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 IRISH MEMORIES
 
 THE NEW IRISH LIBRARY. 
 
 Edited by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, K.C.M.G., Assisted by 
 
 Douglas Hyde, LL.D., and R. Barry O'Brien. Small 
 
 crown 8vo, paper covers, is. each; cloth, 2s. each. 
 
 1. The Patriot Parliament of 1689, with its Statutes, 
 
 Votes and Proceedings. 
 
 2. The Bog of Stars, and other Stories of Elizabethan 
 
 Ireland. By Standish O'Grady. 
 
 3. The New Spirit of the Nation. Edited by Martin 
 
 MacDermott. 
 
 4. A Parish Providence. By E. M. Lynch. 
 
 5. The Irish Song Book. Edited by Alfred Perceval 
 
 Gr.wes. 
 
 6. The Story of Early Gaelic Literature. By Douglas 
 
 Hyde, LL.D. 
 
 7. Life of Patrick Sarsfield. By Dr. John Todhunter. 
 
 8. Owen Roe O'NeilL By J. F. Taylor, K.C 
 
 9. Swift in Ireland. By Richard Ashe King, M.A. 
 
 10. A Short Life of Thomas Davis. By Sir Charles 
 
 Gavan Duffy. 
 
 11. Bishop Doyle. By Michael MacDonagh. 
 
 12. Lays of the Red Branch. By Sir Samuel Ferguson. 
 
 LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.
 
 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 R. BARRY O'BRIEN 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE LIFE OF CHARLES STEWART PARNELL," 
 
 " LORD RUSSELL OF KILLOWEN," " THOMAS 
 
 DRUMMOND," ETC. 
 
 LONDON 
 T. FISHER UNWIN 
 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 1904
 
 [A /I rights reserved. '\
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 KING BRIAN . . . . . .1 
 
 SHANE O'NEIL ..... 22 
 
 HUGH o'neil at CLONMEL . . . '55 
 
 SARSFIELD . . . . . • ' 73 
 
 CREMONA ...... lOO 
 
 fontenoy . . . . . .114 
 
 john keogh ...... 127 
 
 wolfe tone ..... 154 
 
 CURRAN ...... 181 
 
 FIVE TIMES ARRAIGNED FOR TREASON . . 207 
 
 IRISH HISTORY AND IRISH POLITICS . . . 219 
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATION . . . 23O 
 
 iiOGJClR
 
 PLANS 
 
 CREMONA ..... Page 1 02 
 
 FONTENOY .... Facing page 117
 
 KING BRIAN 
 
 The statement may seem incredible, but is, 
 nevertheless, true ; we have more authoritative 
 information about King Brian than about 
 Sarsfield. From the materials at our com- 
 mand we can get nearer to the great 
 monarch of the eleventh century than to the 
 gallant soldier of the eighteenth. We have 
 Brian's story from one who knew him, and 
 who was familiar with the events of his life. 
 " The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill " (if 
 one who unfortunately cannot read the work 
 in the original may express an opinion on the 
 point) is, assuredly, among the most interesting 
 Irish MSS. that have come down to us. The 
 author was the secretary of King Brian, and, 
 doubtless, was either an eye-witness of many 
 of the transactions he describes, or heard of 
 them from those who spoke at first-hand. He 
 was, of course, an ardent admirer of his chief, 
 and it may be writes at times in language of 
 extravagant eulogy ; but there is no reason for 
 
 2 '
 
 2 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 doubting that the narrative substantially gives 
 a true picture of the times, and of the man. 
 It must also be borne in mind that the story 
 told by MacLiag — the name of the author — is 
 corroborated by the Norse Saga Burnt Njal. 
 Indeed, I once heard a distinguished British 
 authority say that nothing could better show 
 what a real historic personage Brian was than 
 the mention made of him, and the high tribute 
 paid to his abilities and virtues, in the Saga 
 in question. Dr. Todd, in his translation of 
 "The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," 
 relates a curious anecdote to show the re- 
 liability of MacLiag's narrative. In the 
 account given by MacLiag of the Battle of 
 Clontarf he states that the full tide in Dublin 
 Bay on the day of the battle (April 23, 1014) 
 coincided with sunrise, and that the returning 
 tide in the evening aided considerably in the 
 defeat of the enemy. To test the accuracy of 
 this statement, and, by testing it, to gauge 
 the general accuracy of the work. Dr. Todd 
 submitted the following problem to the Rev. 
 Samuel Haughton, of Trinity College, Dublin, 
 without stating the object of the inquiry : 
 " What was the hour of high water at the 
 shore of Clontarf, in Dublin Bay, on the 23rd 
 of April, 1014?" Dr. Haughton communi- 
 cated the particulars of his calculation to the 
 Royal Irish Academy, showing that the full
 
 KING BRIAN 3 
 
 tide on the morning of April 23, 1014, did 
 coincide with sunrise, as stated by MacLiag. 
 In studying the history of Brian many 
 reflections occur to one. It is well known 
 that at the period Ireland was divided into 
 four provincial kingdoms — Ulla (Ulster), 
 Mumhain (Munster), Laighin (Leinster), and 
 Connacht (Connaught). Over the provincial 
 kings there was a supreme king called the 
 Ardri, who reigned at Tara, and possessed as 
 his special domain the territory of Meath. 
 Unfortunately there was no national life ; each 
 provincial king thought only of his own pro- 
 vince. He had no country beyond it. The 
 allegiance which he paid to the Ardri was 
 merely nominal. There was no supreme 
 authority, no central government ; provincial 
 kings attacked each other ; tribe warred 
 against tribe, and the general good was made 
 subservient to local interests and local passions. 
 Brian was, so far as I know, the first man who 
 made the power of the Ardri real. He was 
 the first man who seems to have had any 
 conception of national government. He put 
 the provincial kings in their place. He made 
 his authority supreme. This is all the more 
 remarkable when we consider how imperfectly 
 the idea of national government was developed 
 at the period. There is another fact to be 
 noted. At the time — and indeed at later times
 
 4 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 — Irish chiefs rarely followed up their victories. 
 They fought a battle, won it, and then rested 
 on their laurels. It appeared as if they thought 
 that the battle was the beginning and the end 
 of the business. In this respect, as in many 
 other respects, Brian was ahead of his age. 
 He scarcely fought a battle which he did not 
 win ; he never won a battle which he did not 
 follow up ; he never defeated an enemy whom 
 he did not crush. His contemporaries, and 
 unfortunately many Irish chiefs who came after 
 him, were, in the main, warriors, and warriors 
 only. He was a warrior and a statesman. 
 
 The want of national cohesion made Ireland 
 a prey to the Norse pirates who swept down 
 upon the country in the ninth and tenth 
 centuries. The invaders were, no doubt, 
 beaten in many a pitched battle, but their 
 power upon the whole remained unbroken. 
 They settled in Waterford, Limerick, and 
 Dublin, and thence made incursions into the 
 interior, spreading ruin and havoc around. A 
 united and organised Ireland could have easily 
 reduced them to submission. But mere local 
 efforts, however gallant and however success- 
 ful (as they were eminently in the reign of 
 Malachy I., 846), must always fail to achieve 
 great national results ; and so, despite many 
 defeats and disasters, the power of the Norse- 
 men remained unbroken until Brian came to
 
 KING BRIAN 5 
 
 infuse national life into the country, and to 
 weld the people together in one grand move- 
 ment against the fierce and barbarous invaders. 
 Brian was born at Kincora in 941. Twenty- 
 three years after his birth (964) his brother, 
 Mahon, became King of Munster. The 
 Norsemen held Munster in thrall. Ivar, the 
 Dane, reigned in Limerick. Danes ruled in 
 Cork and Waterford. After many struggles, 
 Mahon was forced to take refuge in the fast- 
 nesses of Clare. Thence he issued from time 
 to time to attack the foe. But his efforts 
 were unavailing. Ultimately he made a peace 
 with Ivar, which still left the Danes supreme 
 in Munster, Brian would be no party to this 
 peace. With a faithful band of followers he 
 went into the wilds and woods, and there held 
 his ground ; falling now and again upon the 
 enemy, as occasion offered, sometimes beating 
 them and sometimes being beaten by them, 
 but always keeping his flag flying. After 
 this desultory warfare had gone on for a 
 space Brian urged Mahon to take the field 
 once more. The brothers met. Mahon said 
 it was hopeless to fight the Danes ; they 
 were invincible. But Brian did not take this 
 view. He denied that they were invincible. 
 He had fought them often, and beaten them 
 often. But even if they were invincible it 
 were better to die on the battlefield than bow
 
 6 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 beneath the yoke of the stranger. The young 
 orator prevailed. Mahon consented to call the 
 Dalcassians together — for Mahon and Brian 
 sprang from the race of Dalgas — to consider 
 the situation. In 968 the Dalcassians met in 
 council, and with one voice, declared for war. 
 They encamped at Cashel, and thence made 
 inroads into the enemies' settlements. Ivar 
 was surprised and enraged, and joined by two 
 traitors — Molloy of Desmond, and Donovan 
 of Hy Carbery — he determined to march with 
 a great army to Cashel, and to destroy the 
 Dalcassians. But Mahon — who, we may take 
 it, was inspired by Brian throughout this 
 campaign — did not await the coming of the 
 foe ; he set out to meet them half way. A 
 great battle was fought at Sulcoit (968) (a 
 place which Mr. Joyce — to whom all students 
 of Irish history are deeply indebted for his 
 admirable books — locates as near the present 
 Limerick Junction). 
 
 There is a brief description of this battle 
 eiven in " The War of the Gaedhil with the 
 Gaill," which I shall quote : — 
 
 " When the Dalcassians arrived at Sulcoit 
 the foreigners came against, and to meet 
 them, and there was a fierce, bloody, crimson, 
 violent, rough, unsparing, implacable battle 
 fought between them. They were from sun- 
 rise till mid-day striking and slaughtering each
 
 KING BRIAN 7 
 
 other. However, the foreigners were at length 
 routed, and they fled to the ditches, and to the 
 valleys, and to the solitudes, and to the great 
 sweet flowery plains." 
 
 But the victors did not give them breathing 
 time. " They were followed," continues the 
 narrative, " by (the Dalcassians) quickly and 
 rapidly throughout the great plain, who killed 
 and beheaded from that time until evening." 
 Nor did the victors pause until they reached 
 Limerick itself. The battle was continued in 
 the -streets, and did not cease until the Danish 
 force was annihilated. Then the Dalcassians 
 burned the town. The Danes took refuge in 
 Scattery Island, and in other islands in the 
 Shannon. But Brian and Mahon did not yet 
 pause. They followed up their great victory, 
 and defeated Ivar in a series of pitched battles, 
 ultimately breaking his power in Munster, and 
 driving him from the land. Then they turned 
 their arms against Donovan and Molloy, 
 chastised them, and took hostages for their 
 future behaviour. Afterwards Mahon reigned 
 for many years in peace in Munster. 
 
 But Molloy and Donovan remained traitors 
 to the end. They plotted against Mahon. 
 They kept up communication with Ivar, who 
 had fled to Wales, and who, finally, returned 
 to Ireland, taking up his quarters in Scat- 
 tery Island. In 976, Mahon, suspecting no
 
 8 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 treachery, visited Bruree, Donovan's home, on 
 the invitation of Donovan. Donovan gave 
 him up to Molloy, who was in league with 
 Ivar, and he was basely assassinated in the 
 Pass of Barnaderg. The news flew quickly to 
 Kincora, and found Brian ready for vengeance. 
 He first fell on Ivar. He sent a force to 
 Scattery Island, destroyed the Danish settle- 
 ment, and slew the Danish King. Then he 
 advanced into Hy Carbery, slew Donovan and 
 captured the traitor's stronghold. Next he 
 turned on Molloy, fought a pitched battle in 
 the Pass of Barnaderg (978) — the very spot 
 where Mahon had been murdered — routed 
 Molloy's army, and left Molloy slain by the 
 hand of Murrough, Brian's son, then a lad in 
 his teens — with 1,200 men dead upon the field. 
 He attacked the Decies of Waterford, who 
 were in close alliance with the Danes, reduced 
 them to submission, and ravaged the country 
 to the Port of Waterford itself. He subdued 
 Ossory, and forced the Gillapatricks to give 
 hostages. He marched into Leinster and 
 received homage from its King. Thus within 
 eight years (984) of the assassination of 
 Mahon, Brian was not only King of Munster, 
 but he was King of the whole southern portion 
 of Ireland. 
 
 He was a great man and a strong person- 
 ality, and he had the defects of his qualities.
 
 KING BRIAN 9 
 
 He could not brook a rival. He could not 
 rest content with the sovereignty of a 
 province ; and I think it is clear that, from 
 an early date, he contemplated the sovereignty 
 of the whole island. 
 
 We read that he sailed up the Shannon in 
 command of three hundred boats and overran 
 Meath, and that he sent a force into Connaught 
 to make his power felt in that province. It is 
 no wonder that the Ardri, Malachi II., himself 
 a famous man (who had become High King in 
 980, and who had beaten the Danes on many 
 a field), should have taken alarm at the 
 operations of the King of Munster. He 
 made an effort to enforce his authority over 
 Brian, but in vain ; and finally (in 998) he and 
 Brian met on the shores of Lough Ree and 
 agreed to divide the sovereignty of Ireland 
 between them : Malachi to be High King of 
 the North, Brian to be High King of the 
 South — an arrangement which seems to have 
 been received by the whole country with in- 
 finite joy. But peace, unhappily, was of short 
 duration. Mailmora, King of Leinster, was 
 not satisfied with the compact of Lough Ree, 
 and he joined with the Danes of Dublin in 
 promoting a revolt against the High Kings. 
 In 999 the Danes of Dublin rebelled, and 
 Mailmora joined them. Brian and his son, 
 Murrough, fiew over the Wicklow Mountains
 
 TO IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 to attack Dublin and crush the rebelHon on the 
 instant. They paused in the valley of Glen- 
 mama, where they were joined by Malachi. 
 The Danes of Dublin, under Harold, and the 
 Leinstermen, under Mailmora, hastened to 
 meet them, and a great battle was fought at 
 Glenmama which ended in the complete rout 
 of the Danes and Leinstermen, of whom, it is 
 said, four thousand were slain, including 
 Harold, the Danish leader himself Mailmora, 
 in flying from the field, concealed himself in a 
 yew-tree, but he was discovered by Murrough 
 and made a prisoner. 
 
 As usual, Brian followed up his victory. He 
 marched into Dublin and took possession of 
 the city. Sitric, the Danish King of Dublin, fled 
 to the North to seek the help of O'Neil, King 
 of Ulster. Brian sent in pursuit of him, and 
 O'Neil surrendered him to Brian's followers, 
 by w^hom he was brought back to Dublin. 
 
 Brian, having subdued his enemies, resolved 
 on a policy of peace, and bent his energies to 
 consolidate the strength of the country, and, it 
 must be added, to break the compact of Lough ^ 
 Ree, and to make himself supreme king. 
 
 It is quite clear that it was not Brian's 
 intention now, or perhaps at any time, to 
 expel the Danes from Ireland. He wished 
 to break their power, and to make them Irish 
 subjects. Neither did he wish to revolutionise
 
 KING BRIAN ii 
 
 the political institutions of the country. He 
 accepted the provincial kings and princes — 
 whether Irish or Danish — but he insisted that 
 the supreme authority of the Ardri should be 
 real. To draw the Danes into union with the 
 Irish he adopted the policy so often adopted 
 by modern kings and statesmen — the futile 
 policy of matrimonial alliances. He married 
 Gormlaith, the mother of Sitric, and the 
 sister of Mailmora (a woman who had been 
 previously married to Amloff Cuaran, the 
 father of Sitric, and who had also been 
 married, and repudiated by Malachi) and gave 
 his own daughter (by former wife) in marriage 
 to Sitric. He took Mailmora into favour, and 
 admitted Danes into his army. His last step 
 was to march into Meath, and to call upon 
 Malachi to abdicate, in order that he himself 
 might become Ardri. Malachi asked for time 
 to consider. The time was granted ; but Brian 
 meanwhile encamped at Tara. Malachi went 
 to Ulster to appeal to O'Neil to take up 
 arms against Brian ; but he appealed in vain. 
 The Kino" of Munster was too formidable an 
 antagonist even for the O'Neils to attack. 
 Malachi, having failed in his mission, returned 
 to Tara, frankly told Brian what had happened, 
 and abdicated. Brian then (1002) became 
 King of all Ireland, and Malachi sank into the 
 position of a vassal as King of Meath. The
 
 12 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 new Ardri next made a circuit throufrhout 
 Ireland, taking with him an army composed 
 of Leinstermen, Munstermen, Connaughtmen, 
 and Danes. He penetrated to the North, and 
 laid offerings on the altar of the church at 
 Armagh, and then, after a brief sojourn in 
 Eastern Ulster, he disbanded his army and 
 returned to Kincora. 
 
 Tranquillity came upon the land, and Brian 
 devoted himself to the arts of peace. In the 
 words of the contemporary authority, '* he 
 erected noble churches. He sent professors 
 and masters to teach wisdom, and knowledg- 
 ment, and to buy books beyond the sea and 
 the great ocean, because their writings and 
 their books in every church and sanctuary 
 were burnt, and thrown into the water by 
 plunderers from the beginning to the end, and 
 Brian himself gave the price of learning and 
 the price of books to every one separately who 
 went on this service. Many works also and 
 repairs were made by him. By him were 
 made bridges, causeways, and high roads. By 
 him were strengthened also the duns and fast- 
 nesses of the island, the celebrated royal ports 
 of Mumhain. He built also the fortifications 
 of many places. He continued in this way 
 prosperously, peacefully, giving banquets, 
 hospitality, just judging, wealthily, venerated, 
 chastely, and with devotion, and with law, and
 
 KING BRIAN 13 
 
 with rule among the clergy ; with progress, and 
 with valour, with honour and with renown 
 among the laity ; and fruitful, powerful, firm, 
 secure for fifteen years in the chief sovereignty 
 of Erin." 
 
 But Sitric and Mailmora were disloyal in 
 heart all the while, though it was Mailmora 
 who, for the second time, kindled the spark 
 which was to set the country again in a blaze. 
 On one occasion he was on a visit at Kincora. 
 Gormlaith, whom the Norse Saga describes as 
 " the fairest of all women, and best gifted in 
 everything that was not in her own power, but 
 it was the talk of men that she did all things 
 ill over which she had any power," was also 
 false to the King. She roused the spirit of 
 rebellion which slumbered in the heart of 
 Mailmora. She said it did not become one 
 of his race to bow to the sovereignty of Brian, 
 and encouraged him to revolt. Later on, 
 during his visit, Mailmora stood by while 
 Murrough was playing at a game of chess. 
 He suggested a move by which Murrough 
 lost the game. " You also gave advice to 
 the Danes at Glenmama," said Murrough, 
 "by which they lost the battle." " I will give 
 them advice next time," retorted Mailmora, 
 "and they will not be defeated." "Then you 
 had better have a yew-tree to receive you," 
 replied Alurrough, whose tongue was as sharp
 
 14 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 as his spear-point. Mailmora, enraged, flew 
 from the room, and was on his way to Leinster 
 before Brian had learned the cause of quarrel. 
 A messenger was despatched to bring him 
 back, but he would not return. On reaching 
 home he roused his people, stated that both he 
 and the province had been insulted, and urged 
 them to repair the wrong in battle. Sitric and 
 he ultimately joined forces, took the field, and 
 attacked Malachi, whom they defeated near 
 Swords. They then dashed into Meath and 
 plundered Malachi's territories. Brian and 
 Murrough, finding that Malachi could not hold 
 his own against the rebels, hastened to the 
 scene of action. Murrough, commanding one 
 army, marched into Leinster, destroying every- 
 thing before him, and pushing his way victori- 
 ously onward until he reached Kilmainham, 
 where he encamped. Brian, at the head of 
 another army, had marched through Ossory, 
 sweeping every enemy from his path, and not 
 resting until he joined Murrough at Kilmain- 
 ham (September, 1013). Father and son then 
 laid siege to Dublin. Sitric held his ground, 
 and Brian, whose army had run short of 
 provisions, returned to Kincora at Christmas. 
 He immediately prepared to renew hostilities 
 in the coming year. Nor was Sitric or 
 Mailmora idle. Gormlaith, whom Brian had 
 now put away, also took a prominent part in
 
 KING BRIAN 15 
 
 the contest. She urged Sitric to seek help from 
 his Norse kinsmen, and he gladly followed her 
 advice. He went to the Orkneys, and secured 
 the help of Earl Sigurd, who, however, stipu- 
 lated that the reward for his services should be 
 the Kingdom of Ireland and hand of Gormlaith, 
 a reward which Sitric quickly promised. He 
 then went to the Isle of Man and secured the 
 services of Earl Brodar, who also stipulated 
 that the Kingdom of Ireland and the hand of 
 Gormlaith should be his reward ; and Sitric 
 promised him both. Gormlaith approved of 
 everything. ** Spare nothing," she said to 
 Sitric, "to get them into thy quarrel, whatever 
 price they ask." And then a mighty host of 
 Norsemen from all quarters hastened to the 
 shores of Ireland, and Mailmora put forth all 
 his strength to help the invaders. Brian girt 
 his loins for the struggle, and resolved to risk 
 all on a single battle. On the 17th of March, 
 1014, he set out for Dublin, and encamped 
 once more at Kilmainham. He did not now 
 lose time in besieging the city. He laid waste 
 the country all round, and at length forced the 
 Danes to come forth and fight in the open. 
 
 Breaking up his camp at Kilmainham, he 
 marched to the north side of the city, and on 
 the 23rd of April, 10 14, the great battle of 
 Clontarf was fouoht. 
 
 o 
 
 The Irish army consisted of Munstermen,
 
 i6 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Connaughtmen, and the men of Meath. On 
 the Danish side were the forces of Sigurd 
 and Brodar, the Danes of DubHn, and the 
 Leinstermen. "The battle-ground," Mr. Joyce 
 tells us, " extended from about the present 
 Upper O'Connell Street to the Tolka and 
 beyond — along the shore towards Clontarf. 
 The Danes stood with their backs to the sea ; 
 the Irish on the land side facing them." 
 
 There was no manoeuvring. It was straight- 
 forward fiorhtinor all the time. Murrou^rh, with 
 the Dalcassians, led the van on the Irish side, 
 Sigurd on the Danish. Brian, who was in his 
 seventy-third year and in failing health, took no 
 part in the actual fighting, though, doubtless, his 
 counsel was sought by his gallant son, the real 
 commander on that day. Sitric witnessed the 
 struggle from the ramparts of Dublin. 
 
 From dawn to sunset the battle raged. 
 Murrough began the attack with his Dal- 
 cassian warriors, throwing himself upon the 
 forces of Sigurd and Brodar. The Norsemen 
 were cased in armour, but it afforded them 
 little protection from the battleaxes of the 
 furious Dalcassians. Yet both Norse and 
 Irish fought with desperate and equal valour. 
 At first the Norsemen drove back their 
 assailants, and Sitric said to his wife (Brian's 
 daughter), who stood by his side watching the 
 battle : " Well do the foreigners reap the field ;
 
 KING BRIAN 17 
 
 many a sheaf do they cast from them." But 
 she answered : " The result will be seen at the 
 end of the day," for she thought only of her 
 own people, Murrough, seeing that his men 
 were falling back before the Norse forces, 
 placed himself in the front of the fight, urging 
 his warriors forward. At length he came face 
 to face with Sigurd, and Sigurd did not shrink 
 from the conflict. Hand to hand both warriors 
 fought, and valiantly the retainers of each 
 rallied to their chief. But Murrouo-h with 
 one crushing blow cleft the helmet of the 
 Norse commander in twain, and with another 
 struck him lifeless to the orround. Then the 
 Dalcassians dashed madly forward, and the 
 Norsemen fled to the sea. Sitric and his wife 
 still watched the scene from the ramparts of 
 Dublin. " Methinks," she said, "that the 
 foreigners have gained their patrimony." 
 "What meanest thou, woman?" he asked. 
 " Are they not rushing to the sea, their 
 natural inheritance ? " was her answer. 
 
 And so it was. The foreigners were 
 literally driven into the sea. The rout was 
 complete; the battle was decisive. "What 
 hast thou to tell me of my men ? " Harfu the 
 Red, who had escaped from the field, was 
 asked by Earl Flosi. " They all fell there," 
 was the reply. But the victory was dearly 
 purchased. Murrough fell pursuing the flying 
 
 3
 
 i8 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 foe, but not until the traitor Mailmora was 
 numbered among the slain. Turlough (Mur- 
 rough's son), a youth of much promise, was 
 found in the tide with his hand firmly clutching 
 the hair of a dead Viking. Brian, whose 
 failing health prevented him from taking an 
 active part in the battle, remained in his tent, 
 and from time to time asked his attendant, 
 Laiten, how went the fortunes of the 
 day. 
 
 " The battalions," replied Laiten, " are mixed 
 together in deadly struggle, and I hear their 
 blows as if a vast multitude were hewing 
 down Tomar's Wood with heavy axes. I see 
 Murrough's banner standing aloft, with the 
 banners of Dalgas around it." 
 
 And again he asked how the battle fared, 
 and Laiten said, " They are now mingled so 
 that no living man could distinguish them ; and 
 they are all covered with blood and dust, so 
 that a father could scarce know his own son. 
 Many have fallen, but Murrough's banner still 
 stands, moving through the battalions." 
 
 "That is well," said the King. "As long 
 as the men of Erin see that standard they 
 will fight with courage and valour." 
 
 And again Brian asked what news from the 
 front, and Laiten again answered, " It is now 
 as if Tomar's Wood were on fire, and the 
 flames burning and the multitude hewing down
 
 KING BRIAN 19 
 
 underwood, leaving the tall trees standing. 
 For the ranks are thinned, and only a few 
 great heroes are left to maintain the fight. 
 The foreigners are now defeated, but the 
 standard of Murrough has fallen." 
 
 Brian said, " Evil are those tidings. If 
 Murrough has fallen, the valour of the men of 
 Erin is fled, and they shall never look on a 
 champion like him again." ^ 
 
 Some Norse stragglers now worked their 
 way to Brian's tent. 
 
 " Many flying parties of foreigners are around 
 us," said Laiten ; "let us hasten to the camp, 
 where we shall be in safety." 
 
 But the King said, " Retreat becomes us 
 not ; and I know that I shall not leave this 
 place alive, for Eevin of Craglea, the guardian 
 spirit of my race, came to me last night and 
 told me I should be slain this day ; and what 
 avails me — now in my old age — to survive 
 Murrough and the other champions of the 
 Dalgas ? " 
 
 The stragglers came nearer to the tent, and 
 among them was Brodar and two other Norse 
 warriors. 
 
 "I see some people approaching," said 
 Laiten. 
 
 "What manner of people are they?" asked 
 Brian. 
 
 ' See Joyce, " Short History of the Irish People."
 
 20 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 " A blue, stark-naked people," answered 
 Laiten. 
 
 " They are Danes in armour," said the King, 
 "and it's not good to thee that they come." 
 
 Then Brian, who had been resting on a 
 couch, rose and unsheathed his sword. Brodar 
 advanced, but heeded him not. But one of 
 the Norsemen said, looking at Brian, " Cing, 
 cing, it's the King ! " 
 
 " No, no ; but priest, priest," said Brodar. 
 
 *' Not at all," said the Norseman ; " it is the 
 King Brian." 
 
 Then Brodar turned and raised his battle- 
 axe. But Brian struck him with his sword, 
 inflicting a mortal wound. Brodar staggered 
 under the blow, but for a moment recovered 
 his balance, and brought his axe full on the 
 monarch's head, and both fell to the ground, 
 dead. 
 
 Thus three generations were destroyed in 
 a single day. It is sometimes asked. Why 
 did not the Irish follow up their success and 
 take Dublin ? Because Brian and Murrough, 
 and, it may be, even Turlough, were no more. 
 No one was left behind to show the skill and 
 energy which Brian and Murrough had shown 
 on many a field. Without striking another 
 blow, Malachi retired to Meath, and Donogh 
 (Brian's youngest son) marched back to Kin- 
 cora.
 
 KING BRIAN 21 
 
 Thus all the fruits of victory were not 
 gathered. The power of the Danes, which 
 had been undermined during the rule of Brian, 
 was, no doubt, destroyed at Clontarf. But 
 the strong National Government which that 
 monarch had established also came to an end. 
 The dream of Danish dominion vanished. But 
 the work of national consolidation was stopped.
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 
 
 PART I 
 
 Justice has never been done to Shane O'Neil. 
 That the English should have maligned him 
 goes without saying, for he was one of the 
 most formidable enemies they ever had in 
 Ireland. But that his own countrymen should 
 not have defended him is strange indeed. The 
 fact is we have, in the main, been disposed 
 to accept the English estimate of Shane. We 
 have been rather inclined to regard him as a 
 desperate character, a great fighter, but a man 
 possessing no real intellectual qualities. Mr. 
 Froude, summing up the English opinion, 
 describes Shane as "an adulterous, murdering 
 scoundrel " — strange words, it will be admitted, 
 from the panegyrist of Henry VIH. 
 
 Shane's matrimonial arrangements were un- 
 questionably irregular. He ran away with 
 another man's wife, which was certainly un- 
 justifiable, but he ran away with the husband
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 23 
 
 at the same time, which was at least original. 
 But more of this anon. That he was a " mur- 
 derer," Mr. Froude gives no proof whatever. 
 Of course, he refers to the death of Matthew 
 O'Neil, Shane's illegitimate brother. But there 
 is no evidence to show that Matthew was 
 "murdered." He was killed in a quarrel 
 between his people and Shane's people ; but, 
 however the matter was brought about, there 
 is no evidence to show that Shane was present, 
 or that he had anything to do with the business. 
 
 It is Mr. Froude's own hero — " Bluff King- 
 Hal" — whom the description "adulterous, mur- 
 dering scoundrel " suits to perfection. 
 
 Shane O'Neil was something more than a 
 mere fighter ; he was a man of real intel- 
 lectual force. He proved himself the equal of 
 Elizabeth's generals on the field, and of her 
 statesmen in negotiation. Nor is there 
 evidence wanting to show that the great 
 Queen herself appreciated his vigour and 
 finesse. At all events, she recognised that 
 he was a power in his own province, and 
 she put forth all her strength to crush him. 
 He hurled defiance at England at the time 
 when England was hurling defiance at Europe. 
 
 Shane came of a good stock — O'Neils upon 
 one side, Geraldines on the other ; for his 
 father. Con Bacagh, had married Alice, 
 daughter of the Earl of Kildare.
 
 24 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 From the beginning his path was strewn 
 with trouble. In 1 541-2 Con Bacagh had, 
 with other Irish chiefs, made submission to 
 Henry VIII., renouncing the tide of "The 
 O'Neil " and receiving the " Earldom of 
 Tyrone " instead. About the same time his 
 illegitimate son Matthew was made Baron of 
 Dungannon, with the succession to the earldom 
 and the territory of Tyrone. Shane, who was 
 younger than Matthew, but the eldest of the 
 legitimate children, protested against the in- 
 justice which had thus been done to him, and 
 finally persuaded his father to right the wrong. 
 Matthew was disinherited, and Shane confirmed 
 in his position. Matthew appealed to the 
 English. The English espoused his cause. 
 Con was invited to Dublin Castle to discuss 
 the subject. But once there, he was held 
 fast. Treacherously entrapped, he was made 
 a prisoner. Shane protested, and demanded 
 his father's release. The Government refused, 
 and Shane declared war. 
 
 In 1 55 1 Sir James Croft, the Lord Deputy, 
 sent an army into Ulster to crush him. The 
 English began their operations by attacking 
 Shane's allies — the Macdonnells of Antrim in 
 Rathlin Island. The Macdonnells were vic- 
 torious, and Croft's army was annihilated. In 
 1552 another army was sent to the North ; it 
 was routed by Shane's allies near Belfast.
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 25 
 
 Matthew O'Neil advanced to the help of the 
 English ; Shane suddenly fell upon him, and 
 scattered his forces to the winds. Yet a third 
 attempt was made ; it also ended in failure. 
 Negotiations were then opened with Shane, 
 but nothing came of them. " We found 
 nothing in Shane," said the English Ambas- 
 sadors, "but pride and stubbornness." At 
 length Croft retired from the combat, released 
 Con Bacagh, and left Shane master of the 
 situation. 
 
 For about six years there was peace between 
 Shane and the English. Con Bacagh had been 
 again invited to Dublin Castle, where he re- 
 mained until his death in 1559. In the same 
 year Matthew O'Neil had been killed in an 
 encounter between Shane's people and his own 
 — killed in battle, Shane said. 
 
 Shane now, repudiating the English title of 
 " Earl of Tyrone," adopted the old Irish title of 
 " The O'Neil," and was elected Chief of his 
 Clan. The English Government took alarm. 
 Shane had again flaunted them. In defiance 
 of English law, according to which the eldest 
 son of Matthew was now Baron of Dungannon, 
 he had himself, according to Irish law, been 
 elected Chief of the Clan. It was clear 
 that he meant to hold his own, and to with- 
 stand the English to the face. In these 
 circumstances the Lord Justice, Sir Henry
 
 26 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Sidney, resolved to bring the recalcitrant 
 Ulster Chief to book. He marched with 
 an army to Dundalk, and "summoned" Shane 
 to appear before him. Shane, with that 
 touch of humour which is so delightful in his 
 despatches, calmly ignored the "summons," but 
 invited Sidney to his house, where there was 
 to be an interesting function in a few days, viz., 
 a christening. In fact, Shane said he would 
 be delighted if the Lord Justice would stand 
 sponsor for the young O'Neil. Sidney was, 
 perhaps, a humorist, and might have been 
 tickled by the invitation, or with Croft's ex- 
 ample before him he might have thought it 
 wiser, on the whole, to treat Shane in a con- 
 ciliatory spirit. At all events, he accepted the 
 invitation, and visited Shane's castle. 
 
