The Felon's Track Part 18

CARLETON, WILLIAM (1794-1869).--Author of "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry."

CAVAIGNAC, LOUIS EUGENE (1802-1857).--One of the most distinguished of the French Generals in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. On the establishment of the second Republic he was appointed Minister for War, and when the "Reds" threatened its stability he was invested with the dictatorship and speedily crushed the insurrection. In the contest for the Presidency the glamour of Louis Napoleon's name defeated Cavaignac. After Napoleon's _coup-d'etat_ Cavaignac retired into private life. He had sympathies with Ireland, and in 1848 gave private a.s.surances that in the event of an Irish insurrection winning initial successes, he would bring the influence of France to bear on England to force her to concede terms to Ireland.

CAVANAGH, JOHN.--President of the Fitzgerald Confederate Club, Harold's Cross, Dublin. Wounded at Ballingarry, he was brought to Kilkenny, where he was concealed and cured by Dr. Cane, and later smuggled to France, whence he proceeded to the United States, became an officer in the army and was slain in the Civil War.

"CHRISTABEL" (1815-1881).--Miss M'Carthy, of Kilfademore House, Kenmare, afterwards Mrs. Downing. A Popular poetess of the period, usually using the _nom-de-guerre_ of "Christabel." Her best-known poem is "The Grave of MacCaura." She a.s.sisted Doheny and Stephens to escape.

CLARENDON, EARL OF (1804-1870).--George Villiers, the fourth earl, according to his English biographers, represented the highest type of English politician and English gentleman. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1846-1852. He hired the editor of an obscene journal in Dublin to publish libels upon the moral character of the Young Irelanders, and conducted the affairs of the country from March to June, 1848, under this man's advice. He paid 3,400 for the services rendered and a demand for further payments led to a public disclosure of the facts. At the time Clarendon hired James Birch, Birch had completed a sentence of imprisonment for criminal libel.

CLEMENTS, EDWARD.--A barrister. One of O'Connell's "tail" in Conciliation Hall. The attempt of O'Connell to provide "poor Ned Clements" with a Government situation precipitated the rupture with Young Ireland.

CONWAY, M.G.--A journalist of ability and no principle who followed the path of fortune. He professed ultra-Catholic views while O'Connell was in the ascendant. After O'Connell's death he abjured Catholicism to ingratiate himself with the Ascendancy element.

CRAMPTON, JUDGE (17-- -1858).--Philip Crampton, called to the Bar 1810, Solicitor-General 1832, and raised to the Bench 1834. One of the judges at O'Connell's trial, a strong Tory but a clever lawyer.

CREAN, MICHAEL.--Like M.G. Conway, a Clare man, but of the opposite type. Crean worked in Dublin as a shopman and with Hollywood was one of the two trades-union leaders on the Council of the Confederation, where he opposed Mitchel's policy. After the failure of the insurrection he went to the United States.

CROLLY, DR. (1780-1849).--Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1835 until his death.

DAUNT, W.J. O'NEILL.--A Co. Cork gentleman, one of O'Connell's first Protestant supporters in the Repeal Movement. He was elected for Mallow, but unseated. He ceased to attend Conciliation Hall after the rupture with the Young Irelanders. Many years later he took a prominent part in the Home Rule movement.

DAVIS, THOMAS (1814-1845).--The founder and inspiration of the Young Ireland movement. Son of an English father of Welsh descent and an Irish mother. From the inception of _The Nation_ newspaper until his death he was the chief writer of that journal.

DILLON, JOHN BLAKE (1816-1866).--The close personal friend of Thomas Davis and with him one of the founders of the _Nation_. On his return from exile he attempted to found an Irish Party in alliance with the British Radicals and sat in the British Parliament for Tipperary.

DOYLE, DANIEL.--A Limerick solicitor who acted with John O'Donnell and O'Gorman in inciting Limerick county to insurrection in July, 1848.

After the failure he escaped across the water.

DUFFY, CHARLES GAVAN (1816-1903).--One of the three founders of the _Nation_ and its editor from 1842 to 1854, when he left Ireland for Australia where he became Prime Minister of Victoria. In 1873 he received a knighthood.

