made the
reader acquainted with him by an introduction in Saint James's Park.