 Sidney seems to have been well pleased with 
 his visit, and was apparently captured by this 
 "adulterous, murdering scoundrel." He and 
 Shane discussed the whole situation amicably. 
 Shane said, in effect, that Matthew O'Neil 
 pere was a bastard. That being so, his eldest 
 son could not inherit. Shane, on the other 
 hand, was admittedly the legitimate son, and 
 had been elected, according to Irish law. Chief 
 of the Clan. This was Shane's case. Doubt- 
 less, Sidney reminded Shane, as Elizabeth 
 herself reminded him subsequently, that Con 
 Bacagh had acknowledged Matthew ; and
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 27 
 
 Shane, in all probability, said to Sidney, as 
 he subsequently said to Elizabeth, with charac- 
 teristic humour, that his father was " too good 
 a gentleman to deny any child that was sworn 
 to him." In the end Sidney seems to have 
 been quite won over by Shane, and promised 
 to represent his case in a favourable light to 
 the Queen. Sidney was a peaceful man ; he 
 also appreciated Shane's abilities. 
 
 Every one is familiar with Henry VII. 's 
 answer to those who told him that all Ireland 
 could not govern the Earl of Kildare. " Then," 
 said the King, " let the Earl of Kildare govern 
 all Ireland," 
 
 Sidney probably at that time thought that 
 the best solution of the Ulster difficulty would 
 be to let Shane rule Ulster, provided he could 
 be got to acknowledge Elizabeth as his Sove- 
 reign — a concession Shane was ready enough 
 to make, for it in reality meant little to him. 
 So long as he could rule Ulster he did not 
 care what Elizabeth called herself, and to rule 
 Ulster he was resolved. 
 
 By the end of 1559 Sidney was, however, 
 recalled, and the Earl of Sussex became Lord 
 Lieutenant. Sussex despised the methods of 
 Sidney. He had methods of his own — the 
 arm of the soldier, the dagger or poisoned cup 
 of the assassin. He tried all, and he failed 
 in all. At the outset, however, Elizabeth,
 
 28 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 whether through policy, through fear, or 
 merely as a blind (as Mr. Joyce seems to 
 think) advised peace. Shane was in posses- 
 sion, she said ; he was legitimate ; let him be. 
 Then an interesting correspondence passed. 
 
 It is strange that Shane, unaccustomed to 
 Courts (as he himself tells us he was), yet knew 
 how to write like a courtier. Of course, he 
 had never seen Elizabeth, and yet he played 
 on her foibles as if he knew every turn of 
 her mind. He flattered, he cajoled, was sub- 
 missive, firm, always most respectful and 
 deferential ; but ever driving his points irre- 
 sistibly home. It was an age of dishonest 
 diplomacy. Perhaps every age is an age of 
 dishonest diplomacy. Shane was, at all events, 
 a master of the art. When I say that he 
 was a match for Cecil and Bacon with their 
 own weapons, I shall, perhaps, have said all 
 that is necessary to give an accurate idea of 
 the diplomatic skill of Shane O'Neil. 
 
 Elizabeth summoned him to London to 
 justify the position he had taken up. In 
 1560 he replied to this "summons," and the 
 letter is a good specimen of his epistolary style. 
 I shall take a single paragraph. He begins 
 with deference, and, it may be, with veiled 
 sarcasm, humouring the while the vanity of 
 her Majesty. He says : —
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 29 
 
 "And now that I am going over to see you, 
 I hope you will consider that I am but rude 
 and uncivil, and do not know my duty to your 
 Highness, nor yet your Majesty's laws, but am 
 brought up in wildness far from all civility." 
 He then proceeds more boldly, revealing the 
 true character of "Shane the Proud." "Yet 
 have I a good will to the commonwealth of my 
 country ; and please your Majesty to send over 
 two Commissioners that you can trust that will 
 take no bribes nor otherwise be imposed upon, 
 to observe what I have done to improve the 
 country, and to hear what my accusers have 
 to say." Having boldly thrown down this 
 challenge, he adds with defiance : " Then let 
 them go into the Pale and hear what the 
 people say of your soldiers, with their horses, 
 and their dogs, and their concubines. Within 
 this year and a half three hundred farmers are 
 come from the English Pale to live in my 
 country, where they can be safe." 
 
 This single paragraph marks the character 
 and the abilities of Shane. It is a despatch 
 written with the spirit of a ruler of men. 
 Courteous, skilful, dignified, bold ; challeng- 
 ing inquiry, exposing the English methods 
 of bribery and falsehood ; denouncing the 
 Government of the Pale. 
 
 " Within this year and a half three hundred 
 farmers are come from the English Pale to live
 
 :^o IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 in my country, where they can be safe." This 
 is not the language of a vassal. It is the 
 language of one Sovereign conveying rebuke 
 to another in courtly and dignified phraseology. 
 
 Nor did Shane write without warrant. Sid- 
 ney had visited Shane's country, and he re- 
 ported that Tyrone was so " well inhabited 
 as no Irish county in the realm was like it." 
 Campion, a contemporary authority, wrote : — 
 
 " (O'Neil) ordered the North so properly 
 that if any subject could approve the loss of 
 money or goods within the precinct he would 
 assuredly either force the robber to restitution, 
 or at his own cost redeeme the harme to the 
 loser's contentation." 
 
 And Campion adds : — 
 
 ** Sitting at meals, before he put one morselle 
 into his mouth, he used to slice a portion above 
 the dayly almes, and send it to some beggar 
 at his gate, saying it was meete to serve Christ 
 first." 
 
 Shane having challenged Elizabeth to send 
 Commissioners to his country, and having ex- 
 posed her own method of government in the 
 Pale, states, as a condition precedent to his 
 visit to England, that he will need an advance 
 of ;^3,ooo English money " to pay my expenses 
 in going over to you, and when I come back 
 I will pay your deputy three thousand pounds 
 Irish, such as you are pleased to have current
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 31 
 
 here ; " and he, adopting the role of courtier 
 once more, ends by adding : " Also I will ask 
 your Majesty to marry me to some gentle- 
 woman of noble birth, meet for my vocation." 
 
 While Elizabeth corresponded with Shane in 
 a friendly spirit, she was really contemplating 
 his destruction. Mr. Froude does not blink 
 the fact. He says : — 
 
 " For Shane the meaning of his summons 
 to England was merely to detain him there 
 ' with gentle talk ' till Sussex could return to 
 his command and the English army be rein- 
 forced. Preparations were made to send 
 men and money in such large quantities that 
 rebellion could have no chance ; and so careful 
 was the secrecy which was observed to prevent 
 Shane from taking alarm that a detachment of 
 troops sent from Portsmouth sailed with sealed 
 orders, and neither men nor officers knew that 
 Ireland was their destination till they had 
 rounded Land's End." 
 
 It was doubtless hoped that while the fleet 
 was on its way to Ireland, Shane would be on 
 his way to England, and that thus Tyrone, in 
 the absence of its Chief, would be at the mercy 
 of Sussex's soldiers. But either Shane was, 
 in some unaccountable manner, put upon his 
 guard, or the natural shrewdness of the man 
 kept him out of danger. At all events he did 
 not move. He was expected daily in Dublin
 
 32 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 to start on his journey to London, but he 
 constantly gave some excuse. "At one time 
 his dress was not ready, at another he had no 
 money, and pressed to have his loan of three 
 thousand sent to him. He was polite ; he was 
 courteous ; he was friendly ; but he stopped in 
 1 yrone. 
 
 Meanwhile Sussex had returned to his com- 
 mand, and he laid a deep scheme for the 
 destruction of Shane. He resolved to raise 
 up the rival Princes of Ulster against the 
 Chief of Tyrone, and he employed the familiar 
 methods of bribery and corruption. O'Reilly 
 of Brefney was made an Earl. O'Donnell of 
 Tyrconnell was promised an Earldom. Means 
 were used to draw away the Scots from their 
 alliance with O'Neil. Then a grand combined 
 attack was to be made upon the arch-enemy. 
 O'Donnell and O'Reilly were to march on 
 Tyrone from the West, the Scots were to fall 
 upon the "rebels" from the North and East, 
 while Sussex would advance from the South to 
 give him the coup de grace. It was a well-laid 
 scheme. But vain are the schemes of "mice 
 and men." The gods smiled on Shane. Mars 
 fought upon his side, and even Cupid flew to 
 his assistance. 
 
 O'Donnell was married to the sister of the 
 Earl of Argyle, popularly called the "Countess 
 of Argyle," a woman who has been described
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 33 
 
 as " not unlearned in Latin," speaking French 
 and Italian ; and "counted sober, wise, and no 
 less subtle." It was Sussex' calculation that 
 with O'Donnell, representing a powerful Irish 
 clan, and the Countess of Argyle representing 
 the Scots, as his allies, the way for the de- 
 struction of Shane would be made easy. But 
 Sussex counted without his host. The Countess 
 of Argyle loved Shane O'Neil ; and for aught 
 we know to the contrary, though we have 
 no evidence on the point, may have revealed 
 Sussex' plot to him. In any case, Shane was 
 forearmed. Suddenly he dashed into O'Reilly's 
 country and ravaged it with fire and sword. 
 Then he swooped down upon O'Donnell and 
 carried him and the Countess off Fifteen 
 hundred Scots surrounded the lady, but not 
 one of them raised a hand against Shane. It 
 was a master stroke. With O'Donnell in his 
 hands, the Clan of O'Donnell was paralysed. 
 With the Countess in his hands, the Scots' 
 alliance was made safer than ever. Sussex 
 accepted defeat, and did not move a man out 
 of the Pale to molest the invincible Chief of 
 Tyrone. 
 
 Shane should be painted with his scars. It 
 must be confessed that his domestic arrange- 
 ments were highly unsatisfactory. He was a 
 married man, yet he ran away with O'Donnell's 
 wife, and asked Elizabeth to find him "some 
 
 4
 
 34 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 noble English lady, meet for my vocation " — 
 which, let us hope, was a diplomatic joke. 
 Shane was no saint, and his transgressions — 
 were Elizabeth aware of them they must have 
 faintly recalled the memory of her respected 
 father — cannot be concealed or condoned. All 
 that can be urged in extenuation — if anything 
 can be urged — is, as Mr. Richie reminds us, 
 that his age was the age of Henry VIII. of 
 England and of Henry IV. of France. After 
 the failure of Sussex' plans, Shane was again 
 urged to pay his long-promised visit to 
 Elizabeth. " We still treated with Shane," 
 wrote Sussex, "for his going to your Majesty, 
 making him great offers if he would go 
 quietly." 
 
 But Shane was not yet ready "to go." First, 
 his terms had not been granted. He had not 
 received the three thousand pounds, nor a 
 penny of it. Next, he had not received, as 
 he demanded, a safe conduct "there and back." 
 
 Sussex now resolved to try force once more. 
 He marched with a powerful army to the 
 North, entered Armagh, seized the Cathedral 
 and fortified it. Making this his base, he 
 prepared to invade Tyrone. 
 
 A thousand men were sent forward to sweep 
 the country clear of cattle and supplies. They 
 encountered no opposition, and were returning 
 to Armagh rich with spoil, when suddenly an
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 35 
 
 Irish army, inferior in numbers, broke upon 
 the view, and with the cries " Laundarg Abo ! " 
 ("Strike for O'Neil") dashed into their midst. 
 The EngUsh were panic-stricken. The cavalry, 
 in confusion, rode down the infantry, while 
 Shane, at the head of his troopers, cut 
 the infantry to pieces. The English fled, 
 and Shane stood once more upon the field 
 triumphant. Sussex himself has described the 
 battle : " Never before durst Scot or Irish look 
 on Englishmen in plain or wood since I was 
 here ; and now Shane in a plain three miles 
 away from any wood, and where I would have 
 asked of God to have had him, hath with a 
 hundred and twenty horse, and a few Scots and 
 galloglasses, scarce half in number, charged 
 our whole army, . , . and was like in one hour 
 to have left not one man of that army alive, 
 and after that to have taken me and the rest 
 at Armagh." 
 
 Beaten in battle and in negotiation, Sussex 
 tried other methods. He employed an agent 
 to assassinate Shane. He tells the story him- 
 self without a blush — tells it to Elizabeth, who 
 apparently read it also without a blush : 
 
 " August 24, 1 56 1. 
 
 ** May it please your Highness, 
 
 " After conference with Shane O'Neil's 
 seneschal I entered into talk with Neil Grey ; 
 and perceiving by him that he had little hope
 
 36 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 of Shane's conformity in anything, and that he 
 (Neil Grey) therefore desired that he might be 
 received to serve your Highness, for that he 
 would no longer abide with (Shane) and that if 
 I would promise to receive him to your service, 
 he would do anything that I would command 
 him. I swore him upon the Bible to keep the 
 secret, that I should say unto him, and assured 
 him if it were ever known during the time I had 
 the Government there, that, besides the breach 
 of his oath, it should cost him his life. I used 
 long circumstance in persuading him to serve 
 you to benefit his country, and to procure 
 assurance of living to him and to his for ever 
 by doing of that which he might easily do. 
 He promised to do what I would. In fine, I 
 broke with him to kill Shane ; and bound 
 myself by my oath to see him have a hundred 
 marks of land by the year to him and to his 
 heirs for his reward. God send your Highness 
 a orood end." 
 
 Whether Neil Grey was humbugging Sussex, 
 or whether his courage failed him at the 
 sticking point, nothing came of what Mr. 
 Froude mildly describes as this "undesirable " 
 proposal. 
 
 "Elizabeth's answer — if she sent any 
 answer," says the English historian, "is not 
 discoverable. It is most sadly certain, however, 
 that Sussex was continued in office ; and inas-
 
 SHANE O'NEIL zi 
 
 much as it will be seen that he repeated the 
 experiment a few months later, his letter could 
 not have been received with any marked con- 
 demnation." 
 
 The assassination plot having failed, Shane, 
 with amusing irony, was once more urged to 
 hasten his departure to England to confer with 
 her " Highness." His cousin, the Earl of Kil- 
 dare, was sent to Dundalk to confer with Shane, 
 for Shane trusted Kildare. They met, and Shane 
 again set out his terms : — (i) A loan of three 
 thousand pounds ; (2) a safe conduct there and 
 back ; (3) that it should be borne in mind that 
 he came to England as a victorious enemy to 
 be conciliated ; (4) that the Earls of Ormond, 
 Desmond, and Kildare should receive him in 
 state at Dundalk, and escort him to Dublin ; 
 (5) that Kildare should accompany him to 
 England ; (6) that a guard of galloglasses should 
 attend him ; and (7) that Armagh Cathedral 
 should be evacuated by the English. These 
 terms were discussed in the English Privy 
 Council. The propriety of acceding to all of them 
 was advocated, Cecil treacherously urging "that 
 in Shane's absence from Ireland somethino^ mioht 
 be cavilled ag^ainst him or his for non-observinof 
 the covenants on his side ; and so the pact 
 being infringed, the matter might be used as 
 should be thouo^ht fit." Sussex was in favour 
 of agreeing nominally to the evacuation of
 
 38 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 the Cathedral. He wrote to Elizabeth that 
 "the Earl of Kildare was put as surety for the 
 fetching away the soldiers now stationed at 
 Armagh; but," added this noble trickster, "no 
 word has been inserted forbidding others to be 
 at any time brought thither." 
 
 Elizabeth herself, however, seems to have 
 interposed, and to have agreed to all Shane's 
 terms, except the evacuation of Armagh Cathe- 
 dral, When the decision of the Queen was 
 conveyed to Shane, he replied that, although 
 for "the Earl of Sussex he would not modify 
 one iota of his agreement," yet to please her 
 Highness he would waive the stipulation about 
 the evacuation of the Cathedral. And thus, 
 at length, it was settled ; and on the 2nd of 
 January, 1562, Shane, accompanied by Kildare 
 and a guard of galloglasses, sailed for England. 
 
 Shane was received in London by Cecil and 
 Bacon at the Lord Keeper's house. They 
 censured him for his high crimes and mis- 
 demeanours. Shane listened contemptuously 
 and then asked for the balance of the three 
 thousand pounds (he had received a thousand 
 before leaving Dublin) promised to him. They 
 gave him another thousand, and spoke of his 
 late rebellion. Shane answered that two 
 thousand pounds was a poor present from so 
 great a Queen. They expressed the hope that 
 he would be a better subject in future. He
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 39 
 
 asked for the remaining thousand pounds due 
 to him. 
 
 At length it was arranged that he should 
 make his " submission " to the Queen in the 
 presence of the Council, the peers, the bishops, 
 and the foreign Ambassadors, and this per- 
 formance was gone through on the 6th of 
 January. Mr. Froude, basing his account on 
 " Camden," describes the scene : — 
 
 " O'Neil stalked in, his saffron mantle sweep- 
 ing round and round him, his hair curling on 
 his back and clipped short below the eyes 
 which gleamed from under it with a grey 
 lustre. . . . Behind him followed his g-allo- 
 glasses, bare-headed and fair- haired, with 
 sheets of mail which reached their knees, a 
 wolfskin flung across their shoulders, and 
 short, broad battleaxes in their hands." The 
 "submission" made, the "business" of the visit 
 was next taken in hand. Shane stated his 
 terms. He asked to be acknowledged Chief 
 of his Clan, Lord of Tyrone, and, under the 
 suzerainty of Elizabeth, ruler of Ulster. These 
 were high terms, but Shane would not abate 
 them one jot. Weeks and months passed, and 
 no decision was arrived at. The terms were 
 not granted; they were not refused. At length 
 Shane grew weary and said he must return to 
 his own country. The English Ministers used 
 every device to detain him. They said that
 
 40 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 no decision could be arrived at until the young 
 Baron of Dungannon — the son of Matthew the 
 Bastard — had appeared before the Queen to 
 state his case. An order (which Shane saw) 
 was sent to Ireland summoning the young 
 Baron to England. But a private letter (which 
 Shane did not see) was sent at the same time 
 to prevent the Baron from coming. Weeks 
 passed, and, of course, the young Baron did 
 not come. Shane declined to remain any 
 longer, and demanded his safe conduct. The 
 Ministers refused to give it. Shane reminded 
 them that it had been promised to him. They 
 replied : " Yes ; that a safe conduct had been 
 promised, but no time was specified for his 
 return." Shane saw at a glance that he had 
 been for once outwitted. But he was equal to 
 the occasion. Brushing Cecil and Bacon aside, 
 he appealed directly to Elizabeth. He wrote 
 in his usual style. He flattered ; he cajoled ; 
 he said she was his sole hope, " having no 
 refuge nor succour to flee unto but only her 
 Majesty." His prolonged absence was en- 
 dangering the peace of his province, so that 
 in Elizabeth's own interests it was vital that he 
 should return immediately. Still he was her 
 slave, and if she wished him to stay he would 
 stay. But the peril would be great. He 
 besought her Majesty again to get him an 
 English wife, "such as he and her Majesty
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 41 
 
 might agree on." "He loved sport," he said, 
 " and would like to learn to ride after the 
 English fashion, to run at the tilt, to hawk, to 
 shoot, and use such other good exercises." 
 But Elizabeth was as inexorable as her 
 Ministers. She w^ould not let Shane go. 
 Then came the news that Ulster was in a 
 blaze, and that the young Baron of Dungannon 
 had been killed in a skirmish by Turlough 
 Lynnagh O'Neil. A Cabinet Council was 
 hastily summoned, and it was decided not 
 only to let Shane go, but to grant him almost 
 all his terms. He was to take an oath of 
 allegiance to Elizabeth at Dublin Castle, and 
 he was not to wage war without the sanction of 
 the Viceroy ; or make alliances ; but, for the 
 rest he was acknowledged Chief of Tyrone and 
 Ruler of Ulster ; and so Shane returned to 
 Ireland more triumphant than ever. 
 
 Sussex was ill-pleased with the terms, yet 
 he thouoht that there was one clause in the 
 agreement which would enable him to lay the 
 " rebel " by the heels. By the agreement, 
 Shane was bound to visit Dublin to take the 
 oath of allegiance before the Deputy. Sussex 
 sent him a " summons " to come, with the 
 intention (as Sussex informed Elizabeth) of 
 making him a prisoner. But Shane declined 
 the invitation. Some time or other, he said, 
 substantially, he would come, but not for the
 
 42 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 present. When Shane had asked for his 
 safe conduct in England, he was told that 
 no particular time was specified for his 
 return. As the Queen's Ministers had then 
 dealt with him, he now dealt in effect with the 
 Lord Deputy. No particular time had been 
 specified for his visit to take the oath of 
 allegiance, and the state of his province 
 made his absence undesirable for the present. 
 Sussex tried another ruse. Shane had asked 
 Elizabeth to get him an English wife ; Sussex 
 had a sister, and the Lord Deputy wrote to 
 Shane saying that if he would visit Dublin 
 " he could see and speak with her, and if he 
 liked her and she liked him, they should both 
 have (Sussex') good will." But Shane did 
 not stir. "He had advertisement out of the 
 Pale," wrote the unconscionable Sussex to 
 Elizabeth, " that the lady was brought over 
 only to entrap him, and if he came to the 
 Deputy he should never return." 
 
 This trick having failed, Sussex again wrote 
 to Elizabeth, begging her to allow him to 
 march once more against Shane, saying that 
 if the Chief of Tyrone was not crushed Ireland 
 would be lost to the English Crown. Elizabeth 
 consented, and Sussex set out for Ulster in 
 April, 1563. Sussex' diary of this campaign 
 is highly diverting : — 
 
 " April 6. — The army arrives at Armagh.
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 43 
 
 " April 8. — We return to Newry to bring up 
 stores and ammunition which had been left 
 behind. 
 
 "April II. — We again advance to Armagh, 
 where we remain waiting for the arrival of 
 galloglasses and Kerne from the Pale. 
 
 ** April 15. — The galloglasses not coming, 
 we go upon Shane's cattle, of which we take 
 enough to serve us ; we should have taken 
 more if we had had galloglasses. 
 
 " April 16. — We return to Armagh. 
 
 "April 17, 18, 19. — We wait for the gallo- 
 glasses. 
 
 " April 21. — We survey the Trouagh Moun- 
 tains, said to be the strongest place in Ireland. 
 
 "April 22. — We return to Armagh. 
 
 " April 23. — Divine service." 
 
 This superb scoundrel, who tried twice to 
 assassinate Shane, did not forget to say his 
 prayers. But neither his prayers, his assas- 
 sination plots, nor his cattle raids could destroy 
 the chief; and, having waited for the gallo- 
 glasses that did not come, and for the supplies 
 which they were to bring, and being now 
 wholly without resources — Shane in the end 
 had apparently starved him out — he returned 
 to Dublin discomfited and disgusted. "It is 
 but a Sisyphus labour," he wrote to Elizabeth, 
 "to expel Shane." 
 
 The agreement of London had made Shane
 
 44 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 supreme ruler of Ulster. He was acting on 
 that agreement. Hence his offence. No 
 doubt he had refused to visit Dublin to take 
 the oath of allegiance. But we now know that 
 had he gone to Dublin he would never have 
 returned to Tyrone. He ruled his province 
 strongly, and curbed disaffected chiefs. In 
 fact, he defined his position frankly and im- 
 periously to the English Commissioners who 
 were sent to confer with him. He said : " I 
 care not to be an earl unless I am better and 
 higher than an earl, for I am in blood and 
 power better than the best of them ; and I will 
 give place to none but my cousin of Kildare, 
 for that he is of my house. For the Queen, 
 I confess she is my sovereign, but I never 
 made peace with her but by her own seeking. 
 Whom am I to trust? When I came to the 
 Earl of Sussex (on his way to London) on safe 
 conduct, he offered me the courtesy of a hand 
 lock. When I was with the Queen she said to 
 me herself that I had, it was true, safe conduct 
 to come and go, but it was not said when I 
 might go ; and they kept me there till I had 
 agreed to things so far against my honour and 
 people [meaning the clauses compelling him to 
 take the oath of alleo^iance in Dublin, and not 
 to waoe war, nor to enter into alliances without 
 the consent of the Deputy] that I would never 
 perform them while I live. My ancestors were
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 45 
 
 Kings of Ulster, and Ulster is mine, and shall 
 be mine, O'Donnell shall never come into his 
 country, nor Bagenal into Newry, nor Kildare 
 into Dundrum or Lecale. They are now mine. 
 With this sword I won them, and with this 
 sword I will keep them." 
 
 Elizabeth had now grown weary of the 
 constant struggle with Shane, and she gladly 
 accepted terms of peace proposed by Sir 
 Thomas Cusak, a member of the Irish Privy 
 Council. Sussex was thrown over. The 
 clause in the London agreement compelling 
 Shane to visit Dublin to take the oath of 
 allegiance was abrogated, and his demand for 
 the evacuation of Armagh Cathedral was 
 granted. The new peace was signed at Ben- 
 burb in 1563, and it declared, once and for all, 
 that O'Neil "was to have the pre-eminence, 
 jurisdiction, and dominion which his prede- 
 cessors had over all who were accustomed to 
 pay service to his predecessors." 
 
 Shane's victory was complete. He had 
 triumphed all along the line, baffling the states- 
 men of Elizabeth, defeating her generals, 
 humbling herself. Monarch of Ulster, he had 
 now reached the zenith of his career ; and there 
 I shall leave him, in all his glory, reserving for 
 another chapter the story of his downfall and 
 death.
 
 46 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 PART II 
 
 We left Shane on the highest pinnacle of 
 fame. The Treaty of Bcnburb was his greatest 
 triumph. Shortly after it had been signed — 
 "as a first evidence," says Mr. Froude, "of 
 returning cordiality " — a present of wine was 
 sent from Dublin to Shane. The present was 
 accepted. The wine was drunk. Shane and 
 half his household were brought to death's 
 door. The Dublin offering was a poisoned cup. 
 Who was the criminal 1 I prefer to let the hos- 
 tile historian, Mr. Froude, answer this question. 
 
 "The guilt could not be fixed on Sussex. 
 The crime was traced to an English resident 
 in Dublin named Smith, and if Sussex had 
 been the instigator, his instrument was too 
 faithful to betray him. Yet, after the fatal 
 letter in which the Earl had revealed to 
 Elizabeth his own personal endeavours to 
 procure O'Neil's murder, the suspicion cannot 
 but cling to him that the second attempt was 
 not made without his connivance. Nor can 
 Elizabeth herself be acquitted of responsibility. 
 She professed the loudest indignation, but she 
 ventured no allusion to his previous communi- 
 cation with her, and no hint transpires of any 
 previous displeasure when the proposal had 
 been made openly to herself."
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 47 
 
 Shane complained bitterly to Sir Thomas 
 Cusak of this last act of treachery, and Cusak 
 told the story to the Queen. As Mr. Froude 
 says, she "professed the loudest indignation." 
 She wrote to Sussex saying "how much it 
 grieveth us to think that any such horrible 
 attempt should be used." But, to quote Mr. 
 Froude again : — 
 
 " It is in human nature to feel deeper in- 
 dio-nation at a crime which has been detected 
 
 o 
 
 and exposed than at guilt equally great of 
 which the knowledge is confined to the few 
 who might profit by it. Yet after the repeated 
 acts of treachery which had been at least 
 meditated towards Shane with Elizabeth's 
 knowledge, she was scarcely justified in as- 
 suming a tone of such innocent anger ; . . . 
 and it is not to be forgotten that Lord Sussex, 
 who has left under his own hand the evidence 
 of his own baseness, continued a trusted and 
 favoured councillor of Elizabeth." 
 
 An inquiry was ordered into the circum- 
 stances under which the wine had been sent. 
 Smith confessed his guilt, and said that no one 
 was responsible but himself He was sent to 
 prison for a few months, and then let free. 
 Shane showed no disposition to have Smith 
 punished. He wished to get at the man 
 whom he believed to be the real culprit — the 
 " murdering scoundrel " (to adopt the language
 
 48 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 of Mr. Froude once more), who represented 
 English authority in the island. Finding that 
 Sussex was beyond his reach, he was indif- 
 ferent about the fate of the creature who was 
 but Sussex' instrument. 
 
 And now the melancholy part of this story 
 of the career of Shane O'Neil has to be told. 
 
 Shane, it is scarcely necessary to say, had 
 no faith in the English. He did not believe 
 in their treaties ; he did not believe in their 
 promises. "Whom am I to trust?" he had 
 asked. He knew full well that he could only 
 trust his own right hand — the strong hand of 
 the O'Neils. 
 
 Despite all treaties, despite all promises, 
 despite all show of friendliness, he had ample 
 proof that the English meant his destruction if 
 they could only see their way to bring it about. 
 
 Who were to be the masters in Ireland.'* 
 English or Irish.'* That was the question as 
 Shane now saw it. And he knew that the 
 Irish could only be masters when the English 
 were driven out ; and to drive them out became 
 the ambition of his life. 
 
 Like Brian, he too was inspired by the idea 
 of nationality. He knew that the English 
 could only be beaten by a united Ireland, and 
 that a united Ireland could only be made by 
 the establishment of a strong Irish central
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 49 
 
 Government. Brian had made princes and 
 chiefs subordinate to himself; because there 
 must be a supreme authority if Hfe is to be 
 given to a State, and this was the theory of 
 the old Irish Constitution, for, according to 
 that Constitution, the provincial kings were 
 subject to the Ardri. As Brian thought and 
 acted, Shane thought and acted. Shane's 
 sphere of influence was Ulster. He did in 
 Ulster what Brian had done all over Ireland. 
 
 " My ancestors were Kings of Ulster," he 
 said, " and Ulster is mine, and shall be mine." 
 And be it remembered that while Ulster was 
 Shane O'Neil's it was well ruled. Says Mr. 
 Joyce : " Sidney when he went North v/as 
 surprised at the prosperous look of the country, 
 and said ' Tyrone was so well inhabited as no 
 Irish county in the realm was like it.' " 
 " O'Neil," wrote Sidney, "is at present (1566) 
 the only strong and rich man in Ireland, and 
 he is the dangerousest man." As years passed 
 his political horizon was enlarged, and, having 
 bent Ulster to his pleasure, there can be little 
 doubt that he meant to make himself King of 
 Ireland, for "his ancestors were kings of Ire- 
 land, too." A united Ireland, under Shane 
 O'Neil, would have swept the English into 
 the sea. 
 
 Shane knew it, and the English knew it. 
 "The time is come," he wrote to the King of 
 
 5
 
 50 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 France in 1566, "when we all are confederates 
 in a common bond to drive the invaders from 
 our shores, and we now beseech your Majesty 
 to send us six thousand armed men. If you 
 will grant our request there will be soon no 
 Englishmen left alive among us." In the same 
 year he wrote to John of Desmond : " Now 
 the time or never to set upon the enemies of 
 Ireland. If you fail, or turn against your 
 country, God will avenge it on you." 
 
 What Shane knew, Sidney, who had been 
 sent back to Ireland to replace Sussex in 1565, 
 also knew. 
 
 " Ireland," he wrote to Cecil, " would be no 
 small loss to the English Crown, and it was 
 never so like to be lost as now. O'Neil has 
 already all Ulster, and if the French were so 
 eager about Calais, think what the Irish are to 
 recover their whole island." 
 
 Had all Ireland united under Shane, the 
 "invaders " would have been "driven from our 
 shores." Had the chiefs of the North and the 
 Norman barons of the South — the O'Donnells 
 the O'Reillys, the Maguires, the Desmonds, 
 and the Kildares — rallied to his standard, the 
 power of England would unquestionably have 
 been broken. But unhappily there was no 
 national cohesion among them. None of them 
 possessed any national feeling in the sense in 
 which Brian had possessed it, in the sense in
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 51 
 
 which Shane possessed it. Each chief and 
 baron thought only of being the ruler of his 
 own territory ; and there were occasions when 
 each was, unfortunately, willing to combine 
 with the English to secure that end. They 
 did not love England ; far from it. But none 
 of them saw, as Shane ultimately came to see, 
 that, with the English supreme in any part of 
 the island, the independence of Celtic chief 
 and Norman baron would, sooner or later, 
 come to an end. For the O'Donnells of that 
 day — in the next generation they nobly re- 
 trieved their treason to Shane — it is question- 
 able if Ireland had any existence outside 
 Tyrconnell. They did not then recognise, as 
 Shane recognised, that the question of the hour 
 was, who should possess Ireland — the Irish or 
 the strangers? It was the policy of Brian to 
 destroy the dominion of the foreigner ; that was 
 the policy of Shane too. Both rulers were 
 statesmen. Both saw that the first step towards 
 the building of the nation was the destruction 
 of the power of the "foreign invader." Both 
 saw that the power of the " foreign invader " 
 could not be destroyed until the Irish people 
 were consolidated under the central sway of an 
 Irish chief The clan system was fatal to the 
 growth of nationality. Brian knew this, and 
 he practically destroyed the clan system in his 
 day. It revived with full vigour on his death.
 
 52 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Shane would have destroyed the clan system 
 too, but he was not strong enough, and Ireland 
 suffered in consequence. The clan system was 
 ultimately destroyed by the foreigners them- 
 selves, and the steady growth of Irish nationality 
 may be traced to that event. Shane, in his 
 day, played his part with foresight and skill. 
 In the end fortune deserted him. But the 
 memory of great men " rightly struggling to 
 be free " is a heritage which should be fondly 
 treasured, because, as a source of guidance and 
 inspiration, it makes for freedom too. 
 
