Young Ireland ... Final revision. Illustrated

Preface

TO THE FIRST EDITION I HAVE written this book in the intervals of a busy life, because I believed it was the best service I could render to Ireland. It contains a memoir of the public affairs of that country during a period of abnormal political activity ; a period to which may be traced, as to their fountain-head, many of the opinions now universally current among the Irish people. My first aim was to make a new generation familiar with the truthfulness, simplicity, and genuine moderation ofthe men with whom it was said " a new soul came into Ireland." The Young Ireland party, as their enemies in the first instance named them, and as they came in the end to name themselves, after having been long misrepresented, have in later times been vindicated and applauded more than enough, but they have never, I think, been understood.

What they aimed to do, and what they accomplished, their actual motives and their means of action, as disclosed in their private correspondence, and interpreted by one who shared their counsels, are set down in this book for the first time ; and will be found, I think, worthy of study by statesmen and publicists accustomed to meditate on the affairs of Ireland. Another aim, if I may venture to say so, was to appeal to the conscience of the best class of Englishmen. If they should think proper to study, with reasonable pains, the brief period

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. IV embraced in this narrative, they will have no difficulty in under standing a problem which has sometimes perplexed them — why Irishmen not deficient in public spirit or probity were eager to break away from the Union and from all connection with England. Whoever desires to understand why Ireland is distressed and discontented, while England is prosperous and loyal, must assuredly seek the causes in history ; for to-day is the child and heir of yesterday. It is easy to comprehend the loathing sensitive Englishmen feel in descending into the catacombs of the Past, and handling the skeletons and cerements of historic crimes ; but I invite them to look at transactions which are not remote or ghastly, which happened in their own day, for which they cannot altogether evade a personal responsibility ; and to consider how far these transactions account for the state of opinion in Ireland.

More than a generation has passed since the events occurred which I have undertaken to record. A larger experience of mankind, the responsibilities of political office, and leisure for reflection, have, I trust, enabled me to scrutinise them from a new point of view, and to revise whatever was rash or ungenerous in earlier judgments. I have lived a quarter of a century among Englishmen, as their associate, colleague, or competitor, and I would not willingly wound their self-respect. But it would be a waste of life to write such a book, and abate or conceal the truth. I have striven to be fair and temperate, but I have not hidden away anything which it was essential to disclose ; and I am convinced that confusion and disaster will continue to mark the relation between the islands, till Englishmen confront the facts courageously, and with a determination to discover the spring-head from which discord flows.

I have given the narrative the form of personal recollections because I speak of proceedings which I have seen and shared ; and I desire to keep before the reader the fact that it is the

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. V testimony of an actor in the scenes, who cannot avoid personal sympathies and prejudices. But I have written with half the circumference of the globe between me and the scene of action, at a time when the chief actors are dead, and when I myself must soon follow them, and when I have no longer anything to ask or fear from fortune. The authorities for facts not within my own knowledge are indicated in the text or the notes. The most important contribution to them was the correspondence addressed to me as Editor of the Nation by men of various classes and parties during the entire period treated of. To this collection has been added the voluminous correspondence addressed to Smith O'Brien and Thomas Davis, and that of John Dillon and Thomas MacNevin, entrusted to me by their respective families, the papers of Thomas Francis Meagher, which he gave me before leaving Ireland, the correspondence of Davis with Daniel Owen Maddyn, and the Minutes and Correspondence of the Irish Confederation, confided to me on the dissolution of that body.

In this narrative O'Connell while he lived was necessarily a chief figure. His fame in all civilised countries, and the affec tionate remembrance in which he is held in Ireland, bespeak a favourable interpretation of his conduct whenever it is in contro versy. But it must not be forgotten that the young men who were for a time in conflict with him have since been scattered over the world by the blast of adversity, and have everywhere proved themselves to be men of honour and ability — men plainly entitled to be heard with patience in the counsels of their country, against any adversary. That the narrative may serve the purposes for which it was written, or any useful purpose, the first condition is that it shall be not only accurate, but just; and that it shall not be ungenerous in its justice. I have aimed to give it this character ; VI