"EVA" (1825-1910).--Miss Mary Kelly of Galway, afterwards Mrs. Kevin Izod O'Doherty. One of the chief poets of the _Nation_.

FERGUSON, SAMUEL (1810-1886).--A Belfast barrister and, save Edward Walsh, the most Gaelic of Irish poets in the English language. Ferguson took a leading part in the Protestant Repeal a.s.sociation in 1848 and afterwards became one of the first of Irish archaeologists. In 1878 he was knighted.

FITZGERALD, JOHN LOYD.--Of Newcastle West, Limerick. A lawyer of high standing.

FITZSIMON, CHRISTOPHER.--Son-in-law of Daniel O'Connell, elected to the British Parliament for Co. Dublin. He deserted Repeal to support the Government and was rewarded with the post of Clerk of the Hanaper. His desertion caused the representation of the Co. Dublin to revert to the Unionists for half-a-century.

GRAY, SIR JOHN (1815-1875).--A medical doctor and owner of the _Freeman's Journal_, publicly supporting O'Connell, but personally in sympathy with Young Ireland. He sat in the British Parliament subsequently for Kilkenny and was an active member of the Dublin Corporation.

GRATTAN, HENRY, JUN.--Son of the great Grattan and member for Meath, 1831-52. An honest but weak politician.

GREY, EARL (1802-1894).--Third Earl. Colonial Secretary in the British Liberal Government, 1846 to 1852.

HALPIN, THOMAS M.--Secretary of the Confederation, and a Dublin working-man. According to Meagher he failed to transmit instructions to the Dublin Confederate Clubs to rise in insurrection in the streets of the capital when the fight opened in Tipperary. Halpin denied emphatically having received such orders. After the insurrection he made his way to the United States.

HEYTESBURY, LORD (1779-1860).--William A'Court, British Envoy in Spain and Naples, and Amba.s.sador in Portugal and Russia. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1844-6.

HOGAN, JOHN (1800-1858).--One of the greatest of modern sculptors. With MacMa.n.u.s and other artists he presented O'Connell with the "Repeal Cap," modelled on the Irish Crown.

HOLLYWOOD, EDWARD.--A silk-weaver and, with Michael Crean, an artisan leader. He acted as treasurer of the Davis Confederate Club. Arrested in Wicklow with D'Arcy M'Gee for sedition, but the prosecution was abandoned. After the insurrection he escaped to France, and some years later returned to Dublin.

HOLMES, ROBERT (1765-1859).--Brother-in-law of Thomas Addis and Robert Emmet, and a vehement opponent of the Union in 1799-1800. He declined to accept promotion at the Bar while the Union endured.

HUDSON, WILLIAM ELIOT (1797-1853).--Described by Thomas Davis as the best man and the best Irishman he ever knew. A man of fortune and culture who devoted his leisure and his wealth to helping every movement for the betterment of Ireland.

HUME, JOSEPH (1777-1855).--An English politician who sat in the British Parliament for English, Irish, and Scotch const.i.tuencies as Tory and later as Radical. Chief author of the Radical shibboleth, "Peace, Retrenchment and Reform."

IRELAND, RICHARD.--A barrister, one of the founders of the Protestant Repeal a.s.sociation in 1848. He emigrated to Australia afterwards and became Attorney-General of Victoria.

KENYON, FATHER (18-- -1869).--Curate and afterwards Parish Priest of Templederry in Tipperary. A strong opponent of the "Old Irelanders" and the close political and personal friend of John Mitchel.

LALOR, JAMES FINTAN (1810-49).--Son of Patrick Lalor, M.P. of Queen's Co. A vigorous writer whose agrarian doctrine was converted by Henry George into Land Nationalisation--which it was not. He contributed to the _Nation_ and the _Felon_, 1847-8, and attempted an insurrectionary conspiracy, 1849.

LAMARTINE, ALPHONSE DE (1790-1869).--Minister for Foreign Affairs in the French Republican Government. The British Ministry through Lord Normanby threatened him with the possible rupture of diplomatic relations if he gave an encouraging reply to the Young Ireland deputation. Politically Lamartine was more of the school of the British Whigs of his period than of any native French school. His high character and literary abilities were held in deserved esteem by his countrymen, but as a man of affairs he was never really successful.