 Sir Henry Sidney was again sent to Ireland 
 about 1565. When he had previously been in 
 the country he showed a willingness to con- 
 ciliate Shane. He changed his policy now. 
 He had come to the conclusion that Shane 
 should be destroyed. It is possible that Shane, 
 as well as Sidney, had undergone a change 
 since the earlier years. Had the English played 
 fairly with Shane, he might or might not have 
 been content to remain simply ruler of Ulster, 
 acknowledging the sovereignty of the English 
 Queen. But, after the systematic treachery 
 with which he had been treated, he had come 
 to the conclusion that no faith could be placed 
 in the English, and this knowledge stimulated, 
 if it did not actually create, the feeling of 
 nationality which ultimately possessed him.
 
 SHANE O'NEIL 53 
 
 Sidney's tactics were to stir up the rival clans 
 of Ulster against Shane. Shane ruled with a 
 strong hand ; and he ruled well. He did not 
 suffer treason to exist within his realm. He 
 put down disorder and anarchy ; he made his 
 authority felt, and the result was seen in the 
 prosperity and security of Ulster. In 1565 the 
 Scots had, Shane said, been troublesome. 
 Shane fell upon them and crushed their power. 
 Sidney now resolved to work upon all the 
 enemies which Shane had necessarily made in 
 consolidating his strenoth. Of all the clans of 
 Ulster, the O'Donnells were, next to the 
 O'Neils, the strongest ; and, unhappily, the 
 O'Donnells leaa^ued themselves with the 
 English to accomplish the ruin of Shane. 
 
 The rest of the story may be told in a few 
 words. In 1566 Sidney marched into Ulster. 
 Shane advanced to meet him. Two pitched 
 battles were fought before Dundalk and Derry, 
 both of which towns were held by the English. 
 Shane was defeated in both engagements, 
 though the victory at Derry was dearly bought 
 by the death of the English General, Randolph. 
 Shane now retreated to his own borders. 
 
 For nearly fifteen years the redoubtable 
 Ulster Chief had held his own against all the 
 forces which England had brought against him ; 
 but he was destined in the end to die by the 
 hands of the Scots of Antrim. In 1^567 the
 
 54 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 O'Donnells, stirred up, as I have said, by Sid- 
 ney, invaded Tyrone, and ravaged the country. 
 Shane retaliated by marching into Tyrcon- 
 nell. In May a pitched batde was fought 
 between the rival clans on the west bank of 
 the Swilly, near Lifford. Shane bore himself 
 throughout the day with characteristic prowess, 
 but before night fell the army of the O' Neils 
 was annihilated and their chief chased from the 
 field with but a handful of followers. In this 
 plight he threw himself on the protection of the 
 Scots of Antrim. 
 
 He came to their camp at Cushenden accom- 
 panied by the Countess of Argyle, who re- 
 mained attached to him amid all the vicissitudes 
 of his career, and attended by a guard of over 
 fifty men. The Scots received him with pro- 
 fessions of friendship and hospitality ; but, in 
 the midst of an evening's carousal, some pretext 
 of quarrel was seized, and the doomed chief and 
 his retainers were massacred to a man. His 
 body was flung into a pit ; but the English 
 Commander at Carrickfergus carried the head 
 to Dublin, where it was hung from the ram- 
 parts of the Castle. So perished Shane O'Neil, 
 one of the fiercest and subtlest foes that ever 
 faced the English in Ireland.
 
 HUGH O'NEIL AT CLONMEL 
 
 On August 13, 1649, Oliver Cromwell sailed 
 from Milford Haven for Ireland. On the 15th 
 he reached Dublin, and, on the 3rd of Septem- 
 ber, appeared before Drogheda with an army 
 of 10,000 men. Thouorh the massacre of Droo;- 
 heda is a familiar story, yet there is one point 
 in connection with it on which I wish to touch. 
 Cromwell's apologists say that he was not 
 worse than his times. The times were rousfh. 
 He acted roughly, that was all. But at 
 Drogheda Cromwell was worse than his times. 
 His officers and soldiers promised quarter, but 
 he would not give it. Sir Arthur Aston, the 
 governor, made a last stand at the Mill Mount. 
 It was here that Cromwell's soldiers, having 
 broken down the defences, offered quarter. 
 But Cromwell, arriving suddenly upon the 
 scene, said that no quarter should be granted. 
 Then the garrison was slaughtered almost to a 
 man. " The deed of horror," says the English 
 historian, Mr. Gardiner, " was all Cromwell's 
 
 55
 
 56 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 own." In truth, Cromwell's own evidence 
 is decisive on the point. He says : " The 
 enemy made a stout resistance, and near one 
 thousand of our men being" entered, the enemy 
 forced them out aoain. But God orivino- a new 
 courage to our men they attempted again, and 
 entered, beating the enemy from their defences. 
 The enemy had made their entrenchments both 
 to the right and left where we entered, all 
 which they were force to quit. Being thus 
 entered we refused them quarter, having the 
 day before summoned the town. I believe we 
 put to the sword the whole number of the 
 defendants. I do not think thirty of the whole 
 number escaped with their lives ; those that did 
 are in safe custody for the Barbadoes. I do 
 not believe, neither do I hear, that any officer 
 escaped with his life, save only one lieutenant. 
 The enemy retreated, divers of them to the 
 Mill Mount, a place very strong and difficult 
 of access, being exceeding high, having a good 
 graft, and strongly pallisaded ; the Governor, 
 Sir Arthur Aston, and divers considerable 
 officers being there, our men getting up to 
 them, were ordered by me to put them all to 
 the sword ; and, indeed, being in the heat of 
 action, I forbade them to spare any that were 
 in arms in the town, and I think that night 
 they put to the sword about 2,000 men ; divers 
 of the officers and soldiers being fled over the
 
 HUGH O'NEIL AT CLONMEL 57 
 
 bridge into the other part of the town, where 
 about 100 of them possessed St. Peter's Church 
 Steeple, some the west gate, and others a round 
 strong tower next the gate called St. Sunday. 
 This being summoned to yield to mercy refused, 
 whereupon I ordered the steeple of St. Peter's 
 Church to be fired, when one of them was heard 
 to say in the midst of the flames, ' God damn 
 me. God confound me. I burn, I burn.' The 
 next day the other two towers were summoned, 
 in one of which was about six or seven score, 
 but they refused to yield themselves, and we, 
 knowing that hunger must compel them, set 
 only guards to secure them from running away, 
 until their stomachs were come down, from one 
 of the said towers. Notwithstandinof their 
 condition they killed and wounded some of our 
 men. When they submitted their officers were 
 knocked on the head, and every tenth man of 
 the soldiers killed, and the rest shipped for the 
 Barbadoes. The soldiers in the other tower 
 were all spared, as to their lives only, and 
 shipped likewise for the Barbadoes. I believe 
 all their friars were knocked on the head, but 
 two, the one of which was Father Taaffe, 
 brother to the Lord Taaffe, whom the soldiers 
 took next day and made an end of. The other 
 was taken to the Round Tower under the 
 repute of a lieutenant, and when he understood 
 that the officers in that tower had no quarter,
 
 58 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 he confessed that he was a friar, but that did 
 not save him. . . . This hath been a marvel- 
 lous great mercy. ... I wish that all honest 
 hearts may give the glory of it to God." 
 
 Let us place side by side with this statement 
 the statement of Ormonde : — 
 
 " Cromwell continued his battery all Monday 
 and Tuesday till about four of the clock in the 
 afternoon. Having made a breach which he 
 judged assaultable, he assaulted it, and, being 
 twice beaten off, the third time he carried it, 
 all his officers and the soldiers promising quarter 
 to such as would lay down their arms, and per- 
 forming it as long as any place held out, which 
 encouraged others to yield. But when they 
 had once all in their power, and feared no hurt 
 that could be done them, then the word no 
 quarter went round, and the soldiers were, 
 many of them, forced against their wills to kill 
 their prisoners. Sir Edmund Kenny, Colonel 
 Warren, Colonel Well, and Colonel Byrne were 
 all killed in cold blood, as was also the 
 Governor, and, indeed, all the officers, except 
 some few of least consideration that escaped by 
 miracle. The cruelty exercised there for five 
 days, after the town was taken, would make as 
 many several pictures of inhumanity as are to 
 be found in the Book of Martyrs, or in the 
 relation of Amboyna." 
 
 Cromwell's excuse for the atrocities com-
 
 HUGH O'NEIL AT CLONMEL 59 
 
 mitted at Drogheda was that the massacre 
 would prove a salutary example, and that the 
 rest of Ireland would calmly submit. He 
 says : "I am persuaded that this is a righteous 
 judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches 
 who have imbrued their hands in so much 
 innocent blood ; and that it will tend to prevent 
 the effusion of blood for the future, which are 
 the satisfactory grounds to such actions which 
 otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret." 
 Nevertheless, Cromwell, according to his own 
 account, was forced to repeat these "actions" 
 at Wexford. " Indeed " (he wrote to the 
 Speaker Lenthall), " it hath not without cause 
 been deeply set upon our hearts, that we, 
 intending better to this place than so great a 
 ruin, hoping the town might be of more use to 
 you and your army, yet God would not have it 
 so; but by an unexpected providence in His 
 righteous justice, brought a just judgment 
 upon them, causing them to become a prey to 
 the soldiers." 
 
 Mr. Gardiner explains how the "just judg- 
 ment" was "brought upon them." He says : 
 "At Wexford, Irish soldiers and townsmen 
 resisted after the defences of the place had 
 been captured, and, striving to inflict a purpose- 
 less loss of life on the victorious enemy, paid 
 the penalty in their own persons." 
 
 The people of Wexford, undeterred by the
 
 6o IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 " example " of Drogheda, fought to the death 
 for their homes and liberties ; hence they paid 
 the penalty in their own persons. " This town," 
 wrote Cromwell to Lenthall, " is now so in 
 your power that of the former inhabitants I 
 believe scarce one in twenty can challenge any 
 property in their houses. Most of them are 
 run away, and many of them killed in this 
 service." 
 
 The " example " of Drogheda was now forti- 
 fied by the example of Wexford ; yet what 
 happened at Waterford ? Cromwell arrived 
 before that town in November, and, to quote 
 Mr. Gardiner, "found his undertaking des- 
 perate." The inhabitants acted with spirit and 
 self-confidence. They refused not only to 
 surrender the town to Cromwell, but they 
 would not allow Ormonde, representing the 
 Royal cause, to enter it, believing, and believing 
 rightly, that he had the interests rather of the 
 English King than the interests of Ireland at 
 heart. Castlehaven, representing Ormonde, 
 urged them to admit his army, but they sternly 
 refused. They sent a message to Ormonde, 
 who was at Thomastown, saying that they 
 would take reinforcements from him, but that 
 he should send them Ferrall's Ulster Celts and 
 no other troops. They wanted no soldiers 
 tainted with English influences to enter the 
 town. Ferrall's Ulster Celts were sent ; but
 
 HUGH O'NEIL AT CLONMEL 6i 
 
 Cromwell, who, it is said, lost i,ooo men 
 through sickness and the hardships of the 
 weather before the town, raised the siege, and 
 went into winter quarters. Thus, as the men 
 of Wexford had not been cowed by the 
 "example" of Drogheda, the men of Water- 
 ford were not cowed by the "examples" of 
 Drogheda and Wexford combined. 
 
 In February, 1650, Cromwell again took the 
 field, and in March laid siege to Kilkenny. 
 Though the plague was raging in the town, 
 the garrison offered a stout resistance, and 
 every attempt made to storm the main defences 
 failed. Finally Cromwell granted favourable 
 terms to the besieged. The garrison was 
 allowed to march out with the honours of war, 
 and the inhabitants on the payment of ^2,000 
 were saved from further plunder. 
 
 But the best proof that the Irish were not 
 cowed by the "example" of Drogheda is to 
 be found in the defence of Clonmel by Hugh 
 O'Neil. Hugh O'Neil was the nephew of 
 Owen Roe O'Neil, and had served under 
 that great commander in the Low Countries, 
 ultimately following him to Ireland to fight for 
 Faith and Fatherland. On the untimely death 
 of Owen Roe in November, 1649, Hugh 
 marched southwards with an Ulster army, to 
 take part in the operations against Cromwell 
 in Leinstcr and Munster. In February, 1650,
 
 62 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 a Cromwellian force appeared before Clonmel. 
 Ormonde seems to have thought that Clonmel 
 could not be defended, and accordingly left it 
 ill equipped with military stores and provi- 
 sions. But O'Neil felt that it could and ouQ^ht 
 to be defended, and in February he threw 
 himself into the town with 1,500 Ulster Celts 
 — all infantry — and 50 Ormondist cavalry, 
 under the command of Captain Fennell. The 
 citizens appointed O'Neil Governor, and he 
 soon prepared to put his house in order. He 
 believed that if Ormonde would only co-operate 
 with an army in the field, and if the supplies 
 of provisions and ammunition were increased, 
 he could defy the enemy. He wrote to 
 Ormonde urging the Royalist leader to send 
 help and to show fight. The citizens and the 
 army, he said, "had joined in a solemn pro- 
 testation and oath in union for God, King, and 
 Country, and for the defence of the town to the 
 uttermost of their power." He added : "The 
 garrison is of good courage and resolution. 
 The safety of the kingdom depends on Clon- 
 mel." He concluded by beseeching Ormonde 
 "to prevent any bloody tragedy from being 
 acted here as in other places. Your army 
 ought to march night and day to our succour, 
 and provisions should be sent for the people 
 and the garrison." But Ormonde and the 
 Ormondists acted with characteristic incapa-
 
 HUGH O'NEIL AT CLONMEL 6^ 
 
 city and irresolution, and the town was left 
 to its fate. 
 
 In May, Cromwell joined the besieging army. 
 He sent a summons to O'Neil calling on the 
 garrison to surrender, and offering favourable 
 terms. O'Neil replied : " I am of a different 
 resolution than to give up the town on quarters 
 and conditions till I am reduced to a lower 
 station, and so I tell you to do your best." 
 Cromwell promptly opened his batteries upon 
 the town, and so the siege in earnest began. 
 The English pounded away without, however, 
 in the first instance producing any serious 
 results. Nor did O'Neil content himself with 
 merely acting on the defensive. He sallied out 
 from time to time, met the enemy in the open, 
 and inflicted serious losses on them, " some 
 days killing 200, other days 300, other days 
 400, other days 500 men." Cromwell did not 
 expect this resistance, and was, we hear, weary 
 and impatient. Having failed to win by force, 
 he seems to have had recourse to " wiles and 
 stratagems." We learn from a contemporary 
 Irish authority that he got into communication 
 with the Ormondist Fennell, and bribed him to 
 betray the town. For a sum of ^500 Fennell 
 agreed to open one of the gates to the enemy 
 on a criven nicjht at twelve o'clock. O'Neil 
 had taken the precaution of directing that the 
 guards at all the gates should consist of at least
 
 64 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 two-thirds of Ulster Celts. On the night in 
 question he visited the various posts before 
 retiring to his quarters. On reaching one of 
 the ofates he found that the (juard consisted 
 exclusively of Fcnnell's men. He sent for 
 Fennell and demanded an explanation. Fen- 
 nell explained, the explanation was not satis- 
 factory, and Fennell was placed under arrest. 
 " Tell me freely the truth," said O'Neil, whose 
 suspicions were now thoroughly aroused, " or 
 you are likely to suffer for it." Then Fennell 
 confessed everything. At a given signal 500 
 of the enemy were to enter the gate unopposed, 
 the rest to follow. O'Neil at once changed the 
 guard, replacing the Ormondists by Ulster 
 Celts. Then he ordered Fennell to give the 
 signal, while he placed a chosen body of Ulster 
 men to await the foe. Five hundred Crom- 
 wellians advanced and entered the open gate, 
 but not one of them returned. The rest of the 
 English force, coming to the support of their 
 comrades, were stopped on the threshold, and 
 driven back. Then the gates were closed, 
 and the safety of the town was once more 
 secured. 
 
 Cromwell (according to other authorities), 
 baffled and perplexed, sent to Lord Broghill 
 for reinforcements, and Broghill flew to his 
 assistance with men and guns. Again the 
 English batteries opened on the town, and at
 
 HUGH O'NEIL AT CLONMEL 65 
 
 length, at nightfall on the 8th of May, a breach 
 was made, too late, however, to afford the 
 besiegers a favourable opportunity of storm- 
 ing it then, and accordingly they suspended 
 hostilities until the morrow. O'Neil was un- 
 dismayed by this disaster. Ever vigilant, we 
 learn that he sallied from the town, surprised 
 a small English garrison, which held an un- 
 finished fort near the river, and destroyed them 
 before succour could arrive from the main body. 
 
 That night no one slept in Clonmel. Soldiers 
 and citizens — men, women, and children — all 
 worked at the defences, under the eye of 
 O'Neil, preparing for the inevitable struggle 
 on the morrow. A lane was made, running 
 in a semicircular direction, from the breach 
 into the town. Strong walls were raised on 
 either side. At the end, concealed from any 
 force entering the lane, a ditch was dug, and 
 close to this ditch, and also out of view, two 
 guns were planted. Houses overlooked the 
 lane to the right and left. 
 
 At eight o'clock on the morning of the 9th 
 Cromwell gave the order to storm the breach. 
 The stormers advanced rapidly, singing hymns. 
 On approaching the breach they found no 
 obstruction. They entered it without opposi- 
 tion. They reached the middle of the lane, 
 and not a soul was to be seen. Soon the lane 
 was blocked by the storming party. Then, 
 
 6
 
 66 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 those in front, suspecting a trap, called "halt," 
 but those in the rear, believing that the Irish 
 would not fight, called " forward." On went 
 the stormers. Suddenly they came upon the 
 unexpected ditch. Then the Irish guns 
 thundered ; a raking fire broke from the 
 houses around, and the Ulster Celts sprang 
 upon the foe. A terrible death-wrestle fol- 
 lowed. Man to man, musket to musket, pike 
 to pike — Ironside and Celt — the one accustomed 
 to victory, the other ever buoyant in defeat 
 and always gallant in action. To and fro the 
 masses of men swayed, the Ironsides pushing 
 forward, the Celts thrusting them back, until 
 at length the impetuous charge of O'Neil's 
 men bore down all opposition, and the stormers 
 were shot through the breach. Cromwell 
 hurried to the scene of action, and rallied his 
 disordered forces. Once more the Ironsides, 
 under the eye of their commander, entered 
 the breach, and once more the Celts met 
 them man to man. Another fierce death- 
 wrestle, which, it is said, lasted for four hours, 
 followed. The Celts were driven from the 
 breach, and thrust back into the town. Then 
 a galling cross-fire was opened on the enemy 
 from the houses. Again the Celts, pike in 
 hand, sprang at the foe, and on went the 
 struCTS^le until the lane flowed with blood. 
 Colonel Culin fell at the head of the storming
 
 HUGH O'NEIL AT CLONMEL 67 
 
 party, and many English officers were struck 
 down in the thick of the fight. Still the Iron- 
 sides held their ground, until the Celts, inspired 
 by the spirit and example of their leader, made 
 one final effort and drove the enemy pell-mell 
 through the breach. Twice on that memorable 
 day Ironside and Celt had met in fair fight, and 
 twice the Ironside was worsted. At Drogheda 
 the Cromwellians slaughtered over 2,000 souls. 
 Over 2,000 Cromwellians, it is said, fell at 
 Clonmel. 
 
 " We found in Clonmel," wrote one of Crom- 
 well's soldiers, "the stoutest enemy this army 
 has ever met in Ireland ; and there was never 
 seen so hot a storm, and so long continuance, 
 and so gallantly defended either in England or 
 Ireland." 
 
 That night of the 9th of May, Cromwell, we 
 learn from Irish sources, sat sorrowfully in his 
 camp. He had never been so stoutly resisted 
 before ; and could he expect better fortune 
 were he to renew the attack on the morrow ? 
 
 While depressed by these melancholy re- 
 flections a messenger entered and announced 
 the unexpected intelligence that the Mayor of 
 Clonmel (Michael White) had arrived at the 
 camp and sought an interview. The interview 
 was readily granted. Cromwell, we hear, com- 
 plimented the Mayor on the defence of the 
 town, and said that the garrison was " invin-
 
 68 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 cible." The Mayor said he had come to surren- 
 der the town provided the English commander 
 would grant favourable terms. After some 
 discussion a treaty of surrender was agreed 
 upon and duly signed. It provided : " i. That 
 the said town and garrison of Clonmel, with 
 arms, ammunition, and other furniture of war 
 that are now therein shall be surrendered and 
 delivered up into the hands of his Excellency. 
 2. That, in consideration thereof the inhabi- 
 tants of the said town shall be protected, their 
 lives and estates from all plunder and violence 
 of soldiery, and shall have the same rights, 
 liberty, and protection as other subjects under 
 the authority of the Parliament of England 
 have, or ought to have, and enjoy, within the 
 dominion of Ireland." 
 
 After the treaty had been signed, Cromwell 
 asked the Mayor if O'Neil knew that he had 
 come to surrender the town. The Mayor 
 replied " No," for that O'Neil and the garrison 
 had departed two hours before. Then we are 
 told that Cromwell flew into a rage, and said to 
 the Mayor: " You knave, have you served me 
 so, and why did you not tell me so before ? " 
 The Mayor replied : " If your Excellency had 
 demanded the question I would tell you." 
 Cromwell then told the Mayor to give back the 
 paper. But the Mayor pressed him not " to 
 break the conditions, or take them back, which
 
 HUGH O'NEIL AT CLONMEL 69 
 
 was not the repute his Excellency had, but to 
 perform whatsoever he promised." Cromwell, 
 growing calmer, next asked what manner of 
 man was this Hugh Duft" O'Neil, and the 
 Mayor replied that " he was an over-the-sea 
 soldier, who had been born in Spain ; " and 
 Cromwell answered : " I will follow this Hugh 
 Duff O'Neil wheresoever he goes." 
 
 On the morning of the loth of May Crom- 
 well entered Clonmel ; but he found no garrison, 
 no military stores, no "furniture of war." Hugh 
 O'Neil and his Ulster Celts were gone. Old 
 men, old women, and children alone remained 
 behind. But Cromwell kept the treaty. 
 
 This is what had happened in the interval. 
 Hugh O'Neil had fired his last shot in driving 
 the stormers back on the 9th of May. Not 
 only was his ammunition spent, but all provi- 
 sions were exhausted. The fall of the town 
 was inevitable. In these circumstances O'Neil 
 sent for the Mayor, and said that he proposed 
 to withdraw the garrison under the cover of 
 the night ; for the rest, he directed the Mayor 
 to open communications with Cromwell for the 
 surrender of the town some hours after the 
 garrison had departed. The Mayor, as we 
 have seen, carried out these directions admir- 
 ably, and so the garrison was saved to fight 
 another day, and honourable terms were 
 obtained for the citizens. Cromwell was
 
 70 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 beaten in battle and outwitted in nesfotiations. 
 Shortly after the surrender of Clonmel he 
 returned to England, leaving Ireton and 
 Ludlow to finish his work in Ireland. 
 
 Hugh O'Neil marched from Clonmel to 
 Waterford, and then to Limerick, where the 
 citizens immediately appointed him Governor. 
 In 1 65 1 Ireton appeared before the walls. The 
 plague was raging in the town, as in so many 
 towns of Ireland at the time, but O'Neil would 
 not surrender. 
 
 Ireton opened his batteries, and soon made a 
 breach ; but the stormers were repelled, as they 
 had been repelled at Clonmel. The siege 
 dragged on four months. O'Neil, struggling 
 under great difficulties — famine, pestilence, 
 internal discord (for the town was full of 
 Ormondists ever ready to treat with the enemy) 
 — gallantly held out. At length, when garrison 
 and citizens were stricken with sickness, and 
 when provisions were exhausted, he surrendered 
 on honourable terms. The inhabitants were 
 guaranteed life, liberty, property, but O'Neil 
 himself and all who took a leading part with 
 him in the defence were excepted from the 
 treaty. On the 29th of October, 1651, O'Neil 
 gave up the keys to Ireton. 
 
 Then a court-martial was appointed to con- 
 sider the cases of those who stood outside the 
 conditions, and almost all of them were hanged.
 
 HUGH O'NEIL AT CLONMEL 71 
 
 Geoffrey Baron, who had marched with O'Neil 
 from Clonmel, and who had fought gallantly at 
 Limerick, was summoned before the court. He 
 was asked why he had fought against the Eng- 
 lish army. He gave a brave and noble answer. 
 He said : " I have fought for the same cause 
 as you say you are fighting for. I have fought 
 for my religion and my country." But, as 
 Cromwell said of the friar at Drogheda, " that 
 did not save him." He was hanged within 
 twenty-four hours. Then Hugh O'Neil was 
 summoned before the court. He could but 
 answer as Baron had answered. He too had 
 fought for Ireland. 
 
 The majority of the court wished to save the 
 life of this gallant soldier, but Ireton was 
 inexorable, and O'Neil was sentenced to death. 
 Then the officers, with Ludlow, apparently, 
 at their head, besought Ireton to spare O'Neil, 
 and Ireton again summoned the Irish leader 
 to the court. Ireton spoke of the " blood 
 which had been shed at Clonmel." But 
 O'Neil could only answer that he " had 
 always demeaned himself like a fair enemy." 
 And there was no one present who could deny 
 the fact. Nevertheless, Ireton was again in- 
 exorable, and for the second time O'Neil was 
 sentenced to death. Ludlow and the other 
 officers now redoubled their efforts to save the 
 life of the foe whose gallantry had won their
 
 ^2 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 admiration. Again they pressed Ireton to 
 cancel the sentence ; and finally Ireton declared 
 in effect that he would wash his hands of the 
 business, and leave the fate of O'Neil to the 
 court. For a third time the court met (possibly 
 under the presidency of Ludlow, for Ireton 
 did not attend), and the capital sentence was 
 cancelled. 
 
 O'Neil was sent a prisoner to the Tower of 
 London. There he remained for a twelve- 
 month, when, on the intercession of the Spanish 
 Ambassador, he was set free. He spent the 
 rest of his life in the service of Spain. He 
 died, it is said, on the battlefield.
 
 SARSFIELD 
 
 Patrick Sarsfield is a popular Irish hero. 
 Yet Httle is known of the story of his hfe. In 
 1690 he drove William III. from the walls of 
 Limerick. On that achievement his reputation 
 rests. Sarsfield and Limerick are still names 
 to conjure with in Ireland. 
 
 The Sarsfields — De Saresfeld — were Nor- 
 mans. They came to Ireland with Henry II. 
 There were two branches of the family. The 
 head of the one, Dominic, was made a baronet 
 by James I., and afterwards ennobled as Vis- 
 count Kinsale ; ^ the head of the other, 
 William, held the manor of Lucan, and was 
 knighted while Mayor of Dublin by Sir Henry 
 Sidney in 1566. The grandson of this William 
 Sarsfield married Anne O' Moore, daughter of 
 the famous Irish chief Rory O' Moore, and be- 
 came the father of William, Patrick, and Mary. 
 William married Mary, a natural daughter of 
 
 ' In the reign of Charles II. the title was changed to 
 Viscount Kilmallock. 
 
 73
 
 74 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Charles II. and sister of the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth. On his death without male issue the 
 family estates of Lucan descended to Patrick, 
 the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Patrick Sarsfield was born, probably at 
 Lucan, about 1650.^ Beyond the fact that 
 he was educated at a French military school, 
 nothing is definitely known of his boyhood and 
 youth. The first authentic bit of information 
 which we eet about him is to be found in 
 Dalton's "Army List" for 1678, where his 
 name appears as a lieutenant in Monmouth's 
 reofiment of Foot. We learn from Sarsfield 
 himself that he was in London in the summer 
 of 1678 (whither he had come from France), 
 lodging in the house of the king's saddler at 
 Charing Cross, and that some time previously 
 he had received a commission in Captain 
 Dangan's regiment of Horse. This commis- 
 sion, he said, had been given to him by 
 " Colonel Dempsey or Mr. Trant at the 
 Crown and Scepter Tavern, Pick-a-Dilly." - 
 
 The next glimpse we get of him is in the 
 journal of Narcissus Luttrell, where we read 
 (under date September 9, 1681) : "There has 
 
 ' Dr. Todhunter, " The Life of Patrick Sarsfield." 
 = Deposition made by Sarsfield before the Mayor of Chester. 
 The Mayor had arrested certain persons on their way to 
 Ireland without passports, Sarsfield among the number. In 
 this deposition Sarsfield gives an account of himself to calm 
 the Mayor's fears. For details see Dr. Todhunter's " Life."
 
 SARSFIELD 75 
 
 been a tall Irishman to be seen in Bartholo- 
 mew Fair, and the Lord Grey being to see 
 him said he would make a swinging evidence," 
 probably in allusion to the witnesses in " the 
 Popish plot," "on which one Captain Sarsfield, 
 an Irishman, sent his lordship a challenge, 
 taking it as an affront on his countrymen." 
 No duel, however, seems to have been fought. 
 Later on we read (under date September 18, 
 1681) : "Captain Sarsfield, who challenged the 
 Lord Grey, was taken into custody, but hath 
 since made his escape out of the messenger's 
 hands." Sarsfield, however, did take part in 
 a duel on December i6th following. Says 
 Luttrell : " There was a duel fought between 
 the Lord Newburgh and the Lord Kinsale as 
 principals (two striplings under twenty) and 
 Mr. Kirk and Captain Sarsfield as seconds : 
 the principals had no hurt, but Captain Sars- 
 field was run through the body near the 
 shoulder very dangerously." Over three 
 years later we find him playing an impor- 
 tant part on another stage. At the battle of 
 Sedgemoor (July 6, 1685) he fought in the 
 Life Guards under Feversham and Churchill. 
 " Monmouth's Foot," says Macaulay, "though 
 deserted, made a gallant stand. The Life 
 Guards attacked them on the right, the Blues 
 on the left, but the Somersetshire clowns with 
 their scythes and the butt ends of their muskets
 
 ^6 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 faced the Royal Horse like old soldiers. Ogle- 
 thorpe made a vigorous attempt to break them, 
 and was manfully repulsed. Sarsfield, a brave 
 Irish officer, whose name afterwards obtained 
 a melancholy celebrity, charged on the other 
 flank. His men were beaten back. He was 
 himself struck to the ground, and lay for a time 
 as one dead." 
 
 When the Revolution came Sarsfield re- 
 mained faithful to the king. He led the Irish 
 Horse at Wincanton in the first brush with the 
 enemy, followed James to France, and returned 
 with the ill-fated monarch to Ireland. In all 
 that he did he acted like a orallant soldier and 
 a chivalrous Irish gentleman. Yet he was no 
 favourite with the king, nor with Tyrconnel, 
 the Irish viceroy. "A brave man, but no 
 brains," said James, a competent authority, no 
 doubt, on bravery and brains. This was not 
 the verdict of D'Avaux, the French Ambas- 
 sador, who accompanied James on his Irish 
 expedition. 
 
 "Sarsfield," he wrote to Louvois, "is not a 
 man of the birth of my Lord Galway nor of 
 McCarthy (Mountcashel), but he is a man dis- 
 tinguished by his merit, who has more influence 
 in this kingdom than any man I know. He 
 has valour, but, above all, honour and probity 
 which are proof against any assault." James 
 landed at Kinsale in March, 1689, and set out
 
 SARSFIELD ^^ 
 
 immediately for the capital. In the Parlia- 
 ment, which he then summoned, Sarsfield sat 
 for the county Dublin, He took no part in 
 the siege of Londonderry, but commanded in 
 Connauoht. " I had all the trouble in the 
 world," says D'Avaux, "to get Sarsfield made 
 a brigadier ; my Lord Tyrconnel strongly op- 
 posed this, saying he was a very brave man 
 but had no head. Nevertheless, my Lord 
 Tyrconnel sent him into the province of 
 Connauofht with a handful of men ; he raised 
 2,000 more on his own credit, and with 
 these troops preserved the whole province to 
 the king." Afterwards James, apparently, 
 began to think that Sarsfield possessed 
 " brains " as well as "bravery." In exchange 
 for some French troops a number of Irish 
 recruits were sent to France in 1689 — the 
 first instalment of that brigade whose fame 
 filled Europe, and the memory of whose deeds 
 is still fondly cherished by the Irish people. 
 D'Avaux asked James for Sarsfield to com- 
 mand these recruits, but James refused to 
 grant the request. 
 
 " I asked the King of England," says 
 D'Avaux, "for Sarsfield for one of the 
 colonels to go to France and command the 
 corps. The king was so pleased with his 
 success in Connaught that when I asked for 
 Sarsfield he told me that I wanted to take
 
 78 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 all his officers, that he would not give him to 
 me, and that I was unreasonable, and walked 
 three times round the room in great anger. I 
 bore all this meekly ; and meanwhile I had a 
 notion of my own, a very good one, as to Sars- 
 field. I obtained a promise from him that he 
 would not go to France except to command 
 this corps under the orders of McCarthy ; so 
 that if McCarthy (captured by the English) 
 got out of prison he should still have chief 
 command with Sarsfield under him ; while if 
 he remained prisoner (he escaped soon after- 
 wards), Sarsfield should have sole command." 
 
 D'Avaux adds : ** Sarsfield will, I believe, 
 be extremely useful, as he is a man who will 
 always be at the head of his troops, and will 
 take great care of them." 
 
 Sarsfield commanded his regiment of Horse 
 — Sarsfield's Horse — at the Battle of the Boyne. 
 On the morning of July i, 1690, he recon- 
 noitred the English forces in company with 
 Lauzun, Tyrconnel, and Berwick. " While 
 William," says Macaulay, "was at his repast 
 a group of horsemen appeared close to the 
 water on the opposite shore. Among them 
 his attendants could discern some who had 
 once been conspicuous at reviews in Hyde 
 Park and at balls in the gallery of Whitehall, 
 the youthful Berwick, the small fair-haired 
 Lauzun, Tyrconnel, once admired by maids
 
 SARSFIELD 79 
 
 of honour as the model of manly vigour and 
 beauty, but now bent down by years and 
 crippled by gout, and, overtopping all, the 
 stately head of Sarsfield." 
 