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. whenever there was question of motives, or of competing policies, or of personal reputation, I have not slurred over the difficulty, but have striven as scrupulously to be fair as if I were engaged on a last confession. What I have written is at any rate what I profoundly believe to be true ; and time, I trust, will show that it contains little or nothing which any man can gainsay. The thoughtful reader will not fail to note that the narrative at bottom is not the history of certain men, but essentially the history of certain principles. Controversy, rather than medita tion, is the nursing mother of popular opinion ; and to the con troversies and conflicts which I have undertaken to record may be traced back, for the most part, the opinions which influence the public mind of Ireland at present, or promise to influence it in any considerable degree, among the generation now entering on public life.

London, October 1880. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOLUME I. I. The Birth OF the NATION. (From a Drawing by J. F. 0 'Hea) Frontispiece 2. THOMAS Davis. Two Portraits .... Facing page 33 3. John B. Dillon. Two Portraits ....,, 38 4. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy. Two Portraits ,, 50 5. Isaac Butt, M.P . . . . . . „ 82 6. Repeal Card, No. 1 .....,, 89 7. Repeal Cards, Nos. 2 and 3 . . . . ,, go 8. The Uncrowned Monarch's First Levee ,, 97 9. Sir Samuel Ferguson ...... 128 10. Mr Justice O'Hagan. Two Portraits . . . ,, 133 11. Denis Florence MacCarthy ....,, 135 12. James Clarence Mangan .....,, 137 13. Denny Lane — Martin MacDermott . . . ,,

PREFACE.

TO THE FINAL EDITION After an interval of more than fifteen years I return to this book to revise it for the last time. I have reason to be content and grateful for the reception it met, and I would willingly express my gratitude by making it less unworthy of popular favour. The critical press in England, Ireland, America, and Australia received it for the most part with generous sympathy. When the book was originally published several of the Young Irelanders were still living: Judge O'Gorman in New York, Judge O'Hagan in Dublin, Denny Lane in Cork, P. J. Smythe and Martin MacDermott in London ; and it is a great satisfac tion to me to know that they all took occasion to declare in some public and emphatic manner that this was an authentic and unprejudiced record of the transactions with which it deals.

The families of those who had died furnished me with their private correspondence, and were content with the use I made of it. I may note that subsequent writers on Irish history have largely adopted this book as the basis of their narrative in the period with which it deals. I aimed to give this work a fidelity to fact, which time or change could not shake. The acknowledgment of this accuracy by the men chiefly concerned was a great satisfaction to me. But a rarer testimony is the judgment of one who has traversed

PREFACE.

TO THE FINAL EDITION. X some of the same ground. The late Mr A. M. Sullivan, who was such a skilled witness, when he read the volume, wrote to me in this generous spirit : " As you would see by my chapter on him in ' New Ireland ' " (he said), " I had judged that the same O'Connell did not come out of jail that went into it on the 30th May 1844; but I thought it a duty to abstain from tracing the gangrene. Even so, I feel you are the truer historian, and your moral level is the higher one in telling ' the truth and the whole truth.' He fell, like many a noble tree, killed and dragged down by parasitical growths ' attached ' to him, but not until he had done great and noble service." The Irish people have instinctively adopted the same generous judgment in the premises. They honour O'Connell for his great services from '29 to '44, without adopting a tittle of the opinions and policy for the sake of which, in his later days, he permitted his son to wreck the National party and the National cause.

" Young Ireland " was first published in London in 1880 by Messrs Cassell & Co., and immediately afterwards in New York by Messrs Appleton in an authorised edition, and a little later by Mr Munro of the same city in a totally unauthorised edition. Mr George Robertson of Melbourne in 1881 issued an edition of a convenient size and shape which had a large circulation in Australia ; and in the same year a translation of a portion of it into French was published in Paris, first in a political Review and afterwards in a separate volume, " La Jeune Irlande," by Messieurs Bleriot et Gautier. As the price of a guinea, at which it was originally issued, greatly limited its circulation in Ireland, I sanctioned in 1883 an Irish People's Edition by Messrs Gill, from which I accepted no profit on the condition of its being published at a price which would make it available to the mass of the people. All these editions are now out of print, and I hope to substitute for them this one, carefully revised and

PREFACE.