LANE, DENNY (1818-95).--A Cork commercial man who identified himself prominently with the Young Ireland cause in Munster. Author of "Carrigdhoun" and some other popular ballads.

LAWLESS, HON. CECIL.--Son of Lord Cloncurry. An O'Connellite Repealer and somewhat virulent opponent of the Young Irelanders who nicknamed him "Artful Cecil."

LEDRU-ROLLIN, ALEXANDRE (1808-74).--Minister of the Interior in the French Republican Government of 1848. He was connected with Ireland by marriage and strongly sympathised with its people.

LEFROY, BARON (1776-1869).--One-time member for Trinity College in the British Parliament. Subsequent to 1848 promoted Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, and although he became incapable of discharging the office he refused to resign it until he had pa.s.sed his ninetieth year.

LEYNE, MAURICE RICHARD (1820-1854).--The only member of the O'Connell family who identified himself with Young Ireland. He was an occasional contributor to the _Nation_ from 1844 to 1848 and in June of that year, on the eve of the insurrection, formally joined Young Ireland. On the revival of the _Nation_ in 1849 he joined Duffy in its editorship.

LOUIS NAPOLEON (1808-1873).--Son of the King of Holland, nephew of the great Napoleon, President of the second Republic and, after the _coup d'etat_ and the plebescite, Emperor of France. Napoleon while in exile manifested some sympathy with Ireland, and as a member of the French Republic was, like Cavaignac, willing to intervene on this country's behalf with England if the Young Irelanders had succeeded in winning initial engagements against the British forces in the field.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Louis Napoleon (1848)]

MACHALE, ARCHBISHOP (1791-1881).--"John of Tuam"--the greatest of the Irish prelates of his time. He was in partial sympathy with the Young Irelanders, but opposed to them on several educational questions.

MACNEVIN, THOMAS (1810-1848).--A leading Young Irelander and college friend of Davis. Author, in the Library of Ireland, of "The Confiscation of Ulster" and "The History of the Volunteers."

MACMa.n.u.s, TERENCE BELLEW (1823-60).--A prosperous Irish merchant in Liverpool who relinquished his prosperity to join in the insurrection.

He escaped from the British penal colonies to the United States and died there in poor circ.u.mstances.

MACLISE, DANIEL (1806-1870).--One of the first painters of his time. He refused the presidency of the British Royal Academy.

M'CARTHY, DENIS FLORENCE (1817-1882).--One of the chief poets of the _Nation_, afterwards Professor of English Literature in the Catholic University.

M'GEE, THOMAS DARCY (1825-1868).--Son of a coast-guard at Carlingford, Louth. M'Gee between the ages of seventeen and twenty won a remarkable reputation as a journalist in the United States and came back to Ireland to take up the editorship of the _Freeman's Journal_, which he relinquished to join the _Nation_ staff. After the failure in 1848 Bishop Maginn procured his escape to America disguised as a priest.

M'Gee, Devin Reilly and Doheny quarrelled in the United States, and M'Gee's political views gradually modified. He proceeded to Canada, entered politics, and became one of the first statesmen of the dominion and a member of the Government. In that position he was continually attacked by a section of the Irish as a renegade, and the bitterness of his replies inflamed feeling. In April, 1868, he was a.s.sa.s.sinated by an alleged Fenian. Local and sectional political hatreds appear, however, to have had more to do with the murder of M'Gee than his virulent denunciations of the Fenians.

MAGINN, EDWARD, D.D. (1802-1849).--Son of a farmer at Fintona, Tyrone, Dr. Maginn entered the Church and speedily became noted for his vigour of intellect and strength of character. In 1845 he was appointed coadjutor-Bishop of Derry, and created Bishop of Ortosia in the Archbishopric of Tyre. A strong advocate of Repeal and tenant-right, he gradually attorned to the Young Irelanders when he discovered that the Whig Government had bought up Conciliation Hall. In 1848 he sent Sir John Gray to Gavan Duffy offering to take the field at the head of the priests of his diocese if the insurrection were held back until the harvest had been reaped. The sudden suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, however, forced the Young Irelanders' hands two months too soon.

MANGAN, JAMES CLARENCE (1803-49).--The first of the poets of the Young Ireland period. He declined to write for any but the Irish public, and died in poverty.