 William began the battle by an attempt to 
 outflank the Irish left and get possession of 
 the road to Dublin. Sarsfield's Horse and the 
 French auxiliaries were sent to check this 
 movement, and to secure the line of retreat, 
 which they did. Meanwhile the English 
 centre had forced the passage of the Boyne 
 right under the Hill of Donore, from which 
 vantage point James witnessed the fight. The 
 Irish infantry, raw levies infamously led by 
 Tyrconnel, gave way under the combined 
 onslaught of English, Dutch, Danes, and 
 Huguenots, but the cavalry, under Hamilton, 
 made a gallant stand. Dashing into the 
 stream, they checked the onset of Solmes' 
 Blues, drove back the Danish Brigade, scat- 
 tered the Huguenot regiments, and over- 
 whelmed the Enniskilleners. Caillemot, the 
 Huguenot leader, Schomberg, the veteran 
 Dutch commander, and Walker of Derry 
 fame, fell while rallying their broken forces. 
 It was the crisis of the day. Had James 
 possessed "bravery" or "brains" he would 
 have hurled Sarsfield's Horse upon the enemy. 
 But he showed neither the capacity of a general 
 nor the courage of a soldier. Panic-stricken,
 
 8o IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 he fled from the field while the battle was still 
 raging, and carried Sarsfield's Horse with him. 
 Far differently acted William. Seeing the 
 peril of the situation, he hastened to the 
 scene of danger, flung himself into the thick 
 of the fight, galloped from point to point, 
 wherever the conflict was hottest, brought up 
 every available man, rallied every wavering 
 regiment, and ultimately defeated the Irish 
 Horse, which, though unsupported, yielded 
 only when their ranks were decimated and 
 their commander was a prisoner in the hands 
 of the enemy. "In war," says Napoleon, "a 
 Man is everything." At the Boyne the Prince 
 of Orange, and not the English king, was the 
 "Man." 
 
 "Change kings," Sarsfield is reported to 
 have said subsequently, "and we will fight 
 you over again." 
 
 Flying from the Hill of Donore, James did 
 not draw rein until he reached Dublin Castle. 
 "The Irish ran," he said to Lady Tyrconnel, 
 who met him on the threshold. " Your 
 Majesty seems to have won the race," was 
 the witty rejoinder. 
 
 From Dublin James hurried to the coast, 
 and embarked for France. Ireland saw him 
 no more. 
 
 After the Battle of the Boyne the Irish fell 
 back on Limerick. William marched imme- 
 diately against that city.
 
 SARSFIELD 8i 
 
 The commanders of the Franco-Irish army — 
 Lauzun, Tyrconnel, Boisseleau, Sarsfield — held 
 a council of war. Lauzun believed that Limerick 
 could not be held. He laughed at the "fortifi- 
 cations." " It's unnecessary," he said, "for the 
 English to bring cannon against such a place 
 as this. What you call your ramparts might 
 be battered down with roasted apples." Tyr- 
 connel agreed with the French General. But 
 Sarsfield said the town could be, and should 
 be, defended. He would defend it. Then 
 Lauzun and Tyrconnel retired with the 
 French troops to Galway, and Sarsfield and 
 the Irish soldiers remained to face the foe. 
 Boisseleau remained with them. In describing 
 the scenes which followed I shall borrow from 
 what I have written elsewhere on this subject. 
 
 On August 9th William sat down before the 
 town with an army of 28,000 men. The de- 
 fenders numbered an effective force of 10,000 
 infantry and 4,000 horse. William at once 
 sent a message to Boisseleau to surrender. 
 Boisseleau sent back a courteous reply. " Tell 
 the English king," he said, "that I hope I shall 
 merit his opinion more by a vigorous defence 
 than by a shameful surrender of a fortress 
 which has been entrusted to me." 
 
 William was not prepared for this reply. 
 He had heard that Lauzun and the French 
 had departed. He did not believe that the 
 
 7
 
 82 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 town, thus abandoned, would attempt to hold 
 out. He was resolved to await the arrival of a 
 siege train which was coming up from Water- 
 ford with guns, ammunition, and stores. On 
 August nth this siege train arrived at the 
 little village of Ballyneety, within ten miles of 
 William's camp. 
 
 The day before the news of its approach had 
 reached Limerick Sarsfield saw at a glance 
 that the fate of the town must depend on the 
 arrival of the siege train, and he resolved that 
 arrive it never should. On the night of 
 August loth he issued from the city with 
 a force of five hundred horse, and, under the 
 direction of a faithful guide, moved by a cir- 
 cuitous route towards Ballyneety, whither he 
 had learned that the convoy guarding the siege 
 train were bending their way. During the 
 day of the nth he remained concealed in the 
 Keeper Mountain. In the evening the siege 
 train arrived at Ballyneety. That night Sars- 
 field resolved to surprise the convoy and 
 destroy the train. His first step was to learn 
 the password of the enemy. Here fortune 
 favoured him. The wife of a soldier attached 
 to the convoy had lagged behind in the march. 
 One of Sarsfield's troopers came up with her, 
 and was struck with her forlorn position — 
 friendless, tired, deserted. He dismounted 
 and placed her on his horse. He learned who
 
 SARSFIELD 83 
 
 she was, and she told him that the password 
 of the convoy was " Sarsfield." At two o'clock 
 on the morning of the 12th Sarsfield's Horse 
 approached the lines of the enemy. The 
 English sentinels challenged, and the pass- 
 word was given — "Sarsfield." The Irish 
 Horse passed on, drawing nearer and nearer, 
 until at length they came within striking 
 distance of the foe. 
 
 The sentinels again challenged, when the 
 leader of the foremost troop, placing himself 
 at the head of his men and waving his sword, 
 answered : " Sarsfield — Sarsfield is the word, 
 and Sarsfield is the man." The Irish Horse 
 charged, the English outposts were driven 
 in, the camp w^as surprised. Sixty English- 
 men were killed, one officer was taken 
 prisoner, the rest fied, leaving behind wag- 
 gons, guns, ammunition, and stores. Then 
 " the victorious Irish made a huge pile of 
 waggons and pieces of cannon. Every gun 
 was stuffed with powder and fixed with its 
 mouth in the ground, and the whole mass 
 was blown up. The solitary prisoner was 
 treated with great civility by Sarsfield. ' If 
 I had failed in this attempt,' said the Irish 
 General, ' I should have been off to France.' 
 Intelligence had been carried to William's 
 headquarters that Sarsfield had stolen out of 
 Limerick, and was ranging the country.
 
 84 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 " The king guessed the design of his 
 brave enemy, and sent 500 horse to protect 
 the guns. ... At one in the morning the 
 detachment set out, but had scarcely left 
 when a blaze like lightning and a crash like 
 thunder announced to the wide plain of the 
 Shannon that all w^as over. 
 
 " Sarsfield had long been the favourite of 
 his countrymen, and this most seasonable 
 exploit, judiciously planned and vigorously 
 executed, raised him still higher in their esti- 
 mation. Their spirits rose, and the besiegers 
 began to lose heart. William did his best to 
 repair his loss. Two of the guns which had 
 been blown up were found to be still service- 
 able. Two more were sent for from Water- 
 ford. Batteries were constructed of small field 
 pieces, which, though they might have been 
 useless against one of the fortresses of Hain- 
 ault or Brabant, made some impression on 
 the feeble defences of Limerick. Several out- 
 works were carried by storm, and a breach in 
 the rampart of the city began to appear, "^ 
 
 On August 27th William ordered an assault 
 on the city. At three o'clock in the afternoon 
 the storming party advanced. The Grenadiers 
 led the way. Firing their matchlocks and 
 throwing their grenades, they sprang into the 
 breach. The defenders, confused and dis- 
 ' Macaulay.
 
 SARSFIELD 85 
 
 mayed by the explosion of the grenades — a 
 new experience to them — gave way all along the 
 line and fell back rapidly. On came the English, 
 flushed by success and accustomed to victory, 
 and back went the Irish before them. Within 
 a short distance of the breach they rallied and 
 faced the foe, but the English charge was 
 irresistible and bore down all opposition. The 
 English had now penetrated well into the town, 
 and their victory seemed assured. But the 
 Irish, driven to bay, rallied once more, and this 
 time made a determined stand. A fierce hand- 
 to-hand fight, which lasted for several hours, 
 now began. The citizens of Limerick joined 
 the soldiers, and, seizing whatever weapons lay 
 ready to their hands, rushed into the fray. 
 The very women mingled in the contest, fling- 
 ing stones, bottles, and other missiles at the 
 assailants, and being, as the Williamite his- 
 torian, who was at the siege, says, " nearer to 
 our men than their own." Hour after hour 
 passed, but still the fight went on. Back- 
 wards and forwards the surging mass of 
 combatants swayed, till towards sunset the 
 English slowly and sullenly, but steadily and 
 surely, commenced to give way. A splendid 
 German regiment, the Brandenburgers, had 
 entered the town, and were working round to 
 the rear of the Irish, when a mine exploded 
 beneath their feet and blew them into the air.
 
 86 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Then, amid the ruin and carnage, the Irish 
 redoubled their efforts and beat the English 
 back to the breach. There the enemy made a 
 last stand, but in vain. They were hurled from 
 the city, and driven pell-mell to their entrench- 
 ments. William, who had witnessed the fight 
 from an old ruin called Cromwell's Fort, now 
 saw his retreating army flying from the vic- 
 torious Irish. He quickly hastened to his tent 
 and summoned a council of war. But it was 
 decided that the attack should not be renewed. 
 A few days afterwards William sailed for Eng- 
 land, leaving General Ginkel in command of 
 the army, and on August 31st General Ginkel 
 marched away from Limerick. About the 
 same time Lauzun and Tyrconnel retired to 
 France, while Sarsfield and Boisseleau remained 
 among the people whom they had so well and 
 gloriously defended. 
 
 At the commencement of the war Sarsfield 
 was the soldier of the king. He was now the 
 soldier of Ireland. " The darling of the army" 
 — so he has been described by a contemporary 
 authority. " The king," said one of his colonels 
 at Athlone, "is nothing to me. I obey Sars- 
 field." 
 
 The sentiment so expressed was no doubt 
 general among the Irish soldiers, and may 
 account for the fact that, despite the gallant 
 defence of Limerick, James persisted in keep-
 
 SARSFIELD 87 
 
 ing the hero of the siege in the background. 
 He suspected and distrusted the one man who 
 had served him with conspicuous success. 
 After the victory Berwick was made the 
 Jacobite Governor of Ireland. Sarsfield was 
 sent to command in Connaught. Early in 
 1 69 1 Tyrconnel, the evil genius of the Irish 
 army, returned, and Berwick was recalled to 
 France. A Frenchman, St. Ruth, was ap- 
 pointed Commander-in-Chief. Another French- 
 man, D'Usson, was made second in command. 
 Sarsfield was ignored — save, indeed, that he 
 received the barren title of Earl of Lucan. 
 Yet he never complained. He did his duty. 
 He took measures for the defence of his pro- 
 vince, and awaited orders. In May, 1691, the 
 English army, under Ginkel, took the field, and 
 marched on Connaught. Sarsfield waited for 
 them at Athlone, the best strategic point in the 
 line of defence. 
 
 One part of Athlone — the English town — 
 stands in Leinster, the other — the Irish town 
 — in Connaught. The Shannon runs between, 
 and was in those days spanned by a stone 
 bridoe. After a stubborn resistance Ginkel 
 succeeded in seizing the Leinster part of the 
 town, but the Irish, retreating, destroyed two 
 arches of the bridge, and so checked the 
 English advance. The real fight now began. 
 To reach the Connaught side the river had to
 
 88 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 be forded or the bridpi-e crossed. St. Ruth, who 
 had hastened with his army from Limerick and 
 taken up his position on the Connau^ht side, 
 considered the town unassaikible, and, though 
 warned by Sarsfiekl to keep on the alert, 
 showed neither skill nor energy in directing 
 the defence. In fact, he would neither com- 
 mand himself nor allow Sarsheld to command. 
 " At the crisis of the fate of Ireland," Macau- 
 lay justly says, " the services of the first of 
 Irish soldiers were not used, or were used with 
 jealous caution ... if he ventured to offer a 
 suggestion it was received with a sneer or a 
 frown." High words, it is said, passed between 
 St. Ruth and Sarsfiekl, and the latter was 
 ordered to his camp. 
 
 On June 26th Ginkel opened a fierce fire on 
 the Irish town, dealing death and havoc 
 around. He then tried to cross the bridge, 
 but the Irish offered a desperate resistance. 
 Throughout the 26th and 27th the fight con- 
 tinued. The English repaired the broken arch 
 on their side and succeeded in laying beams 
 across to the Connaught side, and in placing 
 planks on these beams. The position of the 
 besieged was now perilous to the last degree. 
 Yet, as Dr. Todhunter observes, " out of this 
 peril came the most heroic action of the siege. 
 A certain sergeant of Maxwell's dragoons, 
 whose name, as given in James's ' Memoirs,'
 
 SARSFIELD 89 
 
 was Custume, getting together a party of ten 
 other stout fellows, volunteered to pull up the 
 planks laid down by the enemy. Donning 
 their breast and back pieces, that they might 
 as long as possible keep their lives, they rushed 
 boldly out upon the bridge, drove back the 
 carpenters, 'and with the courage and strength 
 beyond what men were thought capable of,' 
 say the 'Memoirs,' 'began to pull up the 
 planks, break down the beams, and fling them 
 into the water ; a tremendous fire from the 
 whole English line was opened on them, 
 and man after man fell ; but plank after plank 
 was torn up and hurled into the stream. Then 
 the beams were attacked with saw and axe, 
 but the eleven were all killed before their task 
 was finished. Then eleven more sprang out, 
 and the beams began to yield, though the men 
 dropped one by one as before. Two got back 
 alive to the town ; the other nine were left 
 dead upon the bridge. But the last beam was 
 floating down the uncrossable Shannon.' " 
 
 The defence of the bridge filled St. Ruth 
 with renewed hope, and Ginkel almost with 
 despair. The English commander summoned 
 a council of war. The question of an imme- 
 diate retreat was discussed, but Talmash and 
 Ruvigny urged that another attempt should be 
 made to take the town. At one point the 
 river was fordable. It was proposed to try the
 
 90 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 ford this time. Maxwell guarded the ford on 
 the Connaught side. He sent to St. Ruth for 
 reinforcements. St. Ruth returned a scornful 
 answer: "If Brigadier Maxwell is afraid," he 
 is reported to have said, "another general 
 shall be sent." Sarsfield also warned the 
 Commander-in-Chief, but his warning was 
 despised, and he himself was forced to take up 
 a position in the rear. 
 
 On June 30th the English crossed the ford : 
 the inadequate Irish force sent to guard the 
 river were taken completely by surprise. Max- 
 well was made a prisoner, his men were dis- 
 persed, and Athlone was captured almost 
 before St. Ruth knew that the English had 
 crossed the Shannon. The gallant defenders 
 of the bridge had fallen in vain. The bravery 
 of the soldier was not proof against the folly of 
 the general. Athlone fell because St. Ruth 
 had failed to do his duty. 
 
 St. Ruth now crossed the river Suck and 
 took up a position near the village of Aughrim, 
 some twenty miles west of Athlone and about 
 thirty miles due north of Limerick. There 
 Ginkel found him ready, and indeed eager, for 
 the fray. St. Ruth's ground was well chosen. 
 His army was posted on the slope of a hill; 
 in front lay a morass passable for infantry, but 
 not for cavalry. On the right was a stream 
 issuing from the morass ; on the left an old
 
 SARSFIELD 91 
 
 causeway only wide enough for two horses to 
 pass at a time. Beyond the causeway was the 
 Castle of Auo;hrim. 
 
 St. Ruth's dispositions were carefully made. 
 In the centre, on the edge of the morass and 
 screened by some old " hedges and ditches," 
 were the infantry commanded by Dorrington 
 and John Hamilton. De Tesse commanded 
 the right wing facing the stream, and with him 
 were the cavalry regiments of Tyrconnel, 
 Abercorn, Prendergast, and Sutherland. Shel- 
 don commanded the left wing, defending the 
 causeway ; in the Castle of Aughrim Walter 
 Bourke with two hundred men was posted. 
 Despite the lesson of Athlone, St. Ruth still 
 treated Sarsfield with insolent hattteiir. The 
 most capable officer in the Irish army was, on 
 this eventful day, placed in command of the 
 reserves of cavalry, scarcely within sight of 
 the field of battle, and with strict directions 
 not to move until ordered. He was not taken 
 into the confidence of the Commander-in-Chief, 
 nor informed at any time of the operations in 
 progress. 
 
 At five o'clock on the evening of July 12th 
 the battle began. Ginkel tried to turn the 
 Irish right, but failed utterly. Then he ordered 
 a frontal attack. The Huguenot regiments led 
 the way across the morass. The Irish held 
 their fire until the enemy came to close quarters,
 
 92 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 then a fierce combat ensued. The English 
 Foot broke through the hedges, the Irish falling 
 slowly back. Suddenly a flanking fire was 
 opened on the Huguenots, who reeled under 
 the shock. The Irish at the centre rallied and 
 charged home ; supports were sent forward on 
 both sides. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict 
 followed, sword to sword and bayonet to 
 bayonet. Finally, the English gave way 
 and were chased across the morass to their 
 own ground. Again and again the assault was 
 renewed on the Irish centre, and again and 
 again it was fiercely repelled. 
 
 " This repulse," says a contemporary 
 authority, one who was on the field of battle, 
 " was no sooner given than a grand corps 
 comes pouring down on the Irish for the 
 third time. It was now the combat seemed 
 more violent than before, and as if it were 
 the last effort. After an obstinate storm 
 the English were constrained to retreat. The 
 Irish followed, making use of club musket, 
 whereby the foreigners suffered much. The 
 regiment of Guards and the whole Royal 
 Brigade was particularly noted by the field to 
 have performed uncommon execution. The 
 Irish pursued so far that they gained the 
 enemy's ground and maintained themselves 
 thereon. General Gordon O'Neil with his 
 regiment took some of their cannon." " Hurrah !
 
 SARSFIELD 93 
 
 my boys," cried St. Ruth, "the victory is ours. 
 We will drive them along the road to Dublin." 
 The fight had now lasted for two hours. 
 Ginkel, as after the heroic defence of the bridge 
 at Athlone, was in despair. He meditated a 
 retreat, but Mackay urged him to hold his 
 ground. The attempt to turn the Irish right 
 had failed ; the attacks on the centre had failed. 
 Mackay now advised a turning movement 
 against the Irish left. Ginkel agreed. Mackay 
 and Ruvigny led the Horse by twos along the 
 old causeway under a heavy covering fire. 
 St. Ruth saw the movement and lauohed at it. 
 His left was his strongest position. He waited 
 to hear the thunder of the guns from the Castle 
 of Aughrim, but Bourke's batteries were silent ; 
 the Irish had run short of ammunition. St. 
 Ruth hastened to the spot. He sent to Sars- 
 field for supports, but madly would not allow 
 Sarsfield to command these supports. For 
 the third time, when the fate of Ireland hung 
 in the balance, this gallant soldier was doomed 
 to inaction. Sarsfield sent forward the sup- 
 ports, chafing under the order which fixed him 
 to a spot from which he could not even see his 
 men advance. St. Ruth was elated with joy. 
 He believed that the EnMish were deliverine 
 themselves into his hands. " Forward, my 
 boys," he cried ; "we will sweep them before 
 us." The next instant he fell lifeless from his
 
 94 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 horse : a cannon ball had carried off his head. 
 The death of St. Ruth was followed by total 
 inaction on the Irish left. No one seems to 
 have taken command. The news was kept 
 from Sarsfield. Nothing- was done to check 
 the Enorjish advance. The Irish left seemed 
 paralysed. Meanwhile Mackay and Ruvigny 
 pushed forward along the causeway, and got 
 close to the Irish side. 
 
 Ginkel then ordered his centre to advance 
 once more across the morass to engage the 
 Irish infantry in front. The Irish infantry 
 resisted this attack with the gallantry which 
 they had shown throughout the whole day. 
 " They behaved themselves like men of another 
 nation," says the self-complacent story. " The 
 Irish were never known to fight with more 
 resolution," says the London Gazette. 
 
 But the fate of the bravest soldiers in the 
 world depends on the will of the general. The 
 English were well served by Mackay, whose 
 turning movement was well conceived and well 
 executed. The Irish, after the fall of St. Ruth, 
 were practically left without a leader, for Sars- 
 field was kept completely in the dark. Yet the 
 Irish centre presented a bold front to the 
 enemy until Mackay had worked round on the 
 left and threatened their rear. Then they gave 
 way, and their flight was the first intimation 
 which Sarsfield received that the day was lost.
 
 SARSFIELD 95 
 
 He Immediately took command, rallied the 
 scattered forces, and retreated to Limerick. 
 " Colonel Sarsfield," says an English authority 
 in the French archives quoted by Dr. Tod- 
 hunter, " who commanded the enemy in their 
 retreat, performed miracles, and if he was not 
 killed or taken it was not from any fault of 
 his." 
 
 On August 25, 1 69 1, an English army was 
 once more before Limerick, and Sarsfield was 
 again within the walls of the beleaguered 
 town. Limerick held bravely out ; but, with 
 the rest of Ireland conquered, Sarsfield felt 
 that he could do little more now than fight for 
 honourable terms of submission. Strange as it 
 may seem, Ginkel was as anxious to treat as 
 Sarsfield. Though successful, the English 
 General did not feel safe. William himself 
 was eager for peace. " The king," says 
 Burnet, " had given Ginkel secret instructions 
 that he should grant all the demands the Irish 
 could make that would put an end to the war." 
 Ginkel, having secured a strong position on the 
 Clare side of the river, shutting the garrison up 
 in the town, expressed his willingness, on the 
 initiative of Sarsfield, to discuss terms of capit- 
 ulation. On September 24th there was an 
 interview between Ruvigny and Sarsfield. 
 Negotiations for peace were opened, and on 
 October 3rd the rough draft of the famous
 
 96 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Treaty of Limerick was signed on a stone on 
 the Clare side of the river, just over Thomond 
 Bridge. By this treaty the Irish were guaranteed 
 civil and religious liberty. As Burnet tersely 
 puts it, " They were admitted to all the 
 privileges of subjects on taking the oath of 
 allegiance to their Majesties." When the draft 
 came to be engfrossed it was found that some 
 words of vital importance had been omitted. 
 Sarsfield's attention was called to the fact. He 
 insisted on the restoration of the words. A 
 warm discussion arose between himself and 
 Ginkel. It seemed as if the conflict would be 
 renewed. 
 
 Meanwhile a powerful French fleet had 
 arrived off the coast. The French officers in 
 Limerick urged Sarsfield to break off negotia- 
 tions ; but the Irish General said that he would 
 observe the treaty if the English would observe 
 it too by restoring the omitted words. The 
 words were then restored. But, incredible as 
 it may seem, they were again omitted in the 
 draft submitted to William for signature. To 
 his honour be it said, William, on learning of 
 the omission, replaced the words and then 
 signed the treaty. 
 
 The rest of the story of the Treaty of 
 Limerick, the story of its violation — " vio- 
 lated," as John Bright once said, "almost 
 incessantly during two centuries of time " —
 
 SARSFIELD 97 
 
 does not properly belong to the story of 
 Sarsfield's life, and shall not be told here. 
 
 In November Sarsfield, followed by 12,000 
 Irish soldiers, who marched out of Limerick 
 with all the honours of war, sailed for France 
 to enter the service of Louis XIV. The abili- 
 ties of the gallant Irishman were quickly 
 appreciated by the great General who now 
 commanded the French army. On the recom- 
 mendation of Luxembourg he was at once 
 raised to the rank of Lieutenant-General. 
 
 He was soon destined to meet his old oppo- 
 nents — Mackay, Talmash, Ruvigny, Ginkel, 
 William himself — in the campaign of the 
 Netherlands. On the hard-fought field of 
 Steinkirk his valour was conspicuous among 
 the most valiant soldiers of Europe. There 
 Mackay fell rallying the broken forces of 
 England, and Sarsfield joined in the crowning 
 charge which gave victory to the arms of 
 France. Twelve months later he fought his 
 last battle. 
 
 On July 19, 1693, Luxembourg and William 
 met again on the field of Landen. The 
 English held a strongly entrenched position in 
 and around the villages of Neerwinden and 
 Neerlanden, with a river, the Gette, in their 
 rear. At four o'clock in the morning Luxem- 
 bourg began operations, and for eleven hours 
 the battle lasted. Neerwinden was the key of 
 
 8
 
 98 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 the English position. Luxembourg concen- 
 trated all his streng-th ag-ainst it. Aofain and 
 aofain the French entered the villas^e, and 
 again and again they were driven back. 
 
 The Irish regiment of Dorrington, led by 
 Barrett, were the first in the English trenches. 
 Barrett died at his post, but not until the 
 French supports had come up and the English 
 were hotly engaged all along the line. 
 Berwick, pushing impetuously forward, was 
 taken prisoner. Solmes, bravely resisting the 
 " fiery onset of France," fell at the head of his 
 men. Ruvigny was captured, but chivalrously 
 allowed to escape, for his captors believed that 
 if given up he would be doomed to a traitor's 
 death. So the fight went on. Sometimes the 
 scale went down on the side of England, some- 
 times on the side of France. At length 
 Luxembourg ordered the Household Troops 
 — the conquerors of Steinkirk — to advance. 
 Driving the English before them, they entered 
 Neerwinden. 
 
 Rallying under the eye of William himself, 
 the English stubbornly disputed every inch of 
 ground. But the Household Troops dashed 
 on. Neerwinden was taken and held. Wil- 
 liam, covering the "slow retreat of England," 
 fell back over the Gette. 
 
 Sarsfield, who from the early morning till 
 the turn of the day was in the thickest of the
 
 SARSFIELD 99 
 
 fight, now pressed forward at the head of a 
 French cavalry regiment in hot pursuit of the 
 beaten foe. 
 
 The scene of Aughrim was reversed, and 
 Ginkel, flying from his old antagonist, narrowly 
 escaped a grave in the waters of the river. 
 
 The field was fought and won. But in the 
 arms of victory Sarsfield fell. Struck by a 
 bullet in the breast, he was borne mortally 
 wounded from the ground, and three days later 
 died at the hamlet of Huy. The Irish people 
 still fondly cherish the tradition which tells 
 how, as he was carried dying from the battle- 
 field, he exclaimed : *' Oh, would that this were 
 for Ireland!"
 
 THE IRISH BRIGADE AT 
 CREMONA 
 
 In 1 70 1 the War of the Spanish Succession 
 began. The King of Spain, Charles II., weak, 
 sickly, imbecile, had no issue. There were 
 rivals for the throne in France and Germany. 
 Louis XIV. had married Charles's elder sister, 
 Maria Theresa ; the Emperor Leopold his 
 younger sister, Margaret. Louis claimed the 
 throne for his son, the Dauphin ; Leopold for 
 his son and heir, Joseph. To avert a conflict, 
 a Partition Treaty had been made, under 
 which certain parts of the Spanish dominions 
 were to go to Louis' grandson, the son of the 
 Dauphin, Philip of Anjou ; other parts were to 
 go to the younger son of the Emperor, the 
 Archduke Charles of Austria. In November, 
 1700, Charles II. died, when it was found that 
 he had made a will, leaving all his dominions to 
 Philip. Louis accepted the will and refused to 
 carry out the Treaty. Leopold protested, and 
 in September, 1701, declared war against
 
 IRISH BRIGADE AT CREMONA loi 
 
 France. Before the end of the year Europe 
 was in a blaze. 
 
 Ten years before the outbreak of this war, 
 when, on the fall of Limerick, all hopes of 
 Irish National Independence were for the time 
 extinguished, 15,000 Irish soldiers, under Sars- 
 field, left their native land to take service in 
 the armies of France. All students of history 
 know that these exiles formed the nucleus of 
 the famous Irish Brigade, whose deeds are 
 among the proudest memories of the Irish 
 nation. Before 1701 they had distinguished 
 themselves on the batdefields of Europe, at 
 Marsiglia, at Steinkirk, at Landen. Now they 
 were destined to take the field once more, 
 and to add fresh laurels to those they had 
 already won. 
 
 In the winter of 1701 the armies of France 
 and Austria were in Italy. The French 
 headquarters were at Cremona, then a Spanish 
 possession. The Austrians lay to the north- 
 east and south-east of the town, one army 
 occupying the country between Mantua (held 
 by a French garrison) and the river Oglio, the 
 other commanding the course of the river Po 
 from Cremona to Ferrara. Could the Austrians 
 seize Cremona, they would destroy the main 
 French army opposed to them, isolate the 
 French garrison of Mantua, and become 
 masters of the whole Duchy of Milan. To
 
 ''\^^:a\^v^
 
 IRISH BRIGADE AT CREMONA 103 
 
 the. capture of Cremona, then, the Austrian 
 commander, Prince Eugene, bent all his 
 energies and resources. Cremona was held 
 by a French garrison about 8,000 strong, 
 includino- two reo^iments — Dillon's and Burke's 
 — of the Irish Brigade. It was well fortified. 
 Its natural position was strong. Bounded on 
 the south by the river Po (which was crossed 
 by a bridge of boats, protected on the southern 
 side by a redoubt), and strengthened by formid- 
 able works on the north, east, and west, it 
 could scarcely be taken by assault. Eugene 
 — one of the most successful captains of his 
 age — resorted to stratagem. 
 
 On the north side of the town, not far from 
 the gate of All Saints, lived the Cure, Cassioli 
 by name. His brother was a spy in the 
 Austrian army. Cassioli was corrupted. Every 
 day he furnished Prince Eugene with ample 
 information of all that went on. Near Cassioli's 
 house was an old aqueduct, once used as a 
 sewer. ^ The existence of this aqueduct sug- 
 gested a brilliant idea to Eugene. Why not 
 draft soldiers through it into Cremona ? The 
 co-operation of Cassioli was invited and 
 readily given. He complained to the Governor 
 that the aqueduct caused him serious incon- 
 venience. It wanted to be cleared out, he said. 
 The Governor fell into the trap. The aqueduct 
 ' See plan.
 
 I04 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 was cleared out, the grating at the extreme 
 end (the Austrian end) was removed, and the 
 way innocently prepared for the enemy's en- 
 trance. This done, half a dozen soldiers were 
 sent to make a passage through the aqueduct 
 into Cassioli's wine cellar. Then men were 
 cautiously drafted into Cassioli's house. The 
 men drafted through the aqueduct into the 
 town were, on the night of January 31, 1702, 
 to co-operate with men outside in breaking 
 down the unguarded wall near St. Margaret's 
 gate. Eugene and General Merci, at the head 
 of a strong Austrian force, some four or five 
 thousand men, would enter by this breach. 
 Eugene would seize the Town House in the 
 Central Square, shut the French up in the 
 citadel in the extreme west, and isolate the 
 guard at the Mantua Gate in the south-east. 
 Then Merci would dash for the Po Gate, over- 
 power the guard, and seize the position, where- 
 upon Prince Vaudemont, with the main body 
 of the Austrian army, 5,000 or 6,000 strong, 
 stationed at the south, would march across the 
 bridge of boats, enter at the Po Gate, reinforce 
 Eugene, overwhelm the French in the citadel, 
 and reduce the town to submission. It was a 
 well-conceived plan, and, up to a point, well 
 executed. 
 
 The French were taken utterly by surprise. 
 Marshal Villeroi seems to have thought that
 
 IRISH BRIGADE AT CREMONA 105 
 
 the town was impregnable. He scarcely took 
 any pains to keep watch or ward. Cremona 
 would take care of itself. That was his view. 
 On the east of the town, near the Gate of St. 
 Margaret, a wall had been built to bar the 
 ingress of the foe ; but no sentinel was placed 
 on the spot. Like carelessness was shown 
 almost everywhere. 
 
 The French, light-hearted and fearless, had 
 given themselves up to amusements and festivi- 
 ties, Cremona presented rather the aspect of a 
 pleasure-resort than a threatened town. Marshal 
 Villeroi did, indeed, ask for the last reports 
 of the night, before retiring to rest. The 
 reports w^ere satisfactory ; all was well. So 
 assured, the Marshal laid his head on his 
 pillow and slept like a top. At daybreak, on 
 the I St of February, he was aroused by the 
 sound of musketry. Dressing hurriedly, he 
 mounted his horse and rode for the Central 
 Square. But he was at once surrounded by 
 Austrian Cuirassiers and struck to the ground. 
 Then Captain M'Donnell, an Irish officer in 
 the service of Austria, rushed forward and 
 saved the Marshal's life. " I am Marshal 
 Villeroi," said the French Commander ; " take 
 me to my men and name your price ! " "I 
 am Francis M'Donnell, of Ba^^nis' Recrinient," 
 replied the Irishman, " and you are my 
 prisoner " ; and forthwith he handed the
 
 io6 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 French Marshal over to the Austrian General 
 of Division, Stharemberg. Eugene had, in fact, 
 seized the Town House before Villeroi was out 
 of his bed. 
 