TO THE FINAL EDITION. XI enriched by genuine portraits of the dramatis personœ of the narrative. As I possessed portraits and curios of the period which were in some cases unique, I thought it desirable that the final edition should be an illustrated one, and become a record of much that was interesting and characteristic of the period. " Young Ireland " has been the subject of corre spondence which, if published, would make a volume of the same size, and perhaps of equal interest. I take one letter from the mass, because it gave me pleasure, which the sympathetic reader will perhaps share, by exhibiting the effect which the Nation sometimes produced on its habitual readers, and illustrating its constant aim to make better men as well as better Irishmen. Cincinnati, O., April 17, 1883. "lama pupil of the old Nation.

I was seventeen years old when its first number saw the light. Upon the downfall of all our hopes, I came to America in '49. If my life has been clean and useful, it is, next to the grace of God, owing to the teaching of the great paper. " Most certainly, in a secular sense, a higher view of personal dignity, of truthfulness, of proper pride, sprang from its teachings. Now, when I am fifty-six years old, I rejoice that I have known and studied the lives of the great men who gathered round yourself and Davis. In my humble way I have always striven to propagate their teachings, and my children and grandchildren are familiar with their names and work, and love them dearly. I yesterday got the second volume of your work, and I sat up until two o'clock devouring it. I was back again amid the scenes of my boyhood, and felt once more the thrill of its passionate purposes.

God bless you for this last great and loving labour ! It will educate the future. I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Mr A. M. Sullivan during his recent visit to our city, and went over with him in familiar talk the beautiful path of youth. He promised to bear my loving message to you. ' Tell Mr Duffy,' I said,

PREFACE.

TO THE FINAL EDITION. XII ' that you found here men who were students of the great Nation, and who continue to take its teachings into their hearts for all these long years, and whose recollection of many of them was as vivid as when they first read them.' JOSEPH P. CARBERY." I have supervised this edition at so great a distance from the place of publication that the task would have been almost impossible but for the aid of my friend, Martin MacDermott, the only survivor of the band of young poets who made the Nation memorable, to whose taste and judgment, especially as regards the illustrations, I am under deep obligation. There is one purpose which this book may always be counted upon to serve : those to whom the Irish question is new will find in it the sentiments and convictions of some of the most generous and gifted Irishmen who ever meditated on the affairs of their country.

They may sometimes be mistaken in their judgment, but they are never wilfully unjust to opponents, or consciously unfair to anyone. C. GAVAN DUFFY. Nice, March 1896. PAGE CONTENTS -83rjok I.

Chapter I

How the Repeal Movement Began. O'Connell revives the agitation for Repeal — A former false start when Repeal was abandoned for Justice to Ireland— O'Connell an ally of the Whigs — His position in 1840 — Mr Raphael — Peter Purcell— The Catholic Clergy and Tithe —Weakness of the Repeal Association — The people apathetic — Gentry hostile — How impediments were overcome— Character of O'Connell — His Supremacy — His staff of Agitators- Want of education amongst the people — New Agencies . . ... 3-17

Chapter II

How the Movement Fared, and what O'Connell Taught. O'Connell's Addresses — Repeal Association Reports— The Case of Repeal stated by O'Connell week by week — O'Connell as an Orator — As an Organiser — His past career— His power and his weakness— Whig Dissolution 19-28

Chapter III

The First Notable Recruits. The young Barristers — Thomas Davis— John Dillon— The Author meets them — It is arranged to start the Nation, with Duffy as Editor, ami Davis and Dillon as his colleagues — Sketch of Davis — Sketch of Dillon — Appearance ofthe Nation — Its teaching — A new departure — Immense success — Reasons — Dublin in 1842— The Dublin Press — Dearth of good Irish Literature— Popular Ignorance -Reminiscences .... 29-49 CONTENTS. XIV 86-104