 Though stunned by the suddenness of the 
 attack, the French quickly rallied, and fiercely 
 attacked the foe. The Chevalier D'Entragues, 
 Colonel of the Regiment des Clairveaux, was 
 first ahorse. At the head of his men he dashed 
 for the Central Square, sweeping the Austrian 
 Cuirassiers from his path. Then the Austrian 
 infantry came up. There was a desperate 
 struggle round the Town House. D'Entragues 
 was killed and his men were routed. The 
 Marquis De Crenant succeeded Villeroi in 
 command. He was immediately slain. The 
 Marquis De Mongon succeeded De Crenant. 
 
 Leading a fresh attack upon the Town 
 House he was unhorsed, trampled upon, and 
 made a prisoner. Every attempt to dislodge 
 Eugene failed. The French were repulsed 
 at every point. It remained only to seize the 
 Po Gate and the Austrians would be masters 
 of the town. 
 
 The Po Gate was the key of the situation. 
 All depended on what happened there. If it 
 were seized, then Vaudemont's forces would 
 pour like an irresistible flood into the town, 
 sweeping all before them. If it were held, the 
 French would get time to rally, the Austrians
 
 IRISH BRIGADE AT CREMONA 107 
 would remain without reinforcements, and the 
 situation might be saved. In an instant Merci 
 was at the Po Gate. Before him he saw a 
 barrier in the form of a palisade. He ordered 
 his men to hold their fire and to take the 
 position by the bayonet, reckoning, doubdess, 
 on an easy victory over the sleeping guard. 
 The Austrians advance quickly. Already 
 they are at the barrier. One rush and the 
 unsuspecting guard shall be at their mercy, and 
 the Po Gate in their hands. ''Charge!" cry 
 the Austrian officers. The men dash forward. 
 The next moment a raking fire from behind the 
 barrier drives them back, in their turn sur- 
 prised, scattered, dismayed. The Po Gate was 
 held by a handful of Irishmen of Dillon's 
 Regiment, who were wide awake. Late the 
 night before Major O'Mahony, who com- 
 manded the regiment, had visited the guard. 
 He told them to keep a bright look-out, and to 
 be up at cockcrow in the morning, when he 
 would review the regiment at the Gate. The 
 men obeyed orders, did their duty, and were 
 ready for the foe. Though staggered for the 
 moment by the suddenness and steadiness of 
 the Irish fire, the Austrians soon rallied, and 
 tried once more to take the barrier at the point 
 of the bayonet. Again they were driven back. 
 They thrust their bayonets in between the bars 
 of the palisade, but the assault at the point of
 
 io8 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 the bayonet was repelled at the point of the 
 bayonet. Merci then attacked St. Peter's 
 rampart and battery on the Irish left, com- 
 manding the Po Gate. The French guard were 
 taken unawares, and the position was seized. 
 Merci immediately turned the guns on the 
 barrier. The Irish were now in sore straits. 
 They could not shelter themselves from the fire 
 of the battery. They were at the mercy of the 
 Austrian General. They had but one hope, 
 namely, that their comrades who were in bar- 
 racks close by would be awakened by the sound 
 of musketry, and would hasten to their help. 
 Upon this they counted, and they did not count 
 in vain. At the sound of firing the men in 
 barracks sprang from their beds, seized their 
 muskets, and in trousers and shirt, with 
 O'Mahony at their head, shouting " To the 
 Po Gate ! to the Po Gate ! " dashed forward. 
 Welcome was the sound which soon broke 
 upon the ears of the men behind the barrier. 
 At a moment when all seemed lost a wild 
 cheer, which they knew well, rent the air. The 
 Austrians in front stood still, and then wheeled 
 round. Merci suddenly turned the guns of the 
 battery away from the barrier towards the town. 
 Again the wild cheer was wafted on the breeze, 
 and the Gaelic cry, " Faugh-a-Ballagh," was 
 heard above the din of battle. The guard at 
 the barrier then looked upon a sight which
 
 IRISH BRIGADE AT CREMONA 109 
 
 cheered their hearts. They saw men half 
 dressed — men in shirts and trousers — fighting 
 desperately at the rear of the Austrians, and 
 struggling splendidly to force their way to the 
 barrier itself. Then the battery on the left 
 was attacked, and men in white sprang up the 
 ramparts. The situation was clear. A fierce 
 attack had suddenly been developed on the 
 Austrian rear and flank. The object of the 
 attacking party was unmistakable. It was to 
 recapture the battery, and cut their way to the 
 barrier. On the rampart the eyes of the men 
 behind the barrier were now fixed ; for those 
 who held the battery would in the end hold the 
 gate. Upward pressed the men in white, and 
 backward went the Austrians before them. 
 Cannon, musket, bayonet, all were brought 
 into play, but onward and upward still pressed 
 the men in white. Again and again the 
 Austrians wavered. Again and again they 
 rallied, but those fierce warriors who had 
 turned out of their beds to fight, and who, 
 with bare feet and torn rags, scrambled forward, 
 could not be driven back. At length, as the 
 rays of the morning sun fell upon the scene, 
 Major Wauchop, commanding Burke's Regi- 
 ment, recaptured the battery, and stood upon 
 the ramparts' height triumphant. Below, in 
 front of the palisade, the fight raged furiously, 
 until half-naked men, grim and blood-stained,
 
 no IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 waving their muskets on high, and hoarsely- 
 shouting the war-cries of their nation, 
 clambered over the barrier, and the soldiers of 
 Dillon's Regiment joined hands with their 
 comrades. The Po Gate was saved. The 
 Austrian General Merci was borne from the 
 rampart mortally wounded. 
 
 Baron Friburg now took command, and 
 quickly renewed the attack on the barrier. But 
 Dillon's Regiment stood between him and it. 
 At the head of the Imperial Cuirassiers he 
 charged the Irish, who reeled under the shock 
 of these splendid veterans. Friburg, waving 
 his sword on high, shouted to his men to press 
 forward throucrh the broken ranks of their 
 
 o 
 
 retreating foes. O'Mahony rallied his men, 
 striving to close the horrible gaps which the 
 cavalry had made. Burke's Regiment hastened 
 to the succour of their comrades, falling on the 
 Austrian flank. Onward rode Friburg, and 
 vigorously the Austrians strove to break the 
 Irish front. It was a fearful strug^orle — " the 
 linen shirt and steel cuirass, the naked foot- 
 man and harnessed cavalier." Friburg was the 
 central figure of the fight. Risking everything, 
 he cheered his men by word and example. He 
 had ridden into the very midst of the Irish, 
 and gallantly his troops followed their dauntless 
 leader. O'Mahony, filled with admiration for 
 the noble bearing and heroic courage of the
 
 IRISH BRIGADE AT CREMONA iii 
 
 man, and seeing what Friburg did not see, 
 the imminent danger to which he was exposed 
 — for the Irish were now gathering around 
 from all quarters — rushed forward, seized the 
 rein of the Austrian's horse, shouting, " Quarter 
 for Friburg." But Friburg answered, " No 
 quarter for any one to-day," and driving his 
 spurs into his horse's side, plunged forward, 
 flinging O'Mahony from his path. In the 
 next moment he fell to the ground shot through 
 the heart. The fall of Friburg demoralised his 
 men. The Irishmen redoubled their efforts, 
 and slowly but surely back went the Imperial 
 Cavalry. 
 
 It was now noon, and Vaudemont had not 
 yet crossed the Po. O'Mahony, having with- 
 drawn the men from the fort on the further 
 side, destroyed the bridge of boats. What 
 were the Austrians to do .'* Eugfene had pfot 
 into the town by a stratagem. He now 
 resolved to break down the resistance of the 
 Irish by a stratagem. He sent Captain 
 M'Donnell, under a flag of truce to O'Mahony, 
 offering the Irish the highest terms he could 
 give if they would surrender the gate and 
 enter the Austrian service. 
 
 O'Mahony gave a practical answer to this 
 message. He made M'Donnell prisoner. " You 
 have come," he said, " not as an ambassador to 
 treat, but as a suborner to seduce. Your mission
 
 112 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 is unworthy of you and of your prince. He 
 will have to take the Po Gate before he gets 
 you back." On learning M'Donnell's fate, 
 Eugene tried another ruse. He sent Count 
 Commerci to Villeroi, saying that the efforts of 
 the Irish to hold the Po Gate were hopeless, 
 and that if persisted in would lead to the utter 
 annihilation of the force. Under these circum- 
 stances he urged Villeroi to stop further useless 
 effusion of blood, by ordering O'Mahony to 
 give up fighting. Villeroi replied : " I am a 
 prisoner. I can give no orders Let the men 
 at the Po Gate do what they like." 
 
 The men at the Po Gate cried, " No surren- 
 der ! " and stoutly defied the foe. O'Mahony, 
 having strengthened his position at the barrier, 
 now resolved to take the offensive. He ordered 
 Captain Dillon, with a detachment of Dillon's 
 Regiment, to force a passage to the Gate of 
 Mantua with a view of threatening the Austrian 
 left flank. But Dillon was driven back with 
 great slaughter. Again and again the attack 
 was renewed, and again and again repulsed. 
 
 At length O'Mahony led the attack in 
 person, pushing vigorously forward, until he 
 got jammed half-way between the two gates 
 by an Austrian force in front and rear. But 
 he was resolved not to turn back. Relying 
 upon succour from Wauchop, he pointed his 
 sword towards the Gate of Mantua, and fiercely
 
 IRISH BRIGADE AT CREMONA 113 
 
 shouted, " Forward ! " Fiercely his men obeyed, 
 and stoutly the enemy resisted. But the 
 Austrians were now hard pressed in another 
 part of the town by the French, who, issuing 
 from the citadel on the west, had pushed their 
 way northward and seized the aqueduct, thus 
 co-operating with O'Mahony, who was forcing 
 his way upward from the south and east. The 
 tide of battle had at last turned in favour of 
 France. The position of Eugene had become 
 perilous. 
 
 Hopeless of aid from Vaudemont without, 
 and his line of retreat threatened by the half- 
 circling movement of French and Irish within, 
 it was no longer a question of holding the town, 
 but of getting safely away. A retreat was 
 sounded, and the Austrians, attacked upon every 
 side, fell back all along the line. O'Mahony 
 had already reached the Gate of Mantua, and 
 was still pressing forward, when Eugene, by 
 supreme skill and gallantry, succeeded in hold- 
 ing the French and Irish in check, while his 
 routed army flew through the Gate of St. 
 Margaret's. The fio["ht had rao^ed from dark 
 to dark, but the morning's sun found the 
 French flag flying once more from the Central 
 Square, and the ramparts guarded by those 
 Irish exiles whose valour had saved the town.
 
 FONTENOY 
 
 Between 1740 and 1748 the war of the 
 Austrian Succession convulsed Europe. In 
 1 7 13 Charles VI., Archduke of Austria, King 
 of Hungary and Bohemia, and Emperor of 
 Germany, had promulgated a new law called — 
 par excellence — the " Pragmatic Sanction," by 
 which, in default of male descendants, the 
 succession to his dominions was secured in the 
 female line. In 1740 he died, leaving no male 
 issue, whereupon his daughter, Maria Theresa, 
 succeeded to his ample possessions. But her 
 rights were disputed. Frederic the Great 
 claimed the province of Silesia, Charles, Elector 
 of Bavaria, claimed the Kingdom of Bohemia, 
 while the King of Spain made still larger 
 demands. The dismemberment of the Austro- 
 Hungarian Monarchy seemed imminent; and 
 each European State was eager to range itself 
 upon the side which appeared most conducive 
 to its own interests. England and Holland 
 were among the Powers which fought in sup-
 
 FONTENOY 115 
 
 port of the Pragmatic Sanction. France ranged 
 herself upon the side of the Elector of Bavaria 
 — an old ally. Frederic and the Elector soon 
 began hostilities. The one seized Silesia, the 
 other marched into Bohemia, and was crowned 
 King. The flame thus kindled spread over 
 Europe, and blazed out in regions far beyond. 
 "The whole world," says Macaulay, "sprang 
 to arms." And, he adds, " On the head of 
 Frederic is all the blood which was shed in a 
 war which raged during many years, and in 
 every quarter of the globe, the blood of the 
 column at Fontenoy, the blood of the moun- 
 taineers who were slaughtered at Culloden. 
 The evils produced by his wickedness [for he 
 had struck the first blow] were felt in lands 
 where the name of Prussia was unknown, and, 
 in order that he might rob a neighbour whom 
 he had promised to defend, black men fought 
 on the coast of Coromandel, and red men 
 scalped each other by the great Lakes of North 
 America." 
 
 We need not follow the fortunes of this war. 
 Irish interest in it centres in a single battle ; 
 and Irishmen who, it may be, know little else 
 of the history of their country, can tell the story 
 of Fontenoy. 
 
 In 1743 England and France came to blows 
 in Germany, and France was defeated at 
 Dettingen. In 1745 they came to blows again
 
 ii6 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 in the Netherlands, and Dettin^en was avenofed. 
 There was something more avenged too ; and 
 the men who led the crowning- chargre at 
 Fontenoy shouted, as they closed with the 
 enemies of their race, " Remember Limerick ! 
 Down with the Sassenach ! " 
 
 In April, 1745, a French army of 80,000 
 men, under Marshal Saxe (Count Lowendal 
 being second in command), marched into the 
 Austrian Netherlands, and in the presence of 
 King Louis XV. and the Dauphin, laid siege to 
 Tournai. An allied army, consisting of English 
 under the Duke of Cumberland, Austrians 
 under Marshal Koenigseck, and Dutch under 
 the Prince of Waldeck (numbering in all some 
 60,000, of which 25,000 were, English), advanced 
 to save the town. Saxe, leaving 18,000 men 
 before Tournai, threw himself across the 
 enemy's path on the open plain which lies 
 near the little villages of Antoin and Fonte- 
 noy. The position was well chosen, and 
 its natural advantages were improved by the 
 military skill of the French General. On the 
 right were the villages of Fontenoy and Antoin, 
 the river Scheld (Escaut) running close by the 
 latter. On the left were the village of Rame- 
 croix and the wood of Barri. In front was 
 rising ground, and farther on were " bushy 
 hollows " stretching away towards Vezon. To 
 command the rising ground and the hollows.
 
 Av 
 
 ^.tl...^..v,oJ^--^ 
 
 ^cir [K^'i^-^
 
 FONTENOY 117 
 
 Saxe erected one redoubt on the left of 
 Fontenoy off the Vezon road, and another 
 (called d'Eu) opposite to it on the outskirts 
 of the wood ; and he calculated that the fire 
 from the guns in the redoubts would make it 
 impossible for any force to march across the 
 plain at this point in order to attack the 
 French centre. 
 
 He also erected a redoubt at Antoin (on the 
 right flank), and the space between Antoin and 
 Fontenoy (which was in front of Antoin) was 
 protected — at the suggestion, it is said, of the 
 Irishman Lally — by three more redoubts. 
 Thus a force making any attempt on the 
 French right would have to fight with these 
 three redoubts in its front. An attack on the 
 right flank would have been met by the 
 batteries of Antoin. The French left was 
 sheltered by the wood of Barri, while the 
 centre was guarded by the redoubts d'Eu and 
 Fontenoy.^ 
 
 The centre was composed (among other 
 forces) of the regiment of the King, the regi- 
 ment of Aubeterre, the Swiss Guards, and the 
 French Guards, The three redoubts on the 
 right were manned by Swiss, while d'Eu and 
 Fontenoy were held by French regiments. 
 Frenchmen also composed the right and left 
 wings generally. In reserve were the regiment 
 
 ' See plan.
 
 ii8 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 des vaisseattx and the Brigade of Normandy 
 (both posted in the village of Ramecroix), and 
 the Brigade of the Crown, and the Irish 
 Brigade (posted nearer to the French left). 
 
 The Irish Brigade — " excellent troops," says 
 a contemporary French authority— consisted of 
 the infantry regiments of Clare, Dillon, Buckley, 
 Ruth, Berwick, and Lally. There was also the 
 cavalry regiment of Fitzjames, which, however, 
 acted with the French Horse, and was, there- 
 fore, detached from the main body of their 
 fellow-countrymen. 
 
 On the loth of May the allies encamped at 
 Vezon (within about six miles of Tournai) in 
 front of the French position. After recon- 
 noitring the situation, Koenigseck proposed that 
 no direct attack should be made on the French, 
 but that Saxe should be harassed and forced, 
 by this means, to raise the siege of Tournai. 
 But Cumberland insisted on a direct attack, 
 and he overbore his colleagues. 
 
 On the I ith of May the allies were drawn up 
 in battle array, Austrians and Dutch on the 
 French right, English and Hanoverians on the 
 left and in the centre. 
 
 At 5 a.m. operations began. Brigadier- 
 General Ingoldsby was sent forward with an 
 English force (comprising the 12th and 13th 
 Foot and the 42nd Highlanders) to storm 
 d'Eu ; but so warm was his reception, that he
 
 FONTENOY 119 
 
 retreated precipitately, and did not distinguish 
 himself in any other part of the held during the 
 remainder of the day. Afterwards he was tried 
 by court-martial, and censured for his conduct 
 before d'Eu. Between 5 and 8 a.m. there was 
 a fierce artillery duel, and many fell on both 
 sides ; but the French redoubts were not 
 silenced. At 8 a.m. the Austrians and Dutch 
 were ordered to storm Antoin, and turn 
 the French position. But they failed as 
 signally as Ingoldsby had failed; nor did they 
 show much inclination subsequently to renew 
 the assault. Finding that the attacks on d'Eu 
 and Antoin had been mercilessly repulsed, 
 Cumberland opened fire on the redoubt of 
 Fontenoy ; but he too discovered that the 
 French artillerists were invincible. There was 
 now a pause in the conflict, and Cumberland 
 surveyed the situation anew. The prospects 
 were black, but not hopeless. The redoubt 
 at Fontenoy could not be silenced. The 
 redoubt at d'Eu could not be silenced. Antoin 
 could not be turned. The three redoubts, 
 raised at the suggestion of Lally, made it im- 
 possible to break through the French right 
 between Antoin and Fontenoy. The French 
 left was amply protected by the wood of Barri 
 and the forces in its vicinity. In these circum- 
 stances only one course seemed open to Cum- 
 berland. It was a desperate course, but retreat
 
 I20 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 appeared to be the alternative. " Sans peur et 
 sans avis" (to quote Carlyle), he resolved to cross 
 the plain between the redoubts d'Eu and Fon- 
 tenoy, and to grapple with the French centre 
 beyond. Forming his men into three columns, 
 he ordered them to march forward, trailing their 
 guns with them, but reserving their fire until 
 they had run the gauntlet of the redoubts and 
 come to close quarters with the French centre. 
 Riding at the head of the columns, he led the 
 way, and English and Hanoverians marched 
 forward. The batteries of d'Eu and Fontenoy 
 open a terrific cross-fire ; English and Hano- 
 verians fall in hundreds ; but Cumberland cries 
 " Forward ! " On press the men, doggedly, 
 silently. Fiercely thunder the batteries ; the 
 columns are decimated ; but Cumberland cries 
 " Forward ! " Saxe beholds the allied advance 
 with amazement, and expects every moment 
 to see the columns retreat under the terrible 
 cannonade from the redoubts, but onward they 
 steadily roll. Soon the three columns are 
 crushed into one by the French fire. But 
 Cumberland still cries " Forward ! " Slowly 
 and painfully English and Hanoverians 
 march through the "bushy hollows," strew- 
 ing the path with their dead ; but Cumber- 
 land can see nothing except the French lines 
 ahead. And now the column is abreast 
 the redoubts. The slaughter is terrible, but,
 
 FONTENOY 121 
 
 though staggering under the fire, the column 
 still reels onward. Saxe surveys the situation 
 with some anxiety. Should the column run the 
 gauntlet between d'Eu and Fontenoy success- 
 fully, he has erected no redoubt on the rising 
 ground to bar its progress — the one oversight 
 he committed on this memorable day, believing 
 that no force could survive the cross-fire 
 from the redoubts. Yet the column is forging 
 steadily ahead, while the batteries are now 
 playing fiercely on its right and left flank — 
 for it is creeping past the redoubts — and 
 EnMish and Hanoverians fall as fast as 
 
 o 
 
 ever. At length Cumberland, with decimated 
 ranks, but undaunted spirit, has passed out of 
 range of the redoubts, and is within striking 
 distance of the French centre. Pausing to 
 re-form, he prepares to force his way onward, 
 and to drive the French before him. The 
 French Guards quickly advance to check the 
 Enorlish column, but are met with a furious 
 musketry fire, and driven back in confusion. 
 The Swiss Guards and the regiment of 
 Aubeterre are sent forward to support their 
 comrades ; but the English dash up the 
 rising ground, sweeping everything from their 
 path, and not waiting to draw breath until 
 they plant their guns on the top. Then 
 Cumberland turns the tables on his enemies, 
 and pours a deadly fire into them. Regiment
 
 122 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 after regiment is sent forward to take the 
 guns, but they are driven back, broken and 
 pulverised. 
 
 Even as the redoubts of d'Eu and Fontenoy 
 had decimated the column, the column now 
 decimates the French regiments. Cumberland 
 is master of the situation. Koenigseck gallops 
 up to him, and congratulates him on his 
 " victory." Saxe is in despair, and prepares 
 to retreat. Turning to the King, he urges 
 Louis to fly while there is yet time, for the 
 Hanoverians are pressing the French right 
 and threatening the line of retreat across the 
 Scheld. But Louis refuses to quit the field, 
 and expresses his determination to share the 
 fortunes of the day with his army. The Due 
 de Richelieu, the King's aide-de-camp, rides 
 from point to point to inspect the various 
 positions. Antoin is safe. The redoubts be- 
 tween it and Fontenoy are still impregnable. 
 At Fontenoy the ammunition is giving out ; 
 but d'Eu is still formidable. He rides to 
 Ramecroix, and finds the Brigade of Nor- 
 mandy, which has not yet been in action, 
 eager for the fray, and then passing to the 
 Irish Brigade, also fresh and keen for the 
 contest, he sees Lally carefully, and even 
 hopefully, surveying the situation. We have 
 seen that it was at Lally's suggestion that the 
 three redoubts between Antoin and Fontenoy
 
 FONTENOY 123 
 
 had been constructed. The Irish Commander 
 made a still more valuable su^o-estion now. 
 The column, he said, could only be checked, in 
 the first instance, by artillery. Then, under 
 the cover of the guns, cavalry and infantry 
 could advance, and drive the English from 
 their position ; and he indicated the point 
 where the batteries might be placed. Richelieu 
 appreciates the suggestion, and quickly sub- 
 mits it to the General. Saxe approves of the 
 suggestion, and orders the guns to be brought 
 forward. 
 
 It is now one o'clock. The battle had com- 
 menced at five in the morning by an artillery 
 duel, and it seemed as if it would end by an 
 artillery duel too. Fiercely the French guns open 
 fire, and fiercely the English reply. French 
 regiments, horse and foot, dash up the rising 
 ground where the English resolutely stand ; but 
 they are blown from the cannon's mouth or scat- 
 tered by a raking musketry fire. The column 
 not only holds its own, but gains ground inch 
 by inch. Still the French batteries thunder, 
 and shot and shell break over the column or 
 drive through its serried ranks. But Cumber- 
 land grimly holds his ground, and French 
 cavalry and infantry throw themselves in 
 vain against the English squares. Saxe, who 
 is suffering acutely from dropsy, and has to be 
 borne on a litter (sucking a leaden bullet all
 
 124 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 day long to assuage his thirst), is carried 
 around the field, where he encourages the men 
 to make one supreme effort to recover the day. 
 He passes the points at which the reserves are 
 posted, and bids the Brigade of Normandy and 
 the Irish Brigade to prepare for action. The 
 French regiments — cavalry and infantry — on 
 the right, left, and in the centre have been in 
 the thick of the fight throughout the day, and 
 are terribly cut up. Even the regiment of 
 Vaisseau and the Brigade of the Crown, 
 which were in reserve, had to be called out. 
 The only fresh regiments are the Brigade of 
 Normandy and the Irish Brigade. 
 
 The French on the rio-ht are now ordered to 
 attack the Hanoverians. Richelieu at the head 
 of the Household troops leads the way, and 
 French and Hanoverians are soon locked in a 
 death struggle. On the left Count Lowendal, 
 placing himself at the head of the Irish Brigade, 
 and followed by the Brigade of Normandy 
 and the French Guards (which he had rallied), 
 points to the English position. Lally addresses 
 his men. "Forward," he says, "against the 
 enemies of France and the enemies of Ireland. 
 Reserve your fire ; trust to the bayonet. 
 Forward!" The Irishmen rush forward. A 
 young of^cer — Anthony Macdonough — is in 
 advance of his men. An English officer steps 
 out of his lines, and dashes at the Irishman.
 
 FONTENOY 125 
 
 There is a struggle — short, sharp and decisive 
 — the English officer is wounded, disarmed, and 
 made a prisoner. A cheer breaks from the 
 Irish lines, and the men press forward again. 
 Then the French Carabineers, deceived by the 
 red uniform of the Brigade, fire into them, and 
 many fall ; but this untoward mistake is soon 
 put right by the Irish cries of "Vive la 
 France ! " and the Irishmen dash forward once 
 more. Onward they go, and coolly and silently 
 the English watch and wait. " Give them the 
 bayonet ; charge ! " shouts Lally, and fiercely 
 the men plunge at their enemies. There 
 is a raking musketry fire from the English 
 lines, and the Irish dead and wounded strew 
 the ground in all directions. Clare falls pierced 
 by two bullets, and is borne wounded to the 
 rear. Dillon is killed at the head of his 
 regiment ; officers, bravely struggling to close 
 the ranks, are struck down everywhere. But 
 Lally bears a charmed life. Quickly he rallies 
 his men, and fiercely they renew the combat. 
 With cries of " Remember Limerick!" they 
 close with the enemy. Foot to foot and bayonet 
 to bayonet, English and Irish now fight for 
 victory. Cumberland is the inspiring figure on 
 one side and Lally on the other. The Cold- 
 stream Guards, in the English front, fight like 
 lions, but the Irishmen charge home, and the 
 famous Scotch regiment suffers severely. The
 
 126 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Grenadiers and the Royal Dragoons try to bar 
 the way, but the onset of these Irish exiles, 
 impelled by the memory of terrible wrongs, and 
 facing the destroyers of their nation, is irresis- 
 tible. Back they roll the foe ; and slowly and 
 sullenly, but steadily and surely, Cumberland — 
 desperately but hopelessly resisting the com- 
 bined attack of Irish and Norman, and now 
 pressed on all sides by rallying French — re- 
 crosses the plain, which a few hours before he 
 had so gallantly traversed. That night the 
 retreating allies pass along the Brussels road, 
 and the Irish encamp upon the ground they 
 had so splendidly won.
 
 JOHN KEOGH 
 
 PART I 
 
 " The peace after Limerick," said Henry Grat- 
 tan, " was to the Catholics a sad servitude, to 
 the Protestants a drunken triumph." 
 
 " The victorious party," says Hallam, "saw 
 no security but in a system of oppression, con- 
 tained in a series of laws during the reigns of 
 WilHam and Anne, which have scarcely a 
 parallel in European history, unless it be that 
 of the Protestants in France after the revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes, who yet were but a 
 feeble minority of the whole people." 
 
 In France a "feeble minority" was oppressed 
 by the nation. In Ireland the nation was 
 oppressed by a "feeble minority." 
 
 It is this fact — the oppression of a nation by 
 
 a " feeble minority " — which makes the story of 
 
 religious persecution in Ireland unique. All 
 
 the world over majorities have oppressed 
 
 minorities. In Ireland alone the minority 
 
 127
 
 128 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 oppressed the majority. And how came this 
 to pass? Because the minority in Ireland was 
 supported by the bayonets of a foreign Power 
 stronger than the Irish nation. " They who 
 carried on this system (the Penal Laws)," says 
 Burke, " looked to the irresistible force of 
 Great Britain for their support in their acts 
 of power. They were quite certain that no 
 complaints of the natives would be heard on 
 this side of the water with any other sentiments 
 than those of contempt and indignation. Their 
 cries served only to augment their torture. . . . 
 Indeed, in England, the double name of Irish 
 and Papist (it would be hard to say which 
 singly was the more odious) shut up the 
 hearts of every one against them." The op- 
 pression of the Irish Catholics in the eighteenth 
 century was, in truth, but another move in the 
 game for the subjugation of the Irish people. 
 The struggle of the Irish Catholics for freedom 
 of conscience was but a continuance of the 
 fight for national independence. " Who shall 
 possess Ireland.-* The Irish or the foreigners?" 
 That was the question in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury as it was in the sixteenth century, and 
 as it has been in all the centuries. The 
 methods were different ; the principles were 
 the same. John Keogh and Shane O'Neil 
 were inspired by the same sentiments. Both 
 fought — each in his own way — in order that the
 
 JOHN KEOGH 129 
 
 Celt might keep a grip on the land that bore 
 him. The continuity of Irish history is the one 
 ray of sunshine which penetrates the gloom that 
 envelops the story of our country. The Irish 
 have never given up the fight. 
 
 I need not retell the story of the Penal Code. 
 It is well known. By it the Irish Catholics 
 were ground to powder. Excluded from every 
 position of power and emolument, stripped of 
 property, deprived of education, told by their 
 masters that it was only " by the connivance of 
 the laws they were allowed to live," they sank 
 into a state of degrading slavery. From 1693 
 to 1774 the Penal Code remained wholly un- 
 repealed. In 1774 the first link in the chain 
 which bound the Irish Catholics was snapped. 
 A law was passed enabling them to take the 
 oath of allegiance which, in their degraded 
 condition, they valued, for it enabled them to 
 become citizens of the State. From that time 
 onward they have never ceased in the struggle 
 to recover their rights, and to break the power 
 of English Ascendency. The hero of that 
 struggle in the eighteenth century was John 
 Keogh. 
 
 John Keogh was born in 1 740. He began 
 the world as a humble tradesman, but by 
 talent and energy, displayed under the most 
 adverse circumstances, he, gradually, became 
 one of the wealthiest merchants in the City of 
 
 10
 
 I30 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Dublin. But the accumulation of wealth was 
 not the end for which John Kcogh worked. 
 The object of his heart was the emancipation 
 of the masses of the Irish people. " I have," 
 he himself said, " devoted near thirty years of 
 my life for the purpose of breaking the chains 
 of my fellow-countrymen." 
 
 Twenty years after Keogh's birth the first 
 orofanisation — the Catholic Committee — formed 
 for the purpose of obtaining the repeal of the 
 Penal Laws, was founded by Curry, Wyse, and 
 O'Connor. But these pioneers of Catholic 
 Emancipation made little progress. They 
 raised the flag of agitation, but the down- 
 trodden people could not rally to it ; and the 
 leaders themselves rather whispered their 
 grievances than loudly demanded redress. 
 Redress, indeed, came, but it was not through 
 the efforts of the Catholic Association. It 
 came when the Protestants of Ireland were in 
 revolt against England, and when England was 
 humbled to the dust by her American colonists. 
 The Relief Act of 1 778, which allowed Catholics 
 to hold landed property on lease for 999 years, 
 was passed the year after the battle of Saratoga, 
 and at a time when 60,000 armed Irish Pro- 
 testants threatened the very existence of Eng- 
 lish dominion in Ireland. It was a favourable 
 moment for justice to the Catholics. England 
 wished to conciliate them, in order that they
 
 JOHN KEOGH 131 
 
 mio-ht not throw in their lot with the Pro- 
 testant rebels, and the Protestant rebels were 
 favourable to Catholic relief, because they 
 knew not when they might want Catholic help. 
 In a moment of panic and of fear England 
 surrendered to Irish Catholics and to Irish 
 Protestants, and Catholic Relief (1778) and 
 Free Trade (1779) were the result. But the 
 Irish Protestants did not rest on their laurels. 
 Having won Free Trade by the threat of arms, 
 they were determined to win Legislative Inde- 
 pendence by the threat of arms, too, and in 
 all they did they had the support of the 
 Catholics. In 1782 England again surren- 
 dered, and the right of the Irish Parliament, 
 and of " no other body of men," to make laws 
 for Ireland was, in the words of the English 
 Act of Parliament, " established and ascer- 
 tained for ever." The Irish Protestant revolu- 
 tionary movement of 1 775-82 made for Catholic 
 freedom, as well as for Protestant independence. 
 Under its aegis the Act of 1778 was, as we 
 have seen, passed. In 1782 further ** con- 
 cessions " were made. Catholics were allowed 
 to keep schools (with the permission of the 
 Protestant bishop of the diocese), and to hold 
 land in the same way as Protestants, and the 
 Acts against hearing or celebrating Mass, and 
 against a Catholic owning a horse above the 
 value of ;^5, and other obnoxious enactments,
 
 132 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 were repealed. Catholics and Protestants had 
 both been oppressed — the one by the Penal 
 Code, the other by commercial restrictions. 
 The common struggle against England in 
 1775-82 had at length bound the Irish popula- 
 tion together. The Protestants discovered 
 that Ireland was their country, and that the 
 Catholics were their fellow-countrymen. "As 
 the English in Ireland," says Burke, "began 
 to be domiciled, they began also to recall that 
 they had a country. The English interest, at 
 first by faint and almost insensible degrees, 
 but at length openly and avowedly, became an 
 independent Irish interest, fully as independent 
 as it could ever have been if it had continued 
 in the persons of the native Irish." 
 
 John Keogh had, of course, joined the 
 Catholic Committee, which during all these 
 years had remained a very tame organisation, 
 and was absolutely ineffective as an agitating 
 power. Catholic relief between i778andi7 82 
 was the result of Protestant treason. But 
 unhappily the Protestants, having, with 
 Catholic aid, wrung what they wanted from 
 England, gradually — as English influence 
 bepan once more to insinuate itself into their 
 councils — became unmindful of Catholic in- 
 terests. As a body, they failed to see what 
 Grattan saw — that complete Catholic Emanci- 
 pation was necessary for absolute Protestant
 
 JOHN KEOGH 133 
 
 independence ; that the power of England, 
 which had been exercised to the injury of 
 CathoHc and Protestant alike, could only be 
 successfully resisted when Catholic and Pro- 
 testant stood shoulder to shoulder for Ireland. 
 Legislative independence ought to have been 
 immediately followed by the repeal of the whole 
 Penal Code. But unfortunately the Protestant 
 Episcopalians were timid, and England played 
 on their timidity. Though the Irish Parlia- 
 ment was independent, the Irish Executive was 
 wholly under English control, and the bureau- 
 cracy of Dublin Castle still worked to maintain 
 English authority by weakening the union 
 between all Irishmen, which had been the 
 result of the struggle of 1775-82. Between 
 1782 and 1790 there were two parties in the 
 Catholic Committee — a Moderate Party, led by 
 Lord Kenmare ; an Extreme Party, led by John 
 Keogh. The Moderates believed practically 
 in leaving everything to the Government. The 
 Catholics might, indeed, state their grievances, 
 but the measure of redress should be prescribed 
 by the Ministers. Lord Kenmare and his party 
 apparently thought that people who desired 
 justice should be content with waiting, watching 
 and petitioning. These were not the views of 
 Keogh, who might well be called O'Connell I. 
 He believed in agitation. He believed in for- 
 mulating demands. He believed in thundering
 
 134 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 at the gates of the Constitution until those 
 who held the keys were forced to give them up. 
 Kenmare's policy had had a fair trial, and the 
 result was humiliating. In 1790 the Catholic 
 Committee waited on the Chief Secretary, and 
 requested him to support a petition to Parlia- 
 ment simply praying that the grievances of the 
 Catholics mioht be taken into consideration. 
 The request was refused. In the same year an 
 address of loyalty to the Lord- Lieutenant was 
 contemptuously returned to the Catholics 
 because they had ventured to express the hope 
 that there might be a further relaxation of the 
 Penal Code. " In the beginning of 1 791," says 
 Mr. Lecky, " a deputation from the Catholic 
 Committee went to the Castle with a list of the 
 penal laws which they were anxious to have 
 modified and repealed, but they were dismissed 
 without the courtesy of an answer." Kenmare 
 was prepared to suffer these insults to the 
 end of the chapter; not so John Keogh. In 
 1 79 1 Kenmare moved a resolution in the Com- 
 mittee jDroposing to "leave the measure and 
 extent of future relaxations of the disabilities 
 wholly to the Legislature." Keogh opposed 
 the resolution, and it was defeated ; whereupon 
 Kenmare, followed by sixty-eight other aristo- 
 crats, retired from the Committee, and John 
 Keogh became supreme in the councils of the 
 association. It is creditable to the Catholics ol
 
 JOHN KEOGH 135 
 
 that time, as Mr. Lecky notes, that " resolutions 
 were passed in ahnost all the counties and 
 large towns of the kingdom approving of the 
 conduct of the majority and censuring the 
 sixty-eight seceders." 
 
 It was about this period, while the relations 
 between Lord Kenmare and John Keogh were 
 strained, that Wolfe Tone appeared upon the 
 scene. Tone viewed the situation from a 
 standpoint of absolute independence. He 
 looked upon Catholics and Protestants alike as 
 slaves, the difference between them being that 
 the Protestants did not know it and the Catho- 
 lics did. The national spirit of 1782 had, 
 in his opinion, disappeared, and the demon of 
 English Ascendency was presiding once more 
 over Irish councils. He despised the Irish 
 Parliament. In theory — such was his view — 
 it was, no doubt, independent, but in practice it 
 was as much as ever under English control. No 
 laws could practically be passed without the 
 sanction of the English Minister. The 
 Executive was English, the influence of Eng- 
 land overshadowed everything. " I made 
 speedily," he says, "what was to me a great 
 discovery, though I might have found it in 
 Swift or Molyneux, that the influence of Eng- 
 land was the radical vice of our Government, 
 and, consequently, that Ireland would never be 
 cither free, prosperous, or happy until she was
 
 136 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 independent, and that independence was un- 
 attainable whilst the connection with England 
 existed." 
 
 The population of Ireland at this time was 
 about 4,000,000 : three millions Catholics, half 
 a million Protestant Episcopalians, half a 
 million Presbyterians. Tone had little faith 
 in the Episcopalians. They were the Ascen- 
 dency Party. They possessed all positions of 
 power and emolument. They had no grievances. 
 But the Catholics and the Presbyterians had 
 grievances ; and to unite Catholics and Presby- 
 terians in one ereat movement for the overthrow 
 of English authority became the aim of his life. 
 
 Belfast was a hotbed of Republicanism. The 
 French Revolution had breathed a spirit of 
 rebellion into the Presbyterian body. They 
 were ripe for treason. " The triumph of the 
 Volunteers in 1782," says Mr. Lecky, "formed 
 a very dangerous precedent of a legislature 
 overawed or influenced by a military force." 
 The lesson was not forgotten. Though the 
 Volunteers had dwindled in numbers, they 
 were still "a formidable body," and their 
 strength was in Ulster. " In 1790 Charlemont 
 found that the Derry army alone was at least 
 3,400 strong ; and two years later Lord West- 
 morland (the Lord- Lieutenant) ascertained that 
 the Volunteer force possessed no less than 
 forty-four cannon."
 
 JOHN KEOGH 137 
 
 " Towards the close of 1790," continues Mr. 
 Lecky, " the Irish Government sent information 
 to England that a dangerous movement had 
 be^un amono- the Volunteers at Belfast. Reso- 
 lutions had been passed, and papers circulated, 
 advocating the abolition of all tithes, or at 
 least all tithes paid by Protestant Dissenters 
 and Catholics, as well as a searching reform of 
 Parliament and of Administration ; eulogising 
 the * glorious spirit ' shown by the French in 
 adopting the wise system of Republican 
 Government, and abroo^ating" the enormous 
 power and abused influence of the clergy ; 
 inviting the Protestant Dissenters to support 
 the enfranchisement of the Catholics, and to 
 co-operate with the Catholics in advocating 
 Parliamentary Reform and the abolition of 
 tithes. The Volunteers were reminded that 
 whatever constitutional progress had been 
 obtained had been due to them, and they were 
 urged to make every effort at once to fill their 
 ranks." In July, 1791, there was a great 
 rebellious demonstration in the northern capital 
 in commemoration of the French Revolution. 
 
 " Belfast," says Mr. Froude, "rivalled Paris 
 in extravagance. . . . The ceremonial com- 
 menced with a procession. The Volunteer 
 companies, refilled to their old numbers, 
 marched past with banners and music. A 
 battery of cannon followed, and behind the
 
 138 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 cannon a portrait of Mirabeau. Then a 
 gigantic triumphal car, bearing a broad sheet 
 of canvas, on which was painted the opening 
 of the Bastile dunoeons. In the foregrround 
 was the wasted figure of the prisoner who had 
 been confined there thirty years. In the near 
 distance the doors of the cells flung back, 
 disclosinof the skeletons of dead victims or 
 livinp" wretches writhino- in chains and torture. 
 
 o o 
 
 On the reverse of the canvas Hibernia was seen 
 reclining, one hand and one foot in shackles, 
 and a volunteer artilleryman holding before her 
 eyes the radiant image of liberty. ... In 
 the evening three hundred and fifty patriots 
 sat down to dinner in the Linen Hall. They 
 drank to the King of Ireland. They drank to 
 Washington, the ornament of mankind. They 
 drank to Grattan, Molyneux, Franklin, and 
 Mirabeau — these last two amidst applause that 
 threatened to shake the building to the 
 oTOund." 
 
 Tone quickly turned his attention to Ulster. 
 In September, 1791, he published a pamphlet 
 in Dublin signed " A Northern Whig," in 
 which he urged the necessity of union between 
 Catholics and Presbyterians. In October he 
 went to Belfast, where the pamphlet had 
 attracted much attention ; and there, on the 
 loth of the month, in conjunction with Samuel 
 Neilson, Henry Joy M'Cracken, and Thomas
 
 JOHN KEOGH 139 
 
 Russell, he founded the famous " United Irish 
 Society." At first this organisation was con- 
 stitutional, its platform being union among all 
 classes and creeds of Irishmen, Parliamentary 
 reform, and Catholic Emancipation. Tone 
 was, of course, a rebel from the beginning to 
 the end ; but his influence in the society was 
 not at first paramount. Having got in touch 
 with the men of the North, he next placed 
 himself in communication with the leading 
 democrats of the Catholic Committee in Dublin 
 — Keogh, Braughall, M'Cormack, Byrne, and 
 Sweetman — and Kenmare and the aristocrats 
 having by this time seceded, a union between 
 the Catholic Committee and the United Irish- 
 men was soon formed. This union alarmed the 
 Government. " The language and bent of the 
 conduct of the Dissenters," wrote Westmor- 
 land to Dundas, " is to unite with the Catholics, 
 and their union would be very formidable. 
 That union is not yet made, and I believe and 
 hope it never could be." Before the end of the 
 year, however, it was made, and the English 
 Cabinet resolved to consider the Catholic 
 claims. In 1778 concessions had been made to 
 the Catholics to draw them away from the Pro- 
 testant Volunteers. Concessions were now to 
 be made in order to draw them away from the 
 Presbyterian Republicans. Half a million Pro- 
 testants or half a million Presbyterians might
 
 I40 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 be easily dealt with. But either, supported 
 by three millions of Catholics, would, as 
 Westmorland had said, be " formidable." 
 Dundas wrote to the Lord- Lieutenant in 
 December, 1791, referring to the attempt to 
 unite Catholics and Presbyterians, and hoping 
 that the Catholics would not be seduced from 
 their "quiet and regular demeanour." In 
 another letter he said that England might soon 
 be at war, and in that event it would be 
 advisable to conciliate the Catholics. "The 
 example of the volunteers" (I quote Mr. 
 Lecky's summary) " is but too plain, and 
 Catholics had their part in the triumph of 
 1782." 
 
 The demands of the Catholic Committee 
 were the admission of the Catholics to the legal 
 profession, to the magistracy, to the Grand Jury, 
 to the Municipal Corporations, and, above all, 
 to the elective franchise. Pitt and Dundas 
 were prepared to consider these demands in 
 1792. The storm in Europe was rising. They 
 wished to pacify Ireland. But the Castle 
 bureaucrats were opposed to all concessions. 
 "The Irish frame of Government," wrote the 
 Lord-Lieutenant to Pitt, " is a Protestant gar- 
 rison in possession of the land, magistracy, and 
 power of the country, holding that property 
 under the tenure of British power and supre- 
 macy, and ready at every instant to crush the
 
 JOHN KEOGH 141 
 
 rising of the conquered." It was the duty 
 of England, Westmorland said, in effect, to 
 support the "garrison" and to keep the 
 "conquered" down. The Chief Secretary 
 Hobart took the same line. " Be assured, my 
 dear sir," he wrote to Dundas, "that you are on 
 the eve of being driven to declare for the 
 Protestants or the Catholics," adding : " The 
 connection between England and Ireland rests 
 absolutely on Protestant Ascendency." Hobart 
 went to London to press the Castle view on the 
 Cabinet. "I may add," he wrote to Westmor- 
 land from London on the 25th of January, 1792, 
 " that all idea of a Catholic game (if such 
 ever was entertained) is at an end, and the 
 British Government will decidedly support the 
 Protestant Ascendency, which opinion seemed 
 to have been Mr. Pitt's from the beginning, 
 and Dundas's ultimately." Yet the British 
 Cabinet did not in the end "support the Pro- 
 testant Ascendency decidedly." The British 
 Cabinet was afraid of the union between the 
 Catholics and the Presbyterians, and abandoned 
 the extreme Protestant party, ordering the 
 Castle to support a Bill introduced in February, 
 1792, by Sir Hercules Langrishe (one of the 
 leaders of the Liberal Protestants), which pro- 
 posed to admit Catholics to the Bar, to the rank 
 of King's Counsel, to allow them to be solicitors, 
 to keep schools without the license of the
 
 142 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Protestant Bishop of the diocese, to intermarry 
 with Protestants, provided the service was 
 performed by a clergyman of the EstabHshed 
 Church, and to employ in trade any number 
 of apprentices they chose. This Bill passed 
 practically without opposition. In the course of 
 the debate two petitions — one on behalf of the 
 Catholic Committee, praying for the admission 
 of the Catholics to the franchise, and the other 
 on behalf of the Presbyterians of Antrim, pray- 
 ing for complete Catholic Emancipation — were 
 presented to the House. The Castle and the 
 extreme Ascendency party opposed both peti- 
 tions. The reception of the Catholic petition 
 was moved by Mr. Egan, member for Tallaght ; 
 the reception of the Presbyterian by Mr. O'Neil, 
 member for the county Antrim. Mr. Latouche 
 proposed the rejection of the Catholic petition. 
 Mr. Ogle supported him. " I rise," said Mr. 
 Ogle, "to say that the claims that are every 
 moment being made on the Protestant Ascen- 
 dency must be met ; a line must be drawn some- 
 where, beyond which we must not recede. , . ." 
 Said Mr. Latouche, " If this petition be com- 
 plied with it will affect our establishments in 
 Church and State." " Protestant Ascendency 
 must be maintained," said General Conyngham, 
 " and by Protestant Ascendency I mean a 
 Protestant King, a Protestant House of 
 Lords, and a Protestant House of Com-
 
 JOHN KEOGH 143 
 
 mons." " Tell the Catholics boldly," said Mr. 
 W. B. Ponsonbv. " that we will not grrant 
 their claims." " Reoardino- the Protestant 
 Constitution," said the Chief Secretary, "as I 
 do, I cannot concur with this (the Catholic) 
 petition, nor have I any fear in rejecting it." 
 Grattan, Curran, and Colonel (afterwards 
 General) Hutchinson appealed to the House 
 to do justice to the masses of the nation. 
 
 Hutchinson made the speech of the night. 
 
 He said : " In times of dread and dangler 
 the Catholics were your associates, your 
 soldiers, your defenders ; now, in a moment of 
 tranquillity, when you think you have no occa- 
 sion for their services you reject and calumniate 
 them. You called upon them in 1779 to assist 
 you in recovering your commerce, in re-estab- 
 lishing your Constitution, in defending your 
 country against foreign invasion ; your call 
 was a proof of your weakness and your fears ; 
 their obedience was a proof of their affection 
 and of their strength. Did they seize on 
 a dangerous and critical moment in order 
 to embarrass your affairs } Did they then 
 remember the oppression and the miseries 
 of ages ? They saw in the establishment of 
 Protestant liberty, if not their own emancipa- 
 tion, at least the pride and glory of the country 
 which had given them birth." 
 
 This was a noble appeal, but the influences
 
 144 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 of the Castle prevailed against it. The Catholic 
 petition was rejected by 208 to 23 votes. The 
 Presbyterian petition was then brought forward, 
 and rejected too. 
 
 But John Keogh did not despair. He 
 determined to carry on the war until the 
 franchise was conceded. 
 
 PART II 
 
 Immediately after the rejection of the petition 
 praying for admission of the Catholics to the 
 Parliamentary franchise in 1792, John Keogh 
 prepared to reorganise the Catholic Committee 
 on a broad, popular basis. The plan of re- 
 organisation, drawn up by Myles Keon, of 
 Keonbrook, County Galway, was as follows : — 
 
 Two members from each county, and one 
 from each leading city, were to be associated 
 with the General Committee in Dublin. The 
 election of the county members was to be car- 
 ried out thus : Each parish was, in the first 
 instance, to nominate the men of its own 
 choice, and then the men so nominated were 
 to become the candidates for election in counties, 
 the polling for which was to take place at the 
 chief towns in each county, much on the 
 same principle as a Parliamentary election 
 would be conducted. The city members were
 
 JOHN KEOGH 145 
 
 to be elected in the same way as an ordinary- 
 borough member of Parh'ament would be elected. 
 It was a necessary qualification for election 
 that the candidates should be residents of the 
 counties or cities they sought to represent. The 
 ordinary routine business of the association was 
 to be carried on as usual by the General Com- 
 mittee in Dublin ; but whenever matters of an 
 extraordinary nature were to be transacted, such 
 as petitioning Parliament or making arrange- 
 ments generally for a parliamentary campaign, 
 &c., the county members were to be sum- 
 moned to meet in full convention in the 
 Metropolis. 
 
 As John Keogh was the forerunner of 
 O'Connell, the reorsi^anised Catholic Com- 
 mittee of the eighteenth century was the fore- 
 runner of the great Catholic Association of the 
 nineteenth. 
 
 Keogh brought his co-religionists throughout 
 the country into touch with each other ; he 
 taught them the value of combined action. He 
 gave them their first lesson in self-help and 
 self-reliance. In truth, he laid the foundation 
 of almost all the popular organisations which 
 have since his time sprung up in the country. 
 As soon as Keogh's plan was published in the 
 daily press, the Ascendency took alarm. The 
 plan was denounced as illegal and seditious, 
 and the Government was called on to crush the 
 
 II
 
 146 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Catholic Committee. Keogh took the prosaic 
 course of submitting a case to counsel. Simon 
 Butler and Beresford Burton were asked to 
 answer the following" queries : — 
 
 " I. Have his Majesty's subjects of Ireland 
 professing the Catholic religion a right to 
 petition his Majesty and the Legislature for 
 the redress of grievances equally with Pro- 
 testants, and, if not, wherein do they differ ? " 
 
 " 2. If they have this right, may they law- 
 fully choose delegates for the purpose of framing 
 such petition, and presenting the same in a 
 peaceable and respectful manner ; and, if they 
 may not, by what law or statute are they 
 forbidden to do so .-^ " 
 
 Both these queries were answered in the 
 affirmative. " Delegation," said Butler, "has 
 always been considered not only as the most 
 effective mode of obtaining the general sense, 
 but also as the best security against tumult and 
 disturbance." 
 
 Armed with this opinion, Keogh pushed 
 vigorously forward with his plans. Wolfe Tone 
 was now the paid agent of the Catholic Com- 
 mittee, and the work of issuing counter mani- 
 festoes in reply to the attacks of the Ascendency 
 fell to his hands — a work which he executed 
 with skill and success. Keogh's policy was to 
 cling closer than ever to the Presbyterian 
 alliance, and to draw the Catholic Bishops into
 
 JOHN KEOGH 147 
 
 the movement. It was a bold and a difficult 
 policy. But Keogh felt that the combination 
 of the Catholic Church and the Ulster 
 Republicans would bring the English Govern- 
 ment to their bearings. The Church did not 
 like the alliance. The Presbyterians did not 
 like it. Wolfe Tone did not like it. But 
 Keoeh never showed his streno^th so much as 
 in uniting these naturally divergent forces 
 against the common enemy. Keogh well 
 understood that the Catholic Church was one 
 of the permanent institutions of the country, 
 and he was resolved, despite the timidity of the 
 Bishops, that the Church should rally to the 
 nation in this struggle. One of his first acts, 
 after the reorganisation of the Committee, was 
 to go on a mission to the South and West, 
 visiting eminent ecclesiastics, and satisfying 
 them of the legality of his agitation. 
 
 In July he visited Belfast with Tone, and 
 conferred with the Presbyterians on the general 
 situation. There was a great demonstration 
 at the Linen Hall on the 14th of July, and 
 Catholics and Presbyterians united in demand- 
 ing complete religious equality. " We know 
 nothing," said Samuel Neilson, " of a Roman 
 Catholic question, or a Church question, of a 
 Presbyterian, a Quaker, or an Anabaptist 
 question. The question is, Shall Irishmen be 
 free or not ? " A Protestant clergyman, the
 
 148 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Rev. J. Kilburn, said : " It is time to quit this 
 foolery (of saying that the Protestant mind is 
 not yet prepared to give, or the CathoHc mind 
 to receive, complete emancipation) and to join 
 hands and voices with your Catholic brethren 
 to recover the birthright which you both have 
 lost." " I would rather," said another Pro- 
 testant clergyman, " transport myself to Botany 
 Bay than live in a country which keeps itself in 
 abject slavery by internal divisions." There 
 was a banquet in the evening, when the fol- 
 lowing toasts were proposed : " The National 
 Assembly of France," " The French Army," 
 " Confusion to the Enemies of French Liberty," 
 " May the Glorious Revolution of France 
 teach the Governments of every Country 
 Wisdom." 
 
 Keosfh now resolved to summon a great 
 convention of the Catholics in Dublin for the 
 purpose of petitioning the King to grant the 
 franchise to the Catholics. This was a bold 
 step. We can scarcely at the present day 
 realise its boldness. The convention was 
 little short of a Catholic Parliament ; and was, 
 in fact, called the " Back Lane Parliament." 
 The Ascendency felt that if the convention met 
 all would be lost, and every effort was made to 
 prevent the success of Keogh's plans. But 
 Keogh was absolutely within the law, and the 
 English Cabinet shrank from prohibiting the
 
 JOHN KEOGH 149 
 
 election of the deleofates for the convention. 
 Yet the Cabinet was in a vacillatino- state of 
 mind ; sometimes disposed to consider the 
 Catholic claims in a favourable light, some- 
 times disposed to make no concession. But 
 the Castle was consistent in advising a policy 
 of " No surrender" from the beorlnnino- to the 
 
 o o 
 
 end. In September an event took place which 
 threw the Cabinet on the side of the Catholics. 
 The allies of England were beaten by the 
 French at Valmy. Tone appreciated the 
 meaning of this victory. He notes in his 
 diary : " Huzza, huzza ! Brunswick and his 
 army are running out of France, with Domou- 
 riez pursuing him. Huzza, huzza ! If the 
 French had been beaten it was all over with 
 us." The news was received with joy in 
 Dublin and Belfast. Both cities illuminated. 
 In the northern capital the Volunteers turned 
 out and fired ihr^o. feux de joie in honour of the 
 day. A mass meeting was held, consisting of 
 armed and unarmed citizens, to congratulate 
 the French on their "glorious" victory. Illu- 
 minated devices were exhibited throughout 
 the town displaying the following mottoes : 
 " Perfect Union and Equal Liberty to the Men 
 of Ireland;" "Vive la Republique ; " "Vive 
 La Nation ;" "Liberty Triumphant;" " France 
 is Free — So May We ; " " Irishmen Rejoice ; " 
 "Union Amoncr Irishmen;" "We are En-
 
 ISO IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 slaved — We have only to Unite and be 
 Free." 
 
 December was fixed for the meeting of the 
 Catholic Convention. In October twenty-two 
 counties and most of the cities had already 
 chosen delegates. In October Westmorland 
 wrote to Pitt : " The Catholic Committee are 
 attempting, and have, to a certain degree, 
 gained a power over the people . . . and if 
 the Convention should meet, will probably 
 have such influence and authority as will be 
 quite incompatible with the existence of any 
 other Government." Some time later he wrote 
 again — and the letter shows how completely 
 Keogh had anticipated O'Connell : " The 
 Catholic Committee have already exercised 
 most of the functions of a Government. They 
 have levied contributions ; they have issued 
 orders for the preservation of the peace — a 
 circumstance, perhaps, more dangerous than 
 if they could direct a breach of it ; they main- 
 tain the cause of individuals accused of public 
 crimes ; their mandates are considered by the 
 lower classes as laws ; their correspondences 
 and communications with different parts of the 
 kingdom are rapid, and carried on, not by the 
 post, but by secret channels and agents. If 
 the Committee have acquired this degree of 
 power, what may not be apprehended from the 
 power of the Convention ? "
 
 JOHN KEOGH 151 
 
 In November he wrote asfain : — 
 
 " The Democratic leaders (Keogh and the 
 Committee) have forced the clergy into co- 
 operation and the gentry into acquiescence. 
 The elective franchise is accepted by them 
 all. They mean to press it as a prelude to the 
 abolition of all distinctions. The attainment 
 of the franchise they consider decisive of their 
 future power in the State. They have coalesced 
 with the United Irishmen and with every 
 turbulent spirit in the country." 
 
 The hope of Westmorland and the Castle 
 was that the English Cabinet might be per- 
 suaded to prevent the meeting of the Conven- 
 tion. But they received cold comfort from 
 England. " Encrland," wrote the Cabinet, 
 " requires all the force she possesses at home 
 to protect her from foreign and domestic 
 enemies. . . . You must act on your own 
 responsibility." 
 
 Left to his own responsibility, Westmorland 
 did not attempt to prevent the meeting of the 
 Convention. It met on the 3rd of December, 
 1792. A petition was prepared praying for 
 the admission of the Catholics to the franchise, 
 and it was decided that the petition should be 
 presented to the King in person. Five dele- 
 gates were chosen to undertake this duty : John 
 Keogh, Sir Thomas French, Patrick Byrne, 
 James Devereux, and Christopher Bcllew.
 
 152 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 The delegates proceeded to London via Bel- 
 fast, where they met with a warm reception 
 from their Presbyterian allies. In London they 
 were introduced to the King by Dundas. The 
 King, we are told, received them "graciously." 
 In January, Westmorland and Hobart (the 
 Chief Secretary) wrote again to the Cabinet, 
 urging Pitt and Dundas not to give way, 
 declaring that concessions to the Catholics 
 would be fraught with great danger to the State. 
 But Dundas replied, in effect, that concessions 
 would have to be made; adding, "had the 
 franchise being granted a year ago, it would 
 have been enough ; now it will probably not be 
 enough." 
 
 In February, 1793, Hobart was forced to 
 rise in his place in the House of Commons, and 
 to move the first reading of a Bill admittinor 
 
 o o 
 
 Catholics to the parliamentary franchise, to the 
 Magistracy, to the Grand Jury, to the Muni- 
 cipal Corporations, to the Dublin University, to 
 many civil and military offices ; and allowing 
 them, subject to certain restrictions with refer- 
 ence to the possession of property, to carry arms. 
 All opposition to the concession had by this 
 time broken down, and the Bill soon became 
 law. An amendment for the admission of 
 Catholics to Parliament was defeated by 136 to 
 69 votes ; and the measure was deprived of 
 much grace by the Act which accompanied
 
 JOHN KEOGH 153 
 
 it, preventing the holding of conventions in 
 future. 
 
 Yet the concession was substantial ; and it 
 was the one great victory of Keogh's life. 
 
 In the events which followed he did not play 
 a leading part ; but after the Union he resumed 
 his place as a Catholic leader, and took an 
 active part in the deliberations of the reformed 
 Catholic Committee. His day, however, was 
 over, and in November, 18 17, he passed away 
 at the ripe age of "]"]. But he had lived long 
 enough to see his mantle fall upon the shoulders 
 of Daniel O'Connell.
 
 WOLFE TONE 
 
 Theobald Wolfe Tone has a distinct place 
 
 in Irish history. He is the Irish Separatist 
 
 par excellence. Irishman there have been who 
 
 beean as Constitutional ao-itators and ended as 
 
 rebels. Such men were among Tone's own 
 
 colleagues in the United Irish movement, and 
 
 such men gathered around Thomas Davis and 
 
 Gavan Duffy half a century later. Irishmen 
 
 there have also been who began as rebels and 
 
 ended as Constitutional agitators. They are in 
 
 our midst to-day. But Tone began and ended 
 
 as a rebel. His disciples are the founders of 
 
 the Fenian organisation. 
 
 Tone was a formidable rebel. A competent 
 
 authority bears testimony to the fact. " Wolfe 
 
 Tone," says the Duke of Wellington, " was 
 
 a most extraordinary man, and his history is 
 
 the most curious history of those times. With 
 
 a hundred guineas in his pocket, unknown and 
 
 unrecommended, he went to Paris in order to 
 
 overturn the British Government in Ireland. 
 
 154
 
 WOLFE TONE 155 
 
 He asked for a large force, Lord Edward 
 Fitz-Gerald for a small one. They listened to 
 Tone ; " and the Bantry Bay expedition was 
 the result. For the failure of that expedition 
 Tone was not responsible. He had organised 
 victory — an incompetent French general 
 contrived defeat. " The army," says Mr. 
 Froude, "was composed of fifteen thousand of 
 the very best troops which France possessed, 
 with heavy trains of field artillery, and sufficient 
 spare muskets and powder to arm half the 
 peasants in Ireland. The reputation of General 
 Hoche (the commander) was second only to 
 that of Napoleon. The next officer in com- 
 mand was Grouchy." The ship bearing Hoche 
 never reached the Irish coast. But on Decem- 
 ber 21, 1796, Grouchy, with thirty-five sail, 
 opened Bantry Bay. "At any time during 
 that day or the next had (he) ventured to act 
 on his own responsibility he might have chosen 
 his own point of landing, and Cork must in- 
 evitably have fallen. It had no land defences, 
 and on the side of the sea no batteries which 
 a couple of line-of-battle could not have 
 silenced." But "then, as twenty years later, 
 on another occasion no less critical. Grouchy 
 was the good genius of the British Empire. 
 He continued to cruise as he was directed, 
 standing off and on upon that uncertain coast " 
 until a storm arose and swept his fleet to sea.
 
 156 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 His incapacity to grasp a great opportunity 
 lost Ireland as it lost Waterloo. Recalling 
 these events, one may well repeat what Mr. 
 Goldwin Smith has said of Tone: " Thouorh 
 his name is little known among Englishmen, 
 he . . . brave, adventurous, sanguine, fertile 
 in resource, buoyant under misfortune . . . was 
 near being as fatal an enemy to England as 
 Hannibal was to Rome." 
 
 Wolfe Tone was born in Dublin in 1763. A 
 graduate of Trinity College and a member 
 of the Bar, he entered politics in 1 790-1. 
 Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary 
 Reform were the questions of the hour. The 
 Catholic organisation had just fallen under the 
 influence of John Keogh, and a secret political 
 society, pledged to reform, had been established 
 in Belfast. Tone flung himself into the 
 Catholic cause and joined the Ulster Re- 
 formers. Visiting Belfast in 1791, he met the 
 members of the secret political society and 
 co-operated with them in founding the United 
 Irish movement. This movement was, in the 
 beginning, Constitutional. The majority of its 
 founders were Parliamentary Reformers. But. 
 as I have said. Tone was always a rebel ; he 
 has himself placed the fact beyond controversy. 
 "To subvert the tyranny of our execrable 
 Government," he says, "to break the connec- 
 tion with England, the never-failing source of
 
 WOLFE TONE 157 
 
 our political evils, and to assert the inde- 
 pendence of my country — these were my 
 objects. To unite the whole people of Ire- 
 land, to abolish the memory of our past 
 dissensions, and to substitute the common 
 name of Irishmen in place of the denomina- 
 tion of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter — 
 these were my means." Tone strove earnestly 
 to bring the United Irishmen and the 
 Catholic Committee into touch. He succeeded. 
 In 1792 the Catholic leaders visited Belfast, 
 and then and there was sealed the bond of 
 union between them and their Ulster brethren. 
 In the same year Tone became assistant 
 secretary to the Catholic Committee. Catholic 
 and United Irishmen now worked together for 
 a common cause. Catholic Emancipation and 
 Parliamentary Reform was the cry of both. 
 The Catholics were organised as they had 
 never been organised before. Agents of the 
 Committee were sent throughout the country. 
 Communications were opened between Dublin 
 and the provinces. There was a consolidation 
 of forces and a concentration of aims which 
 made the agitators formidable. " I have made 
 men of the Catholics," said Keogh. It was no 
 idle boast. He had infused a spirit of inde- 
 pendence into the Catholic body, which gave 
 life and energy to the Catholic movement. 
 The country was roused. The Ministers were
 
 158 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 alarmed. The union between Northern Pres- 
 byterians and Southern Catholics sent a thrill 
 through the Cabinet. Troubles on the Con- 
 tinent increased. England's allies were routed 
 by the soldiers of France. 
 
 The principles of the Revolution spread to 
 Ulster. Protestant Volunteers marched through 
 the Protestant capital, cheering for the French 
 Republic and bidding defiance to England. 
 The victory of Valmy gave joy to many 
 a Northern and many a Southern heart. 
 The Government felt that the United Irish- 
 men and the Catholics were driving in the 
 direction of Separation. How were they to 
 be stopped ? By a policy of conciliation which 
 would break up the union of their forces, 
 satisfying the one and isolating the other. So 
 thought Pitt ; and acting on the conviction, he 
 resolved to grant the most urgent demands of 
 the Catholics. In 1793 they were accordingly 
 admitted to the Parliamentary Franchise. At 
 the last moment Tone urged the Committee to 
 insist on complete emancipation. But Keogh 
 refused to move from the line of battle origi- 
 nally drawn up. The Franchise was within his 
 reach ; he would take it and bide his time for 
 the rest. " Will the Catholics be satisfied with 
 the Franchise ? " says Tone ; and he adds, " I 
 believe they will, and be damned." He was 
 disgusted with Keogh's moderation. " Sad,
 
 WOLFE TONE 159 
 
 sad ! " he notes. " Merchants, I see, make bad 
 revolutionists." But Tone was not conciliated. 
 No concession would satisfy him. His goal 
 was separation, and he was not checked for an 
 instant in his onward course. In 1794 he 
 plunged more deeply into treason, and others 
 followed or anticipated his example. Measures 
 were then taken for reoro-anisino; the United 
 Irish Society on a rebellious basis. But the 
 work of revolution was checked by the arrival 
 of Lord Fitzwilliam in January, 1795. He 
 came with a message of peace. He was sent to 
 emancipate the Catholics. In February, 1795, 
 a Bill for this purpose was read a first time in 
 the House of Commons, practically without 
 opposition. The hopes of the people were 
 raised to the highest pitch, and then they were 
 dashed suddenly to the ground. The King 
 revolted at the notion of further concessions to 
 the Catholics. Pitt flinched. Fitzwilliam was 
 recalled. The policy of concession was aban- 
 doned. An era of terror and revolution 
 commenced. Fitzwilliam left Ireland on 
 March 25, 1795, amid the sorrow and the 
 blessings of a grateful people. On March 31st 
 the new Viceroy, Lord Camden, made his 
 State entry through the streets of Dublin amid 
 the angry growls of a sullen and despairing 
 multitude. The policy of concession was 
 replaced by a policy of coercion. But the
 
 i6o IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 work of revolution was not stopped. On the 
 contrary, it grew apace under the new regime. 
 Camden began his reign by a State prosecu- 
 tion. On April 23rd the Rev. William Jackson, 
 a Protestant clergyman who had been sent in 
 1794 by the French Government on a mission 
 to the United Irishmen, was put on his trial for 
 high treason. There was a clear case against 
 him, and he anticipated the sentence of the 
 law, dying in the dock by his own hand. On 
 May loth the United Irish Society became a 
 distinctly rebellious organisation. Soon after- 
 wards Tone, who had been in direct communi- 
 cation with Jackson, and was under the 
 surveillance of the authorities, resolved to 
 leave for America. Before departing he ex- 
 plained his plans to the United Irish leaders, 
 Thomas Addis Emmet, Thomas Russell, Neil- 
 son, Simms, McCracken, and to the Catholic 
 leader, John Keogh. In Dublin he saw 
 Emmet and Russell. " I told them that my 
 intention was, immediately on my arrival in 
 Philadelphia, to wait on the French Minister to 
 detail to him fully the situation of affairs in Ire- 
 land, to endeavour to obtain a recommendation 
 to the French Government ; and if I succeeded 
 so far, to leave my family in America and 
 to set off instantly for Paris, and to apply in 
 the name of my country for the assistance of 
 France to enable us to assert our independence."
 