Chapter IV

Teaching of the Nation. PAGE National self-reliance— Political rights and duties — Irish History— Its true reading — Illustrious Irishmen abroad and at home — Pursuit of knowledge — Ireland compared with other Nations— Futility of England's Reasons — Whig and Tory alike — Union amongst Irishmen — The old historic Island — Popular enthusiasm evoked — Ballads and Songs of the Nation — Sympathy with France— Irish genius applauded, whether Whig or Tory — O'Connell disapproves — First Differences — O'Connell's Lieutenants — Maurice O'Connell — O'Neill Daunt — John Gray — The Head Pacificator— Thomas Matthew Ray— O'Connell in Committee— O'Connell and Grattan— O'Connell a contributor to the Nation — Davis's first ballad — Other poets of the Nation — Success of the new Teaching — O'Connell Lord Mayor of Dublin— Irish and English Municipalities contrasted — Note 5°-7S

Chapter V

The Corporation Debate — The Case of Ireland. The Country begins to move — Repeal Rent increased five-fold — The Nation — O'Connell's unfulfilled prophecy — Petition by the Dublin Corporation for the Repeal of the Union, moved by Alderman O'Connell — Three days' Debate— O'Connell's memorable Speech — Resume — Strong and weak Points of the Speech — Isaac Butt's Reply — Commentary in the Nation — Erroneously attributed to Davis — Note 76-85

Chapter VI

The Awakening of the Country — The Menace of the Government.— The Answer of the People. Results of the Corporation Debate— Great increase of the Repeal Rent — Important recruits — Ulster Protestants — John Mitchel — Catholic Bishops — First monster meetings — Building of Conciliation Hall — Irish M.P.'s recalled to Dublin — Davis and his friends — Their relation to O'Connell — New devices — Members' Cards — Protestant opinion in Ireland — ■ Questions in Parliament — Sir Robert Peel's Reply — O'Connell's rejoinder — What it meant — Backed by the Nation — A crisis — The situation reviewed — Peel — O'Connell — The Nation — Note — Two Incidents CONTENTS. XV

Chapter VII

The First Stroke of the Government, and the Counter-stroke. PAGE First Great meeting — O'Connell's Declaration — Cork Banquet — Tipperary meetings — First move of the Government — Lord Chancellor Sugden — Repeal Magistrates superseded — Results — Further signal accessions to Repeal Movement — Sir Colman O'Loghlen — Thomas MacNevin — Michael Joseph Barry- — Thomas O'Hagan, afterwards Lord Chancellor of Ireland — His speech in favour of Home Rule — Counter action of Magistrates — William Smith O'Brien — Coup Manque- — New Arms Act — House of Commons Debate — Radical English support — -List of impossible Measures — Coercion Act defeated by delay — Monster Meetings resumed — Kilkenny — Cork — "The Mallow Defiance" . 105-124

Chapter VIII

Young Ireland at Work. Davis's Projects : Political and Literary — To win back Irish Protestantism to Nationality — Irish Oratory — History — Archæology — Music — Effects — "Annals ofthe Four Masters" — Petrie's " Round Towers" — Kane's " Industrial Resources of Ireland " — Architectural Revival — " The Spirit of the Nation" — Recognition — At home— Abroad — Butt's Protestant Anti-Repeal Meeting — Praises the Nation — O'Connell's jealousy — Young Ireland — Origin of the title — Weekly suppers — Pigot — John O'Hagan— M'Carthy — Denny Lane, and others — Davis's Influence — MacNevin — Clarence Mangan — Opinions of Davis — Proposed " Council of Three Hundred " ... , 125-147

Chapter IX

A Foreign Policy for Ireland. American sympathy -Six days' Meeting in New York — America's reply to Peel's Declaration — America solicits the co-operation of France — Large remittance from New York — Other great Meetings — Boston— Philadelphia — Baltimore — Declaration of the American President — American Colonies — Sympathy of France — Ledru Rollin — His letter — O'Connell's reply — Was Resistance intended ? — Military preparations by English Government — Case of Ireland before Parliament — Smith O'Brien's motion — Five nights' Debate — Result — Sharman Crawford and Federation — -Davis favourable — Movements of Irish Peers, Whig and Tory — Peel unsuccessful — A fierce stroke meditated 148-165 CONTENTS. XVI