 WOLFE TONE i6i 
 
 A few days later, on the summit of McArt's 
 Fort, on the Cave Hill, near Belfast, he, 
 Neilson, Sims, McCracken, and Russell " took 
 a solemn obligation never to desist in our 
 efforts until we had subverted the authority of 
 England over our country and asserted our 
 independence." 
 
 On June 13th Tone sailed from Belfast to 
 America. He was true to the duty he had 
 undertaken, and after a short stay in the 
 United States set out for France. Arriving- 
 at Havre in January, 1796, he immediately 
 placed himself in communication with the 
 French Government, established close relations 
 with De la Croix, Carnot, General Clarke, and 
 Hoche, and finally persuaded the Directory to 
 send an expedition to Ireland. On December 
 16, 1796, the expedition, consisting of forty- 
 three sail, with an army of fifteen thousand 
 men under the command of Hoche and 
 Grouchy, left Brest. Tone, who now held 
 the rank of Adjutant-General in the French 
 service, was on board the Indomptable. In the 
 night the ships were scattered, The Fraternity, 
 with Hoche on board, never reached Ireland. 
 But Grouchy, with thirty-five sail, including the 
 Indomptable, made Bantry Bay on the evening 
 of December 21st. Tone was in favour of 
 landing immediately. But Grouchy hesitated, 
 standing off and on the coast until at length 
 
 12
 
 i62 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 the elements warred for England and swept 
 the French fleet from the Irish shore. "It is 
 sad," says Tone, "after having forced my way 
 thus far, to be obliged to turn back ; but it is 
 my fate, and I must submit. Notwithstanding 
 all our blunders, it is the dreadful stormy 
 weather and easterly winds which have been 
 blowing furiously since we made Bantry Bay 
 that have ruined us. Well, England has not 
 had such an escape since the Spanish Armada, 
 and that expedition, like ours, was defeated 
 by the weather ; the elements fight against 
 us, and courage here is of no avail." 
 
 Buoyant under misfortune. Tone did not 
 relax his efforts. He urged the French 
 Government to despatch another expedition. 
 He was supported in his appeal by delegates 
 from Ireland and backed by the great influence 
 of Hoche. Another expedition was prepared 
 by the Dutch Republic in union with France. 
 
 But the Dutch fleet, under De Winter, was 
 destroyed by the English fleet, under Duncan, 
 at Camperdown on October ii, 1797. A 
 month before the battle Hoche, in whom 
 Tone had kindled a real interest for Ireland, 
 died. 
 
 Tone's cup of disappointment was filled to 
 the brim, but he did not despair. He applied 
 himself with fresh vigour to persuade the 
 French Government to make one last attempt
 
 WOLFE TONE 163 
 
 in the cause of Irish freedom. Meanwhile 
 events had been moving rapidly in Ireland. 
 
 The policy of coercion had borne fruit. 
 Martial law, " half hanging," indiscriminate 
 torture and wholesale oppression and cruelty, 
 had done their work. The United Irish 
 leaders found their ranks filled by a harassed 
 and desperate peasantry. North joined hands 
 with South ; Catholic combined with Protes- 
 tant. The timid and the fearful for very safety 
 sought refuge in revolution. The people were 
 dragooned into treason. " Every crime, every 
 cruelty, that could be committed by Cossacks 
 or Calmucks has been transacted here." So 
 wrote Sir Ralph Abercombie when he took 
 over the command of the troops early in 1798. 
 Shortly afterwards he was forced to resign. 
 His humanity was too great a strain upon the 
 endurance of the Ascendency faction. 
 
 Grattan and the Constitutional party begged 
 the Government at least to temper coercion 
 with concession. But a stern 7ton possiimiis 
 was the only reply. " We have offered you our 
 measure," Grattan said to the Ministers in the 
 House of Commons in 1797; "you will reject 
 it. Having no hope left to persuade or dis- 
 suade, and having discharged our duty, we 
 shall trouble you no more, and from this day 
 we shall not attend the House of Commons." 
 
 As the doors of the constitution closed, the
 
 i64 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 path of revolution opened. In 1796 the United 
 Irish Society had become a miHtary organisation. 
 Before the spring of 1797 a supreme executive 
 had been estabHshed in Dublin ; and Provincial 
 Directories were formed in Ulster and Leinster. 
 A competent military chief had taken command. 
 Lord Edward Fitz-Gerald had joined the 
 rebels. Arrangements were pushed forward 
 for an insurrection. The Ulster Directory 
 proposed the end of 1797 for the rising; the 
 Leinster Directory the beginning of 1798 : the 
 last date was fixed upon. But the Government 
 struck suddenly and struck hard. Before the 
 end of March, 1798, all the leaders in Ire- 
 land except Lord Edward Fitz-Gerald and 
 McCracken were seized and imprisoned. But 
 Fitz-Gerald and McCracken resolved to take 
 the field. May 23rd was the day appointed 
 for the commencement of hostilities. But on 
 May 19th Fitz-Gerald's hiding-place was dis- 
 covered, and after a desperate resistance he 
 was dragged to gaol, surrounded by a troop 
 of dragoons. The insurrection, nevertheless, 
 broke out on May 24th. 
 
 Left without leaders, the insurgents fought 
 wildly and desperately, sometimes rushing into 
 excesses, which were, however, exceeded by 
 the forces of the King. The rebels overran 
 the county of Kildare and the bordering parts 
 of Meath and Carlo w. They seized Dunboyne,
 
 WOLFE TONE 165 
 
 Dunshaughlin, and Prosperous, and took pos- 
 session of Rathnagan, Kildare, Ballybore, 
 and Narraghmore. But the troops made a 
 stand at Naas and Carlow, drove back their 
 assailants, and reoccupied the captured towns. 
 The rebels rallied on the hill of Tara ; but were 
 once more routed and dispersed. On June 7th 
 McCracken, with a strong force, attacked the 
 town of Antrim. Successful in the first onset, 
 he was ultimately repulsed after a fierce battle, 
 and some days later arrested, tried by court- 
 martial, and hanged. 
 
 But the rebels of county Wexford made the 
 stoutest fight of all. Taking the field on 
 May 27th, they seized Oulart, marched on 
 Ferns, captured Enniscorthy, and occupied 
 Wexford itself. In a few days the whole 
 county was in their hands, with the exception 
 of the fort of Duncannon, and the town of 
 New Ross. On June 4th New Ross was 
 attacked. The battle raged for ten hours. 
 The town was taken and retaken, but in the 
 end the rebels were defeated and forced back 
 on Gorey. A few days later they took the 
 offensive again, and advanced on Arklow. 
 Reinforcements were despatched from Dublin 
 to succour the garrison. On June 9th Arklow 
 was attacked. Another fierce battle, closing 
 only with sunset, was fought. Victory re- 
 mained still doubtful, when at 8 p.m. the rebel
 
 i66 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 captain was struck down, killed by a cannon- 
 ball. Then his men, who had throughout the 
 day maintained the struggle with desperate 
 courage, retreated sullenly, falling back once 
 more on Gorey. 
 
 Fresh troops now arrived from England, and 
 General Lake, who had succeeded Abercombie 
 as commander-in-chief, took the field in person. 
 On June 21st the rebel army was attacked in 
 its last stroncrhold on Vine<jar Hill and anni- 
 hilated. The insurgents, retreating through 
 the counties of Dublin and Wicklow, were 
 hunted down with merciless vengeance. " The 
 carnage was dreadful," wrote Lake to Castle- 
 reagh ; " the determination of the troops to 
 destroy every one they think a rebel is beyond 
 description." Before the end of July the fire 
 was put out in Wexford. But before the end 
 of August an attempt was made to rekindle it 
 in the West. 
 
 When news of the insurrection reached 
 France the Government, yielding to the impor- 
 tunities of Tone, resolved to despatch another 
 expedition to Ireland. The plan was to send 
 detachments from various French ports. For 
 this purpose General Humbert was quartered 
 at Rochelle with 1,000 men; General Hardy 
 at Brest with 3,000 men ; General Kilmaine 
 was held in reserve with 9,000 men. At the 
 last moment the Government grew dilatory,
 
 WOLFE TONE 167 
 
 and Humbert determined to strike at once on 
 his own responsibility. Accompanied by Tone's 
 brother Matthew and another United Irish 
 exile, Bartholomew Teeling, he left Rochelle 
 towards the middle of August, and landed at 
 Killala on the 22nd of the same month. 
 General Lake hastened to meet him. A 
 pitched battle was fought at Castlebar on 
 August 22nd. Lake was beaten and driven 
 from the field. He retreated so rapidly, that 
 the battle is to this day known as the " Races 
 of Castlebar." Cornwallis, who had become 
 Viceroy in June, came quickly to Lake's help, 
 and forced Humbert to surrender at Ballina- 
 muck on September 8th. Matthew Tone and 
 Teeling were arrested, and, despite the protesta- 
 tions of Humbert, were hurried to Dublin and 
 hanged. Yet another effort was to be made. 
 On September 20th the last French expedition 
 sailed from Brest. It consisted of a fleet of 
 one sail of the line, the Hoche (seventy-four 
 guns), eight frigates, Loire, Resolvue, Be/lone, 
 Coquette, Embuscade, Immortalitd, Rouiaine, 
 Semellante, and one schooner, the Biche, under 
 the command of Admiral Bompard, and of an 
 army of 3,000 men under General Hardy. 
 Tone was on board the Admiral's ship, the 
 Hoche. As on the previous occasion, the ships 
 were scattered on the voyage ; but on October 
 loth Bompard arrived at the entrance of Lough
 
 i68 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Swilly with the Hocke, the Loire^ the Resolvue, 
 and the Biche. He was instantly signalled 
 from the shore. At daybreak next morning a 
 British squadron, consisting of six sail of the 
 line, one razee (sixty guns), and two frigates, 
 under the command of Sir John Borlase 
 Warren, hove in sight. Bompard signalled 
 the French frigates and the schooner to retreat ; 
 and cleared the Hoche for action. A boat from 
 the Biche came alongside the Hoche for last 
 orders. The French officers gathered around 
 Tone and urged him to escape. " The contest 
 is hopeless," they said. " We shall be prisoners 
 of war ; but what will become of you ? " He 
 answered, " Shall it be said that I fled when 
 the French were fighting the battles of my 
 country? No; I shall stand by the ship." 
 The British Admiral having despatched two 
 sail — the razee and a frigate — to g'ive chase to 
 the Loire and the Resolvue, bore down on the 
 Hoche with the rest of the squadron. The 
 French ship was surrounded ; but Bompard 
 nailed his flag to the mast. For six hours the 
 Hoche stood the combined fire of the British 
 ships. Her masts were dismantled ; her rigging 
 was swept away ; the scuppers flowed with 
 blood ; the wounded filled the cockpit. At 
 length, with yawning ribs, with five feet of 
 water in the hold, her rudder carried away, her 
 sails and cordage hanging in shreds ; her bat-
 
 WOLFE TONE 169 
 
 teries dismounted, and every gun silenced, she 
 struck. Tone commanded a battery and fought 
 like a lion, exposing himself to every peril of 
 the conflict. The Hoche was towed into Lough 
 Swilly, and the prisoners landed and marched 
 to Letterkenny. The Earl of Cavan invited 
 the French officers to breakfast. Tone was 
 among the guests. An old college companion, 
 Sir George Hill, recognised him. "How do 
 you do, Mr. Tone?" said Hill. "I am very 
 happy to see you." Tone greeted Hill cordially, 
 and said, "How are you. Sir George? How 
 are Lady Hill and your family?" The police, 
 who suspected that Tone was among the 
 prisoners, lay in waiting in an adjoining room. 
 Hill went to them, pointed to Tone and said, 
 " There is your man." Tone was called from 
 the table. He knew that his hour had come, 
 but he went cheerfully to his doom. Entering 
 the next apartment, he w^is surrounded by 
 police and soldiers, arrested, loaded with irons 
 and hurried to Dublin. On November loth 
 he was put on his trial before a court-martial. 
 He said to his judges, " I mean not to give 
 you the trouble of bringing judicial proof, to 
 convict me, legally, of having acted in hostility 
 to the Government of his Britannic Majesty in 
 Ireland. I admit the fact. From my earliest 
 youth I have regarded the connection between 
 Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the
 
 170 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Irish nation, and felt convinced that, whilst 
 it lasted, this country could never be free nor 
 happy. My mind has been confirmed in this 
 opinion by the experience of every succeeding 
 year, and the conclusions which I have drawn 
 from every fact before my eyes. In conse- 
 quence, I determined to apply all the powers 
 which my individual efforts could move, in 
 order to separate the two countries." 
 
 He made but one request. He asked to be 
 shot like a soldier. The request was refused, 
 and he was ordered to be hanged within forty- 
 eiofht hours. On the mornino- of the 12th of 
 
 o o 
 
 November Curran moved the Court of King's 
 Bench for a writ of habeas corpus. 
 
 " I do not pretend," he said, "that Mr. Tone 
 is not guilty of the charges of which he is 
 accused. I presume the officers were honour- 
 able men. But it is stated in this affidavit, as 
 a solemn fact, that Mr. Tone had no commission 
 under his Majesty, and therefore no court- 
 martial coulds^have cognisance of any crime 
 imputed to him whilst the Court of King's 
 Bench sat in the capacity of the Great Criminal 
 Court of the land. In times when war was 
 raging, when man was opposed to man in the 
 field, courts-martial might be endured ; but 
 every law authority is with me, whilst I stand 
 upon this sacred and immutable principle of the 
 Constitution, that martial law and civil law are
 
 WOLFE TONE 171 
 
 incompatible, and that the former must cease 
 with the existence of the latter. This is not, 
 however, the time for arguing this momentous 
 question. My client must appear in this court. 
 He is cast for death this very day. He may 
 be ordered for execution whilst I address you. 
 I call on the Court to support the law, and 
 move for a habeas corpus, to be directed to the 
 Provost- Marshal of the barracks of Dublin, and 
 Major Sandys, to bring up the body of Tone." 
 
 Chief Justice : "Have a writ instantly pre- 
 pared." 
 
 Curran: " My client may die whilst the writ 
 is preparing." 
 
 Chief Justice : "Mr. Sheriff, proceed to the 
 barracks and acquaint the Provost-Marshal 
 that a writ is preparing to suspend Mr. Tone's 
 execution, and see that he be not executed." 
 
 The Sheriff hastened to the prison. The 
 Court awaited his return with feverish sus- 
 pense. He speedily reappeared. "My lord," 
 he said, " I have been to the barracks in pur- 
 suance of your order. The Provost-Marshal 
 says he must obey Major Sandys. Major 
 Sandys says he must obey Lord Cornwallis." 
 
 Ctcrran: "My lord, Mr. Tone's father has 
 just returned after serving the writ of habeas 
 corpus, and General Craig says he will not 
 obey it." 
 
 Lord Chief Justice Kilwarden : "Mr.
 
 172 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Sheriff, take the body of Tone uito custody, 
 take the Provost-Marshal and Major Sandys 
 into custody, and show the order of the Court 
 to General Craig." 
 
 The Sheriff hastened once more to the 
 prison. He returned quickly. He had been 
 refused admittance, and was told that Tone 
 had attempted suicide and that he lay in a 
 precarious state. A surgeon was called to 
 corroborate the Sheriffs statement. 
 
 Lo7'd Chief Justice: "Mr. Sheriff, take an 
 order to suspend the execution." 
 
 At the prison Tone lay on his pallet dying. 
 On the evening of the nth of November, 
 while the soldiers were erecting the gallows 
 before his window, he cut his throat with a 
 penknife, inflicting a deep wound. At four 
 o'clock next morning a surgeon came and 
 closed the wound. As the carotid artery was 
 not cut, he said that Tone might recover. " I 
 am sorry," said Tone, "that I have been so 
 bad an anatomist." He lingered till the 
 morning of November 19th. Standing by his 
 bedside, the surgeon whispered to an attendant 
 that if he attempted to move or speak he 
 would die instantly. Tone overheard him, and 
 making a slight movement, said, " I can yet 
 find words to thank you, sir ; it is the most 
 welcome news you can give me. What should 
 I wish to live for } " Falling back with these
 
 WOLFE TONE 173 
 
 expressions upon his lips, he instantly expired. 
 So perished Wolfe Tone. So ended the rebel- 
 lion of 1798. 
 
 ... It has well been said that Tone needs 
 to be defended against himself. He is, in 
 truth, ridiculously outspoken. He carries 
 frankness to an extravagant pitch. He not 
 only confesses his faults, he exaggerates them. 
 But the judicious reader and the generous 
 critic need scarcely be told that the evidence of 
 a man against himself is not always to be 
 taken mi pied de la lettre ; and there is no other 
 evidence against Wolfe Tone. Harsh use has 
 been made of his confessions by his enemies. 
 But had he possessed only a tithe of the hypoc- 
 risy and solemn self-love characteristic of his 
 censors, he might now appear before us as a 
 hero sans reproche, as he certainly is a hero 
 sans peur. He wrote for his friends. He 
 knew that they would not misjudge him. He 
 was profoundly indifferent to the approbation of 
 those "superior" persons who represent what for 
 the want of a better (or a worse) name is called 
 ''the world." Tone loved adventure and 
 romance. In early life he sought an outlet 
 for his restless energy in odd enterprises. He 
 sometimes went to bed drunk and got up ill ; 
 and he swore frightfully. These are his faults. 
 It is a grave thing to mix wine with politics. 
 But is the thing unknown in British history?
 
 174 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 In the days of the great General Monk, 
 drinking, we are told, was a sport, and the 
 first of sports. A good drinker was held in as 
 high esteem as a good player at any fashionable 
 game is held now. " Pray excuse my style," 
 says Courtin (French Ambassador to England 
 in 1665); "I have been writing all the night, 
 and drank more than I ought." Monk himself 
 was a hard drinker. He attracted the attention 
 of Cominges (another French Ambassador) by 
 the unparalleled splendour of his drinking 
 capacities. In one of his despatches the 
 Ambassador describes a little fashionable fete, 
 the style of which looks now very old-fashioned 
 indeed. " An amusing affair happened last 
 week in this Court. The Earl of Oxford, one 
 of the first noblemen of England, Knight of 
 the Garter, and an officer of the Horse Guards, 
 asked to dinner General Monk, the High 
 Chamberlain of the Kingdom, and some few 
 other Councillors of State. They were joined 
 by a number of young men of quality. The 
 entertainment rose to such a pitch that every 
 person happened to become a party to quarrels, 
 both as offended and offender ; they came to 
 blows and tore each other's hair ; two of them 
 drew their swords, which luckily had a cooling 
 effect on the company. Each, then, went 
 away according as he pleased. Those who 
 followed the General wanted some more drink,
 
 WOLFE TONE 175 
 
 and it was given them. They continued 
 there till evening, and therefore wanted food. 
 Having been warmed by their morning and 
 afternoon doings, each resolved to see his 
 companion aground. The General, who is 
 obviously endowed with a strong head, struck 
 a master stroke ; he presented to each a goblet 
 of the deepest. Some swallowed the contents, 
 and some not ; but all peaceably remained 
 where they were till the following morning, 
 without speaking to each other, though in the 
 same room. Only the General went to 
 Parliament, as usual, with his mind and 
 thoughts nothing impaired. There was much 
 laughter at this." 
 
 In Tone's own day the British statesman was 
 not above his bottle or more of port. 
 
 But it is a sorry business exhuming the 
 foibles of the dead. Let a man be broadly 
 judged by the mark which he has left on the 
 history of his time. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington's measure of Tone 
 is the true measure. With a hundred guineas 
 in his pocket, unrecommended and without 
 friends, he went to France and persuaded the 
 French Government to send an army of 
 15,000 men to overthrow the British authority 
 in Ireland. This was an achievement of 
 genius. The hero of the enterprise was 
 indeed "near being as fatal an enemy to
 
 176 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 England as Hannibal was to Rome." Tone 
 was light-hearted, full of fun and frolic, witty, 
 genial, gay, but beneath all lay the serious pur- 
 pose of an earnest man. Monk sat up drinking 
 with brawlers. But he brought back the Stuarts. 
 Pitt, according to tradition, reeled even under 
 the Speaker's eye, but he ruled England for 
 twenty years. Tone enjoyed a carouse with 
 his friend Russell, but he almost wrested 
 Ireland from England's grasp. The Duke 
 of Wellington is assuredly right. This was 
 the work of an "extraordinary man." Tone 
 was not born into Irish politics like Grattan, 
 O'Connell, Davis. He was nearly thirty 
 years of age before Irish affairs occupied his 
 thoughts. But when at length he threw in 
 his lot with his country he bore himself 
 courageously and unselfishly, acting through- 
 out with a singleness of purpose and a steadi- 
 ness of aim which made amends for the 
 heedlessness of youth. 
 
 He saw more clearly than any one of his 
 time the great blot on the Irish Constitution. 
 There was an independent Parliament but a 
 foreign Executive ; and the Parliament and 
 Executive were almost constantly in conflict. 
 *• I called a Parliament in Ireland," pleaded 
 Strafford when accused of arbitrary govern- 
 ment. " Parliaments," said Pym, " without 
 Parliamentary liberties, are but a fair and
 
 WOLFE TONE 177 
 
 plausible way to servitude." The liberties 
 of the Irish Parliament were fettered by the 
 action of the English Executive. No doubt 
 the Parliament did some good work both 
 before and after the revolution of 1782. But 
 that work was accomplished by the help of 
 outside forces, which for the time being awed 
 the Executive into submission. Free Trade 
 (1779) and Legislative Independence (1782) 
 were won by the Volunteers, and the Fran- 
 chise Act (1793) was obtained by the rebellious 
 combination of the United Irishmen and the 
 Catholic Committee. When the strength of 
 that combination was impaired by the con- 
 cession of 1793, and by the hopes raised by 
 the promise of further redress, the Executive 
 once more gained the ascendency. The recall 
 of Lord Fitzwilliam and the abandonment of 
 the policy of conciliation and justice was the 
 result. The remedy for this condition of 
 things, Tone saw, was in the destruction of 
 the Executive. But the Executive could not, 
 he felt, be destroyed while the connection 
 between the two countries lasted. He there- 
 fore went straight for separation, struggling to 
 unite all classes and creeds of Irishmen in the 
 common cause of Irish independence. 
 
 The overthrow of established government is 
 a serious affair. The man who attempts it 
 must be judged not only by the intrinsic justice 
 
 13
 
 178 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 of his cause, but by the practical character of 
 his plans. To attempt an insurrection with- 
 out the faintest hope of success is worse than a 
 blunder. Bentham has, I think, fairly stated 
 the ethical aspect of the case. He says : 
 " Governments rest on no other foundation 
 than their utility ; their so-called right to 
 make laws depends on the utility of the laws 
 they make ; and it is allowable, if not incum- 
 bent on every man, as well on the score of 
 duty as on interest, to enter into measures of 
 resistance when, according to the best calcula- 
 tion, he is able to make the probable mischiefs 
 of resistance (speaking with respect to the com- 
 munity in general) appear less to him than the 
 probable mischiefs of submission." Writing on 
 an earlier period of Irish history, Mr. Froude 
 says : " The Irish were not to be blamed if 
 they looked to the Pope, to Spain, to France, 
 to any friend on earth or heaven, to deliver 
 them from a power which discharged no single 
 duty that rulers owe to subjects." These words 
 are applicable to the condition of Ireland in the 
 eighteenth century. "America has been lost," 
 said Lord Camden, " because she has had bad 
 governors, and Ireland may one day be lost 
 for the very same reason — bad government." 
 " What does Ireland want ? " said Pitt to 
 Grattan in 1794. "What would she have 
 more ? " At that time the Catholics, consti-
 
 WOLFE TONE 179 
 
 tuting the vast mass of the population, were 
 shut out from all part in the government of 
 the country. A Catholic could not be governor, 
 nor deputy governor, nor commander-in-chief 
 of the forces. Catholics were excluded from 
 Parliament, from the Judicial Bench, from the 
 Privy Council, and from the rank of King's 
 Counsel. A Catholic could not be sheriff, nor 
 sub-sheriff, nor lord-lieutenant of a county. 
 The peasantry were sunk in the lowest state 
 of degradation, and the Protestant Ascendency 
 faction was maintained in defiance of popular 
 opinion by British bayonets. Enlightened 
 Irish Protestants felt that this condition of 
 things should cease, and in 1795 an earnest 
 attempt was made by the Irish House of 
 Commons to end it. But the British Minister 
 interposed, and upheld the infamous system of 
 monopoly and exclusion by which he hoped to 
 divide and to enslave. " Rebellion against 
 tyrants is obedience to God," and rebellion 
 ao^ainst English rule in Ireland was obedience 
 to the first instinct of man's nature — the 
 instinct of self-preservation, for English rule 
 was killing the body and the soul of the 
 nation. 
 
 Was there hope of success ? That is the 
 final question. Mr. Froude and Mr. Goldwin 
 Smith answer it in the affirmative. There can 
 be no doubt of the fact. Had Grouchy been
 
 i8o IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 equal to the situation, had he yielded to the 
 importunities of Tone and landed at Bantry 
 Bay in December, 1796, Ireland would have 
 then been lost to Britain. 
 
 Tried, then, by the intrinsic merits of the 
 cause and the practical character of his plans, 
 Tone must stand justified to posterity. 
 
 We live in better times, and brighter pros- 
 pects still are dawning on us, but we should 
 never forget the men who 
 
 " Rose in dark and evil days 
 To right their native land." 
 
 And a pitiful creature, indeed, must be the 
 Irish Constitutional agitator who refuses to 
 sing with the young Ireland poet — 
 
 " Who fears to speak of Ninet3f-Eight ? 
 
 Who blushes at the name ? 
 When cowards mock the patriot's fate, 
 
 Who hangs his head for shame ? 
 He's all a knave, or half a slave, 
 
 Who slights his country thus ; 
 But a true man like you, man. 
 
 Will fill your glass with us."
 
 CURRAN 
 
 "I'm going to tell you that I'm deeply and 
 desperately in love ! And what makes my 
 case particularly deplorable is that there's not 
 the least prospect of the dear man lending me 
 so much as a little finger to pull me out of the 
 mire into which he has plunged me ! Were I 
 possessed of the same mean spirit of bartering 
 as you, I'd have you to guess his degree ; but 
 you'd as soon bethink yourself of the Great 
 Cham of Tartary as the Right Honourable 
 John Philpot Curran, Master of the Rolls, 
 Ireland ! ! ! I wish I could give you any idea 
 of his charms, but, alas ! my pen does not, like 
 Rousseau's, brille sur le papier ; and none but 
 a pen of fire could trace his character or record 
 the charms of his conversation. Don't set me 
 down for mad, for I assure you I'm only 
 bewitched, and perhaps time and absence may 
 dissolve the magic spells. He had the cruelty 
 to tell me he liked me, and then he left me. 
 Had my eyes been worth a button they'd soon
 
 i82 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 have settled the matter ; but there's the misery 
 of being sent into the world with such mussel- 
 shells ! ! I (a modest maiden) said nothing, 
 and it seems they were silent ; and so we 
 parted, never to meet again ! ! ! But, seriously, 
 I have been very much delighted and gratified 
 by a visit from this most extraordinary being, 
 'whose versatility of genius' (as Sir John 
 Carr justly observes for once) ' is the astonish- 
 ment and admiration of all who come within its 
 range.' I'll certainly live seven years longer 
 for having seen him." ^ 
 
 So wrote Susan Ferrier when Curran was 
 Master of the Rolls in Ireland. 
 
 Curran is remembered not as a judge, but as 
 a great advocate, a staunch patriot, a brilliant 
 wit, and a brave man. A Protestant, he was 
 ever the friend of Catholic liberty. A con- 
 stitutional lawyer, he defended the United Irish 
 rebels with zeal and courage. 
 
 A charming companion, full of fun and frolic, 
 bubbling over with joyousness and mirth, the 
 very soul of good-humour and good-fellowship, 
 he was the delight of every society in which he 
 moved. A true friend, a chivalrous foe, the 
 champion of the oppressed, the enemy of the 
 little tyrants who overran his country, he was 
 admired by the profession which he adorned, and 
 beloved by the people whom he tried to serve. 
 » "Memoir and Correspondence of Susan Ferrier."
 
 CURRAN 183 
 
 I have quoted the letter which Miss Ferrier 
 wrote about him. I may also quote the letter 
 which he wrote to her. 
 
 "What I wish to say in verse I must even 
 say in prose. I thank you extremely for your 
 kindness and courtesy ; it is simpler than song, 
 and full as true. I thought also to have wrote 
 a line or two on the verses you gave me, but 
 my jade of a muse was, it seems, engaged, and 
 disappointed me. She sent word, however, 
 that on the road she'd pop in and whisper 
 something, but I could scarcely believe her. I 
 have been courting her all my life, and she has 
 been uniformly coy and cruel. I don't, indeed, 
 much wonder that a poor Irishman should have 
 so little chance with her in Scotland. If, how- 
 ever, she should say anything to me, I'll not 
 keep her secret, but let you know." 
 
 Every one knows Curran by his witticisms ; 
 but perhaps few English readers are familiar 
 with the story of his life. 
 
 Of humble origin, he was born at Newmarket, 
 in the County Cork, on July 24, 1750. As a 
 boy he was allowed to run wild. His father 
 did not in the least appreciate the talents of the 
 lad, though his mother always said that " Jacky" 
 would be a great man. He spent his time 
 generally at fairs and "wakes," and enlivened 
 the company wherever he was.
 
 i84 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Upon one occasion Mr. Punch's show visited 
 the town of Newmarket. " Jacky " revelled in 
 the entertainment. One day Mr. Punch's man 
 fell ill. There was a crisis. What would 
 become of the show ? Mr. Punch was dis- 
 consolate, when suddenly " Jacky " volunteered 
 his services and they were accepted. Never 
 was there such a Punch's show in Newmarket 
 before or since. The whole town came to 
 hear the performances. But suddenly it was 
 discovered that Mr. Punch was familiar with 
 the inner life of Newmarket : all the secrets of 
 the village, all the scandals, the private affairs 
 of every man and woman in the place, were 
 introduced into the performance. At first 
 people roared with laughter at the fun which 
 Mr. Punch made of their neighbours ; but 
 when it was found that nobody escaped, that 
 each in his turn was held up as a subject of 
 merriment by the provokingly impartial Mr. 
 Punch, a set was made upon the show and Mr. 
 Punch was banished. 
 
 Curran was rescued from a life of " every kind 
 of idleness and mischief" by Mr. Boyse, the 
 Rector of Newmarket. " One day," he tells us 
 himself, " I was playing at marbles in the village 
 ball alley. . . . Suddenly there appeared among 
 us a stranger of very venerable and cheerful 
 aspect. His intrusion was not the least 
 restraint upon our merry little assemblage ; on
 
 CURRAN 185 
 
 the contrary, he seemed pleased and even 
 delighted. ... He took a particular fancy to 
 me . . . and bribed me with sweetmeats to go 
 home with him. ... I learned from him my 
 alphabet and my grammar and the rudiments 
 of classics ; he taught me all he could, and then 
 sent me to school at Middleton — in short, he 
 made a man of me." From Middleton Curran 
 went to Trinity College, Dublin, and finally 
 began to read for the Bar. 
 
 While keeping his terms in London he found 
 himself one day without a penny in his pocket. 
 He had no friends in London. His Irish 
 fellow-students had all returned to Dublin. He 
 put the best face he could upon the business, 
 and acted like a philosopher. When the 
 dinner hour came he went for a walk in the 
 park. Sydney Smith's doctor once told him 
 that he ought to take a walk "on an empty 
 stomach." " On whose ? " asked Sydney. 
 Curran now took a walk on his own. He sat 
 on a bench, and, after a while, began to whistle 
 a melancholy Irish air. At the other end of 
 the bench was an old gentleman. The tune 
 attracted his attention. 
 