Chapter X. Muster Of The Nation At Tara And Mullaghmast

page Monster meetings : Tara — Personal notes — Meetings in Connaught — O'Connell and the Government reporters — Final Meetings on historical sites — Mullaghmast — O'Connell's green cap — The last Meeting to be held — Clontarf appointed as the site — Government preparations— Large increase in the army — Barracks loop-holed — War steamers — The Duke of Wellington— Sir Charles Trevelyan's letters on the state of Ireland 166-174

Chapter XI. The Clontarf Meeting Prohibited

— ARREST OF THE LEADERS. The situation discussed — "Peel will not fight" — Meeting appointed for Sunday, 5th of October 1843 — Proclamation prohibiting Meeting— Issued afternoon of the 4th — The Crisis — Would O'Connell make a stand ? — Reasons which justified resistance — His mistaken action in threatening — Impregnable as a peaceful agitator — By yielding to force, he sacrificed the cause — Deliberation of the Committee of the Repeal Association — O'Connell announces his intention to submit — Measures to prevent the gathering — The course taken by the Nation — Smith O'Brien joins the Association —Offers to test the legality of the Government's action in his own person — Not adopted — "A constitutional policy in its highest sense " 175-191 INDEX Ill

Book I A

BOOK I. CHAPTER

I. HOW THE REPEAL MOVEMENT BEGAN. In the spring of 1840 an event occurred in Ireland charged with grave and far-reaching consequences, but which at the time attracted slight notice, chiefly of a mocking or contemptuous sort. Daniel O'Connell had long been the idol of his countrymen ; but popularity is a tide whose ebb, though irregular, is certain ; and at this time it ran low with the popular tribune. He had reached the age of physical decay, being midway between his sixtieth and seventieth year ; his mind had been much disturbed of late by public and private cares, and his career for many years past had not been graced by any conspicuous success. It was under these circumstances that he suddenly invited the Irish nation to unite with him in the stupendous task of repealing the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland.

The Union, which had lasted for more than a generation, had been repeatedly assailed before * first by the party of Protestant Ascendancy, and again and again by the Catholics ; and he proposed that the discontent of the nation, which slumbered for long intervals but had never become quite extinct, should be awakened once more and guided to its aim, on this occasion by a political Association — an agency which had more than once played a decisive part in the recent history of the country. A national demand made by a man who was indisputably leader of the great bulk of his nation has seldom been made under circumstances more unpromising. In political movements nothing is more em barrassing; than a false start, and O'Connell had already made a false start. Ten years earlier, while his recent triumph in the long contest for Catholic Emancipation surrounded his name with a halo of invincibility, he had made a similar^ appeal to the country ; and at the general election of 1832 nearly half the representatives chosen for Ireland were pledged " Repealers," as the advocates of a National Parliament came to be called.1 In the larger constituencies no capacity or services were sufficient to secure the election of a candidate who did not share the desire of the country for Self-government.

But in two or three years he abandoned this purpose, in order to propose to the English people the alternative of establishing what was called " equal justice," — that is to say, laws and an Executive in Ireland as free from deliberate party bias as they were in England and Scotland. At the same time several of the Repeal members relinquished their seats to accept appointments under the system which they had recently been pledged to overthrow. This acceptance of office, however, did not outrage popular feeling, as it would have done at a later period. Catholic Emancipation had only recently become law, and there was a natural desire to see Catholics occupying places of authority from which they had been excluded since the Revolution of 1688. For a time every appointment of a Catholic was welcomed as a new triumph over Protestant Ascendancy, and a new security for the fair administration of law and of the public departments.

But this sentiment succumbed in a great degree to the enthusiasm for nationality, and O'Connell seriously disturbed the confidence even of devoted adherents when he permitted his son and his sons-in-law to exchange the office of popular representative for that of salaried functionary under the British Government. The mass of the people had not lost faith in him either on this account or in consequence of his abrupt change of policy; they were persuaded that he was doing what he believed best for their interest ; but many of them had utterly lost faith in Repeal of the Union, and regarded the occasional demand of it merely as a weapon flourished in the face of England to extort other concessions. This was the result of the false start. The period at which he took up the question anew was calculated to deepen these suspicions.

During the latter half of the six years which followed the abandonment ofthe first Repeal movement, O'Connell had been a close Parliamentary ally of the Whig party, vindicating his preference for them by the purer administration of justice and the fairer distribution of patronage which they established in Ireland. As they 1 The members were 40 out of 105. were plainly about to fall from power in 1840, to make way for the second administration of Sir Robert Peel, the announcement that the Repeal agitation would be immediately renewed was naturally denounced as a device for embarrassing the Conservatives in the interest of the Whigs. And O'Connell himself, though he maintained his authority over the bulk ofthe people nearly unimpaired, was no longer the formidable tribune of 1832. In the ten years since Emancipation, he had paid the progressive tax which envy punctually levies on eminence — in being constantly maligned.

He had been the chief instrument in overthrowing a sectarian ascendancy, which during five generations gave a small minority of the nation all the power and patronage of the State ; and of those who had lost this monopoly many could not forgive him. He had competed successfully with the landed gentry for the political control which they had long exercised at elections, and from time to time had menaced their feudal exactions as landowners with Parliamentary scrutiny, and they had come instinctively to hate and resist everything in which he was concerned. These might be regarded as the natural enemies of a popular tribune, but his natural allies were nearly as ill prepared for the new movement. He had excited the animosity of the organised trades by denouncing trade combinations, and the enthusiasm of the peasantry was somewhat abated by constant appeals made to them by his enemies to note the fact, that though Catholic squires got seats in Parliament, and Catholic barristers got silk gowns and ermine capes, no appreciable benefit had descended on the farmhouses or cabins.

The necessary staff-officers of a national agitation were still more difficult to obtain than the rank and file. His chief associates in the Catholic struggle had long ago grown cold and fallen off, and they were replaced by inferior men, or their places left vacant. And his enemies, in the class from which the staff-officers of agitation are usually drawn, were constantly augmented by his caustic criticism on public affairs. Criticism was one of the duties of his position as a national tribune ; but in truth he liked the task when the duty was not very clear. That he should be subjected to rancorous reprisals was in the nature of things ; and he often furnished plausible occasion by a strong man's disregard of appearances. Two instances, then quite recent, will illustrate the sort of charges which he had to meet, and which, however effectually met, thinned the rank of gentlemen around him.

Mr Raphael, ex-sheriff of London, a prosperous Armenian tradesman, whom O'Connell had recommended as a candidate to an Irish county, having lost his seat before a Parliamentary Committee, charged his patron with having attempted to make money by the election, and with having afterwards offered to procure him a baronetcy from the Whig Government as the price of silence on the transaction. A select committee acquitted O'Connell of having had any pecuniary interest in the election ; but the controversy created a deep dislike in Ireland to the system of nominating obscure strangers to be Irish representatives, and to the relations towards an English Cabinet which made it possible to offer a baronetcy as a solatium to the defeated candidate — for of this part of the story, which rested on a letter in O'Connell's handwriting, there could be no question.

The popular press was blind and vehement in its defence of the transaction in all its details, but it was not unusual to hear influential adherents whisper that when the farmers of Carlow were induced to defy their arbitrary landlords at the hustings it ought to have been for some higher purpose than to procure a title for a successful Cockney confectioner.1 The other incident happened in Ireland, and was more disastrous in its consequences. The renewed Repeal movement had been imme diately preceded by a political organisation called the Precursor Society — a name which implied that unless equal justice was conceded by Parliament the Society was only the " precursor " to a demand for self government. Mr Peter Purcell, an opulent stage-coach proprietor, and a country gentleman of considerable property, who was a conspicuous member of this body, suddenly resigned on the ground that he had in vain endeavoured to persuade O'Connell to allow the funds of the society to rest in the hands of the treasurer and trustees ostensibly appointed to take charge of them, instead of being lodged in a country branch bank to his personal credit.