 " Pray, sir," said he, addressing Curran, 
 " where did you learn that tune ? " "I learned 
 it in my native country — Ireland," was the 
 reply. " How comes it," rejoined the stranger, 
 " that while other people are dining you are
 
 i86 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 whistling old Irish airs?" "Alas, sir," said 
 Curran, " I too have been in the habit of dining 
 of late ; but to-day my money being all gone and 
 my credit not yet arrived, I am forced to come 
 and dine upon a whistle in the park." The 
 stranger smiled and said, " Ah, well, I think I 
 can see that you deserve better fare. Come 
 with me and you shall have it." The stranger 
 was the famous Irish actor Macklin. 
 
 Some years afterwards, when Curran had 
 made a name, Macklin was in Dublin. They 
 met at a dinner party. But Macklin failed to 
 recognise in the now distinguished barrister the 
 dinnerless law student of the London park. 
 Curran said nothing. The dinner went on. 
 Stories were told of the good luck which came 
 to some people in distress. Curran struck in, 
 and gave a graphic account of the scene in the 
 park when fortune sent Macklin to help him. 
 " Ah," said Macklin, remembering the scene, 
 "we have met before." "Yes, Mr. Macklin," 
 rejoined Curran, " and though you have 
 appeared upon many a stage, you never acted 
 better than you did that night." 
 
 Curran was called to the Bar in 1775. Five 
 years later he appeared in a cause cdlebre at the 
 Cork assizes. It was a singular case, and 
 served to display the courage which was his 
 distineuishincr characteristic. A Catholic 
 peasant had fallen under the censure of the
 
 CURRAN 187 
 
 Church. His sister was the mistress of a 
 territorial magnate, Lord Doneraile. She 
 begged his lordship to force the parish priest 
 to remove the censure. Lord Doneraile, accom- 
 panied by a military fire-eater, Captain St. 
 Leger, called upon the priest. The priest 
 would not yield, and Lord Doneraile horse- 
 whipped him. An action for assault was the 
 result. But there was not a member of the 
 Munster circuit who would hold a brief against 
 the great nobleman. The story of the outrage 
 shocked Curran. He volunteered his services. 
 They were accepted. 
 
 It was his first cause c^lebre. Every one came 
 to see the young Protestant advocate fight the 
 battle of the Catholic priest, and beard the 
 all-powerful nobleman. Curran denounced 
 Doneraile, riddled St. Leger (who was a 
 witness), told the jury to act like men and find 
 for the plaintiff. The jury were carried away 
 by the resistless eloquence, the fierce invective 
 of the courageous advocate, and the defendant 
 was mulcted in damages and costs. The case 
 was something more than a mere lawsuit. It 
 was, in truth, a battle for Catholic freedom, 
 fought at a time when the shadows of the penal 
 code still darkened the land. Nor did Curran's 
 " duties in the cause " end with the verdict. 
 St. Leger challenged him to mortal combat. 
 He accepted the challenge. They met. St.
 
 i88 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Leger fired first, and missed ; then Curran fired 
 in the air. " It was not necessary," said the 
 incorrigible humorist afterwards, "for me to 
 fire at him ; he died in three weeks after the 
 duel of the report of his own pistol." 
 
 I shall give another instance of the dauntless 
 spirit of the man in the days of his early 
 struggles at the Bar. He was pleading before 
 an ignorant and a venal judge. " I have con- 
 sulted all my books," he said, "and cannot 
 find a single case to support the contention of 
 my friend." " I suspect, Mr. Curran," said the 
 judge with a sneer, " that your library is rather 
 contracted." Curran stopped ; there was a 
 moment's silence. All faces were turned 
 towards the young advocate. Was he 
 crushed ? Looking steadily at the judge, and 
 flashing a defiant and angry glance from his 
 dark lustrous eyes, he said slowly and 
 deliberately : "It is very true, my lord, that 
 I am poor, and the circumstance has certainly 
 rather curtailed my library. But I have pre- 
 pared myself for this high profession rather by 
 the study of a few good books than by the 
 composition of a great many bad ones. I am 
 not ashamed of my poverty, but I should be of 
 my wealth could I stoop to acquire it by 
 servility and corruption. If I rise not to rank, 
 I shall at least be honest ; and should I ever 
 cease to be so, many an example shows me that
 
 CURRAN 189 
 
 an ill-acquired elevation, by making me the 
 more conspicuous, would only make me the 
 more universally and the more notoriously 
 contemptible." "If you say another word, 
 Mr. Curran," said the judge, " I shall commit 
 you." "And if you do, my lord," was the 
 retort, " you will have the consolation of 
 knowing that it was not the worst thing you 
 committed." 
 
 Every one knows Dunning's famous reply to 
 Lord Mansfield. "Oh, if that be law, Mr. 
 Dunning," said his lordship, " I will burn my 
 books." " Better read them, my lord," was the 
 retort. Dunning's reply was witty ; Curran's 
 was overwhelming. 
 
 Lord Clare was Curran's inveterate enemy. 
 Upon one occasion, when the court was con- 
 vulsed with laughter at Curran's sallies, Clare 
 interposed, calling upon the sheriff to take any 
 one who " disturbed the decorum of the court 
 into custody." " Do, Mr. Sheriff," said Curran. 
 " Go and get ready my dungeon, prepare a 
 bed of thorns for me, and upon that bed I shall 
 to-night repose with more tranquillity than I 
 should enjoy were I sitting upon that Bench 
 with the consciousness that I disgraced it." 
 
 Curran's practice at the Bar grew rapidly, 
 and he soon rose to the front rank in his pro- 
 fession. He had all the qualities of a great 
 advocate. He was eloquent, judicious, pains-
 
 I90 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 taking, good-tempered ; quick to see the faults 
 in an adversary, and always ready to turn them 
 to the best advantage ; a master of invective 
 and a master of humour ; able to amuse, coax, 
 convince ; a favourite alike with judges who 
 were not corrupt, and with juries who wished 
 honestly to do their duty ; a popular orator and 
 a perfect cross-examiner. 
 
 As a cross-examiner, indeed, Curran's skill 
 was unrivalled. He was ingenious, witty, 
 trenchant, raking a witness by a fire of raillery 
 or overwhelming him by a series of perplexing 
 questions. " My lord," cried one of his victims, 
 " I cannot answer Mr. Curran, he is putting me 
 in such a doldrums *' A doldrum .'" exclaimed 
 the judge ; " what is a doldrum, Mr. Curran ^ " 
 "Oh, my lord," replied Curran, "it is a 
 common complaint with persons like the 
 witness. It is a confusion of the head, arising 
 from a corruption of the heart." 
 
 Lundy Foot, a well-known tobacconist and 
 snuff-dealer, was once under cross-examination. 
 Curran asked a question which floored him. 
 Lundy paused. "Eh, Lundy," said Curran, 
 "that's a poser — a devil of 2. pinchr 
 
 Cross-examining a squire who disputed a 
 coal bill, Curran said, " On your oath didn't 
 you get the coals ? " " Yes," said the witness, 
 
 " but " " But," interjected Curran, " your 
 
 payment was slack."
 
 CURRAN 191 
 
 There was one Irish judge — mirabile dictu — 
 a dull black-letter lawyer, who did not relish 
 Curran's wit. On one occasion when Curran 
 rose to cross-examine a witness, the witness 
 laughed. " What are you laughing at ? " said 
 Curran. " Let me tell you that a laugh with- 
 out a joke is like — is like " " Is like what, 
 
 Mr. Curran ? " growled the judge. " Like a 
 contingent remainder, my lord, without any 
 particular estate to support it," was the reply. 
 
 " How do you get your living ? " Curran 
 asked a witness. " Please, sir, I keep a racket 
 court," was the answer. " So do I," said Lord 
 Norbury (himself a bit of a wit), in allusion to 
 the uproar caused by Curran's sallies and, 
 indeed, by his own jokes. 
 
 It was by his defence of the United Irishmen, 
 however, that Curran's fame was established. 
 The United Irish Society, originally a consti- 
 tutional body, ultimately became a revolutionary 
 organisation, whose object was the separation 
 of Ireland from England by force of arms. 
 
 Curran was more than the advocate of the 
 United Irishmen. He was their friend. 
 Though himself not a Separatist, he sym- 
 pathised with their aspirations, and admired 
 the courage and self-sacrifice with which they 
 devoted themselves to the national cause. 
 His task was difficult, even perilous, but he 
 risked everything for his clients. " In the
 
 192 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 days," says Charles Phillips, " from which he 
 dates his glory, peril beset his path, armed 
 men composed his auditory, exasperated 
 authority denounced his zeal, and faction 
 scowled upon the dauntless advocate it burned 
 to make its victim." 
 
 One of the judges — Lord Carleton — warned 
 him that if he defended Samuel Neilson — one 
 of the founders of the United Irish Society — 
 he would lose his silk gown. " Well, my lord," 
 said Curran, " his Majesty may take the silk, 
 but he will leave the s^uff hohlnd.'' ^ 
 
 In 1794 he defended Hamilton Rowan for 
 seditious libel. The United Irishmen of 
 Dublin had issued an address, in 1792, to the 
 volunteers, beginning, "Citizen soldiers," con- 
 demning the policy of the Government, 
 advocating the claims of the Catholics, and 
 calling on the nation "to arm" in defence of 
 its liberties. Rowan, as secretary, had signed 
 the address, which was, however, written by 
 Drennan. 
 
 Mr. Lecky has described Curran's speech for 
 the defence as "one of the most eloquent 
 speeches ever delivered at the Bar." When 
 he rose, the court was filled with troops. He 
 said, " Gentlemen of the jury, when I consider 
 the period at which this prosecution is brought 
 forward ; when I behold the extraordinary 
 ' " Curran and his Contemporaries."
 
 CURRAN 193 
 
 safeguard of armed soldiers resorted to — no 
 doubt for the preservation of peace and order 
 — when I catch, as I cannot but do, the 
 throb of pubHc anxiety which beats from one 
 end to the other of this hall ... it is in the 
 honest simplicity of my heart I speak when I 
 say that I never rose in a court of justice with 
 so much embarrassment as upon this occasion." 
 
 The finest passage in the speech — one of the 
 finest passages, perhaps, in any speech ever 
 delivered at the Bar — was on the justice of 
 "universal emancipation." 
 
 In advocating the claims of the Catholics the 
 address demanded " universal emancipation." 
 Before the trial came on, Parliament granted a 
 measure of Catholic relief Curran fastened 
 upon this fact. " Are you," he said in effect, 
 " going to condemn this man for pleading the 
 cause of Catholic freedom when Parliament 
 itself has just taken a step in that direction?" 
 He then went on: "Do you think it wise or 
 humane at this moment to insult them," the 
 Catholics, " by sticking up in a pillory the man 
 who dared to stand forth as their advocate ? I 
 put it to your oaths : do you think that a 
 blessing of that kind — that a victory obtained 
 by justice over bigotry and oppression, should 
 have a stigma cast upon it by an ignominious 
 sentence upon men bold enough and honest 
 enough to propose that measure — to propose 
 
 14
 
 194 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 the redeeming of religion from the abuses of 
 the Church, the reclaiming of three millions of 
 men from bondage, and giving liberty to all 
 who had a right to demand it ; giving, I say, 
 In the so much censured words of this paper, 
 * universal emancipation ' ? I speak in the 
 spirit of British law, which makes liberty com- 
 mensurate with and inseparable from British 
 soil — which proclaims even to the stranger and 
 sojourner the moment he sets his foot upon 
 British earth, that the ground on which he 
 treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius 
 of universal emancipation. No matter in 
 what language his doom may have been pro- 
 nounced — no matter what complexion, in- 
 compatible with freedom, an Indian or an 
 African sun may have burnt upon him — no 
 matter in what disastrous battle the helm of his 
 liberty may have been cloven down — no matter 
 with what solemnities he may have been de- 
 voted upon the altar of slavery — the moment 
 he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar 
 and the god sink together in the dust ; his soul 
 walks abroad In its own majesty, his body swells 
 beyond the measure of his chains, which burst 
 from around him, and he stands redeemed, 
 regenerated, and disenthralled by the irresistible 
 genius of universal emancipation." 
 
 These words were received with an outburst 
 of applause in the court, and when Curran
 
 CURRAN 195 
 
 went Into the street afterwards his appearance 
 was the signal for a popular ovation. 
 ♦ He himself has described the scene. The 
 people gathered around him. He feared that 
 they might take him off his legs and carry him 
 on their shoulders about the town. He begged 
 them to "desist." " I laid great emphasis," he 
 says, " on the word desist, and put on my best 
 suit of dignity. However, my next neighbour, 
 a gigantic brawny chairman, eyeing me with 
 somewhat of contemptuous affection from top 
 to toe, bellowed out to his companion, ' Blood 
 and turf, Pat, don't mind the little creature ; 
 here, pitch him up this minute upon my 
 shoulder,' which was accordingly done." 
 
 In 1798, Curran defended the brothers 
 Sheares for high treason. They were the 
 sons of a banker in Cork. Both were educated 
 at Trinity College, Dublin ; both were members 
 of the Bar ; both were United Irishmen. John, 
 the younger of the two, aged thirty-two, took 
 an active part in the movement. He was an 
 organiser, and stood high in the confidence of 
 the leaders. Henry, aged forty-five, was not 
 equally implicated. Indeed, the principal 
 evidence against him was a treasonable pro- 
 clamation found in his desk. It was written by 
 John and put in the desk without Henry's 
 knowledge. An unscrupulous scoundrel named 
 Armstrong (Captain Armstrong) wormed him-
 
 196 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 self into the confidence of the brothers, and 
 betrayed them. He received a sum of ^29,000 
 — spread over a period of sixty years — for this 
 act of infamy. The trial took place on July 4th 
 amid a scene of intense public excitement and 
 anxiety. The judges acted like partisans, and 
 no consideration was shown either to the 
 prisoners or their counsel. After a continuous 
 sitting of sixteen hours, Curran asked for a 
 short adjournment. " I protest," he said, " I 
 have sunk under this trial. If I must go on, 
 the court must bear with me ; the jury also 
 may bear with me. I will go on until I sink ; 
 but after a sitting of sixteen hours with only 
 twenty minutes' interval, I should hope it would 
 not be thought an obtrusive request to ask for 
 a few hours' interval of repose and recollection." 
 " What say you, Mr. Attorney-General ? " said 
 the judge. " My lords," said the Attorney- 
 General (Toler, afterwards Lord Norbury), 
 "I cannot consent." "We think it better to 
 go on, Mr. Curran," said the judge, hinting at 
 the same time that much had been conceded 
 to the prisoners. Curran : " Gentlemen of the 
 jury, it seems that much has been conceded to 
 us. God help us. I do not know what has 
 been conceded to me ; if so insignificant a person 
 may have extorted the remark. Perhaps it is 
 a concession that I am allowed to rise in such 
 a state of mind and body, of collapse and depri-
 
 CURRAN 197 
 
 vation, as to feel but a little spark of indignation, 
 raised by the remark that much has been 
 conceded to the counsel for the prisoners ! 
 Much has been conceded to the prisoners ! 
 Almighty and merciful God, who lookest down 
 upon us, what are the times for which we are 
 reserved, when we are told that much has been 
 conceded to prisoners who are put upon their 
 trial at a moment like this — of more darkness 
 and night of the human intellect than a dark- 
 ness of the natural period of twenty-four hours 
 — that public convenience cannot spare a few 
 hours to those who are accused for their lives, 
 and that much has been conceded to the 
 advocate almost exhausted in the poor remark 
 which he has endeavoured to make upon it. 
 ]\Iy countrymen, I do pray you by the awful 
 duty which you owe your country — by that 
 sacred duty which you owe your character — 
 and I know how you feel it — I do beseech you 
 by the Almighty God to have mercy upon my 
 client — to save him, not from the consequences 
 of his guilt, but from the baseness of his accusers 
 and the pressure of the treatment under which 
 I am sinking." 
 
 On Friday morning, at eight o'clock, the jury 
 returned a verdict of guilty. Then the court 
 adjourned for a few hours. At three p.m. the 
 prisoners were sentenced to death. On 
 Saturday morning they were hanged.
 
 iqS IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 In July, '98, Curran defended Oliver Bond, 
 a wealthy Dublin merchant (though a native of 
 Ulster), and a United Irishman. He was one 
 of the most powerful men in the organisation. 
 It was at his house that the Leinster Directory 
 used to hold their meetings. Through the 
 treachery of an informer — Reynolds — the house 
 was surrounded by military in March, '98, 
 and the members of the Directory seized. 
 According to the practice of the times, the 
 court was filled with soldiers. 
 
 When Curran was addressing the jury there 
 was a sudden clash of arms. " What is that ? " 
 he cried. Those who were nearest to him 
 scowled fiercely at him, as if they would do 
 him violence. " You may assassinate, but you 
 shall not intimidate me," cried the fearless 
 advocate. So great was the turmoil that he 
 had to resume his seat. Three times he rose, 
 and three times he had to sit down before he 
 could be heard. " I have very little, scarcely 
 any, hope," he said, " of being able to discharge 
 my duty to my unfortunate client — perhaps 
 most unfortunate in having me for his advocate. 
 I know not whether to impute these inhuman 
 interruptions to mere accident ; but I greatly 
 fear they have been excited by prejudice." 
 
 An extract from Curran's speech denouncing 
 the informer Reynolds (who under cross- 
 examination was shown to be a reckless ruffian
 
 CURRAN 199 
 
 whom no code of religion or morality could 
 bind) may be given. 
 
 " Are you prepared, in a case of life and 
 death, of honour, and of infamy, to credit a vile 
 informer? The perjurer of one hundred oaths 
 — whom pride, honour, or religion could not 
 bind — the forsaken prostitute of every vice, 
 calls on you with one breath to blast the 
 memory of the dead and blight the character 
 of the living. Do you think that Reynolds is 
 a villain ? It is true he dresses like a Qentle- 
 man, and the confident expression of his 
 countenance and the tones of his voice savour 
 strong of growing authority. He measures his 
 value by the coffins of his victims, and in the 
 field of evidence appreciates his fame as the 
 Indian warrior does in fight by the number of 
 the scalps with which he can swell his victory. 
 He calls on you by the solemn league of eternal 
 justice to accredit the purity of a conscience 
 washed in its own atrocities. He has promised, 
 and betrayed — he has sworn, and forsworn ; 
 and whether his soul go to heaven or to hell, he 
 seems perfectly indifferent, for he tells you he 
 has established an interest in both places." 
 
 Curran was a member of the Irish House of 
 Commons, but his political speeches are not 
 remarkable. He was, of course, a staunch 
 Nationalist, and resisted the Union like all 
 the incorruptible Irishmen of the day. " Ah ! "
 
 200 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 said he to Grattan, when the Union resolu- 
 tions were carried, " where are our eighty- 
 thousand men?" The Legislative Indepen- 
 dence of Ireland had been established by the 
 Volunteers — sixty thousand men with arms 
 in their hands. 
 
 " When Grattan rose none dared oppose 
 The claim he made for freedom ; 
 They knew our swords to back his words 
 Were ready did he need them. 
 
 Remember still through good and ill, 
 
 How vain were prayers and tears — 
 How vain were words till flashed the swords 
 
 Of the Irish Volunteers." 
 
 The Volunteers were disbanded, and the 
 Parliament was destroyed. When all was over, 
 Curran was standing one day outside the Parlia- 
 ment buildings. A nobleman — who had been 
 ennobled because he had voted for the Union 
 — came up and said, " Curran, what do they 
 mean to do with that useless building ? For 
 my part, I hate even the sight of it." " I do 
 not wonder," rejoined Curran. " I never yet 
 heard of a murderer who was not afraid of a 
 ghost." 
 
 Curran was, of course, the most charming of 
 companions, the life of every house he entered, 
 the soul of every company he joined. " I had 
 often seen Curran," says Charles Phillips, " often
 
 CURRAN 20I 
 
 heard of him, often read him, but no man ever 
 knew anything about him who did not see him 
 at his own table with the few whom he selected. 
 He was a Httle convivial deity. He soared in 
 every region, and was at home in all ; he 
 touched everything and seemed as if he had 
 created it ; he mastered the human heart. 
 You wept and you laughed and you wondered, 
 and the wonderful creature who made you do 
 all at will, never let it appear that he was more 
 than your equal, and was quite willing, if you 
 chose, to become your auditor." " I regret," 
 says Samuel Rogers, "that so little of Curran's 
 brilliant talk has been preserved. How much 
 of it Tom Moore could record if he would only 
 take the trouble ! " Rogers then tells a story, in 
 which, however, the laugh was against Curran. 
 At a dinner party Curran, speaking with 
 vehement exaggeration, said, " I would rather 
 be hanged upon twenty gibbets than do it." 
 " Don't you think," said a young lady of the 
 company, "that one gibbet would be enough 
 for you ? " 
 
 The famous Sir Boyle Roche once scored 
 off Curran too. " I am the guardian of my 
 own honour," said Curran in the House of 
 Commons. "Indeed!" exclaimed Sir Boyle; 
 " why, I always thought that the right hon. 
 member was an enemy to sinecures." Upon 
 another occasion, however, Curran scored off
 
 202 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Sir Boyle. The worthy baronet was married 
 to the eldest daughter of Sir John Cave, and 
 he boasted of the fact to Curran. " If he had 
 an older one, Sir Boyle," said Curran, " he'd 
 have given her to you." 
 
 Lundy Foot, the rich tobacconist, asked 
 Curran to mve him a motto for his carriaoe, 
 " Quid rides,'' said Curran. 
 
 A stingy barrister went abroad for a holiday. 
 Somebody told Curran that he had taken with 
 him only one sovereign and one shirt. " Well," 
 said Curran, " he'll change neither till he comes 
 back." 
 
 "The learned Serjeant's speech," said 
 Curran, in reply to a diffuse and irrelevant 
 oration of Serjeant Hurst, "put me exactly 
 in mind of a familiar utensil in domestic use 
 commonly called an ' extinguisher ' — it began 
 at a point, and on it went widening and 
 widening until at last it fairly put the question 
 out altogether." 
 
 " Is that hung beef, Mr. Curran? "said Lord 
 Norbury (familiarly known as the "hanging 
 judge") to Curran at a Viceregal dinner party. 
 "No, my lord," was the reply ; " your lordship 
 hasn't tried it." 
 
 Curran and a friend were walking together 
 one day at Cheltenham. An Irish acquaintance 
 who aped English manners was seen coming 
 along lolling his tongue out in a remarkable
 
 CURRAN 203 
 
 fashion. "What on earth does he mean by 
 that ? " said the friend. " He's trying to catch 
 the English accent," said Curran. 
 
 One dark shadow hangs over the Hfe of 
 Curran — the fate of Robert Emmet. Emmet, 
 the brother of one of the most gifted of the 
 United Irishmen, Thomas Addis Emmet, and 
 himself an enthusiastic rebel, was the leader of 
 the hopeless attempt which a handful of men 
 made to seize Dublin Castle in 1803. Emmet 
 loved Curran's daughter Sarah. They were 
 engaged to be married. 
 
 Curran knew nothing of the fact. He saw 
 Emmet frequently at his house, but suspected 
 nothing. Then the rising came. After its 
 suppression Emmet could have escaped. But 
 he wished to see Sarah Curran once more. 
 He concealed himself in a house near Curran's. 
 He wrote to Sarah — tried to see her. Then 
 his hiding-place was discovered. He was 
 arrested. His relations with Sarah Curran 
 became public. Curran's house was searched 
 for papers, and Curran himself had to undergo 
 an examination before his inveterate enemy 
 Lord Clare. Curran was indignant. He re- 
 fused to defend Emmet, refused even to see 
 the doomed rebel. 
 
 "I did not expect you," wrote Emmet, "to 
 be my counsel. I nominated you because not 
 to have done so might have appeared remark-
 
 204 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 able. Had Mr. been in town I did not 
 
 wish even to have seen you, but as he was not, 
 I wrote to you to come to me at once. I know 
 that I have done you very severe injury, much 
 greater than I can atone for with my Hfe ; that 
 atonement I did offer to make before the Privy 
 Council by pleading guilty, if those documents 
 were suppressed." 
 
 Then, referring to his love for Sarah Curran, 
 and to Curran's refusal to see him, he con- 
 cluded : 
 
 " I know not whether this " — his love for 
 Sarah — "will be any extenuation of my offence 
 — I know not whether it will be any extenua- 
 tion of it to know that if I had " the first 
 "situation" in the land "in my power at this 
 moment I would relinquish it to devote my life 
 to her happiness. I know not whether success 
 would have blotted out the recollection of what 
 I have done ; but I know that a man with the 
 coldness of death on him need not be made to 
 feel any other coldness, and that he may be 
 spared any addition to the misery he feels not 
 for himself but for those to whom he has left 
 nothing but sorrow." 
 
 On September 20, 1803, Emmet was hanged; 
 he was only twenty-four. Sarah Curran spent 
 the rest of her days in England, where she died 
 in 1808. Moore has enshrined her memory in 
 immortal lines —
 
 CURRAN 205 
 
 " She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps, 
 
 And lovers around her sighing ; 
 But coldly she turns from their gaze, and weeps, 
 
 For her heart in his grave is lying. 
 She sings the wild song of her dear native plains, 
 
 Every note which he lov'd awaking ; — 
 Ah 1 little they think, who delight in her strains, 
 
 How the heart of the minstrel is breaking. 
 
 He had lived for his love, for his country he died, 
 
 They were all that to life had entwined him ; 
 Nor soon shall the tears of his country be dried, 
 
 Nor long will his love stay behind him. 
 Oh ! make her a grave where the sunbeams rest 
 
 When they promise a glorious morrow ; 
 They'll shine o'er her sleep, like a smile from the West, 
 
 From her own loved island of sorrow." 
 
 In 1806 Curran became Master of the Rolls. 
 But he did not like the post, and resigned in 
 1 8 14. Afterwards he spent much time in 
 London, mingling in the society of such friends 
 as Sheridan, Erskine, Moore, and William 
 Godwin. His last days were spent in gloom 
 and sorrow, but Ireland was to the end 
 uppermost in his thoughts. While dining 
 with Moore in the summer of 18 17 he was 
 suddenly struck down by paralysis. Fatal 
 consequences were, however, averted for the 
 moment. In October there was a renewal of 
 the attack at his lodgings, 7, Amelia Place, 
 Brompton, and he succumbed at once. The 
 brilliant gfenius which had delig-hted and 
 dazzled, given life to every society, and 
 brought joy to many hearts, was put out for
 
 2o6 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 ever. He was buried at Paddington ; but his 
 remains were removed to Ireland in 1834, and 
 reinterred in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, 
 
 The strongest proof of Curran's worth is, 
 perhaps, to be found in the fact that his neglect 
 of Emmet — one of the most popular of Irish 
 heroes — has in no wise diminished the affection 
 in which his memory is held by the masses of 
 the Irish people. Were it otherwise the people 
 would, indeed, be unjust, for Ireland has had 
 no braver, nobler son than John Philpot 
 Curran. His place at the Bar is higher than 
 that of any Irishman except O'Connell, while 
 in politics he has left an untarnished, if not 
 an illustrious name. As an orator Brougham 
 puts him next Grattan and Plunket. As a dis- 
 interested, fearless patriot, devoted to the cause 
 of Irish prosperity and Irish freedom, he stands 
 in the foremost ranks of those famous men 
 whose struggles, achievements, and even 
 failures are among the fondest and proudest 
 recollections of the nation.
 
 FIVE TIMES ARRAIGNED FOR 
 TREASON 
 
 In the autumn of 1899 I spent three weeks in 
 Switzerland with my friend the late Sir Charles 
 Gavan Duffy. He was then eighty-three years 
 of age, but full of intellectual vigour. Youthful 
 in mind and manner, a more genial host or a 
 pleasanter companion {at his best) could not be 
 desired. Duffy had a wide experience of men 
 and books, and possessed a special faculty for 
 collecting and telling good stories. He was the 
 best raconteur I, at all events, ever met. He 
 had a keen sense of humour, a ready and 
 caustic wit. " What place will you give me in 
 your ministry, Mr. Duffy? " a charming young 
 woman once said to him in Melbourne. "In- 
 deed," replied Duffy, " considering that the last 
 Government consisted of old women, we might 
 have one young woman at least in the present 
 ministry." 
 
 Born in 18 16, and dying in 1903, his life 
 
 covered an eventful period of Irish and of 
 
 207
 
 2o8 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 English history. One of the founders of the 
 Young Ireland party, tried as a rebel, Prime 
 Minister of Victoria, and ultimately Speaker of 
 the Legislative Assembly in that Colony, he 
 passed through many vicissitudes. I have 
 before me a letter which Duffy, on the occasion 
 of forming his first ministry, wrote to his friend 
 John Cashel Hoey. 
 
 ''Chief Secretary's Office, Melbourne, 
 ''July 14///, 1871. 
 
 " My dear Hoey, — I have such a strange 
 story to tell you that it will need your unswerv- 
 ing friendship not to take it for a romance. 
 When I commenced to frame an administra- 
 tion the two first men I communicated with, 
 who hitherto have been, and been proud to be, 
 lieutenants of mine, advised that I should put 
 a respectable nonentity at the head of the 
 Government (taking any other place I thought 
 proper) to avoid the rooted prejudice against 
 having an Irish Catholic in that position. I 
 replied that I would see the Parliament of 
 Victoria translated wholesale to Pandemonium 
 before I would consent to degrade my race and 
 people by permitting the Emancipation Act to 
 be repealed in my person. They declined to 
 act, and the next person I addressed had the 
 same tale. These gentlemen even had their 
 man ready, and recommended him to me for
 
 FIVE TIMES ARRAIGNED 209 
 
 his feebleness, * which would leave me virtual, 
 &c., &c.' I washed my hands of these feeble 
 friends and formed a Government every 
 member of which indeed, except the Law 
 Officers, had been in office before, but only two 
 of whom had much reputation for ability. I 
 was met with a cry in which ' No Popery ' 
 yells mingled with a laugh of derision. Never- 
 theless on the day I met my constituents the 
 anxiety to hear the policy of the Government 
 was something without parallel. Every journal 
 in the Colony telegraphed the speech or a 
 summary of it ; a number of M. P.'s made a long 
 journey to be present, and the place of meeting 
 was full to bursting. I send you the speech, 
 and you will wonder, as I do, what people 
 found in it ; but the immediate effect was to 
 array a majority of the whole people on our 
 side, to change the tone of the entire press 
 except the Argus and a little penny parasite of 
 the Argus called the Daily Telegraph, and to 
 place the administration by common consent in 
 an unassailable position. It was of course the 
 policy which produced this effect. We have 
 had invitations to banquets, and other public 
 entertainments in the principal towns in the 
 Colony, all the ministers then in office were 
 elected without opposition, which has never 
 happened before in this Colony (one of the Law 
 Officers since chosen has still his election to 
 
 15
 
 210 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 win), and I have had the audacity for the first 
 time to place three CathoHcs in the administra- 
 tion, relying on the favour of the people to 
 overcome their prejudice. I am willing to 
 admit that I have never had a success before 
 if you choose, but this time I have hit the 
 centre of the target. Unless I commit some 
 blunder a dissolution would sfive me as crood a 
 majority as Gladstone got on the Irish Church ; 
 and I will carry out the policy which has satis- 
 fied the people without delay or hesitation. 
 
 "There now, after that tremendous blast on 
 the trumpet, I have done." 
 
 Twenty-three years before this letter was 
 written Duffy stood in the dock in Green Street, 
 Dublin, arraigned for Treason. Walking one 
 day with him in the grounds in Sonnenburg, 
 above Lucerne, he turned suddenly to me and 
 said, " Do you remember my trial ? " I said I 
 did not. " Then you ought to be shot." I 
 admitted the fact and said, "Well, tell me all 
 about it now " ; and Duffy with characteristic 
 directness plunged in medias res. 
 
 " The Government was determined that 
 whoever might escape I should be convicted. 
 Indeed, the frigate which was to take me to 
 Van Diemen's Land was already named by the 
 officials of the Castle. In August, 1848, I was 
 put upon my trial. The charge was Treason 
 Felony. As I stood in the dock waiting for the
 
 FIVE TIMES ARRAIGNED 211 
 
 jury to be empanelled, the junior counsel for 
 the Crown came quickly into court, dashed up 
 to the Attorney-General, said something hur- 
 riedly to him ; then there was a consultation of 
 the Crown lawyers, and the Attorney-General 
 rose and said : ' My lord, I shall ask to have 
 the prisoner Gavan Duffy put back ; we do not 
 propose going on with the trial this sitting.' I 
 was amazed, could not make out what it meant. 
 Sir Colman O'Loghlen (one of my counsel) 
 came to me. I said, ' What is the meanino- of 
 this.'^' He replied, 'They have found a letter of 
 yours in Smith O'Brien's portmanteau, and they 
 think that it o-ives them a chance of indicting 
 
 o o 
 
 you for High Treason.' The letter which they 
 thought would condemn me turned out to be 
 my salvation in postponing my trial and leading 
 the Castle into a succession of pitfalls. The 
 Government thought that instead of transport- 
 ing they might be able to hang me, I was 
 accordingly put back. In October, 1848, I was 
 put forward again. Up to the night before 
 the opening of the Commission I did not know 
 what I was to be tried for or where I was to 
 be tried. On the morning O'Loghlen came to 
 me in prison. ' Would you like to have your 
 trial postponed again ?' he said. 'Certainly,' I 
 said, ' if they play the game of postponement we 
 will play it too.' ' Well,' said O'Loghlen, ' they 
 can't try you to-day, because, in order to get a
 
 212 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 safer jury, they have transferred you from the 
 City to the County, and they have failed to 
 give the necessary notice.' The Government 
 thought that a jury of County Dublin squires 
 would be more reliable than a jury of Dublin 
 tradesmen. When we came into court. Butt, 
 my leading counsel, rose and asked in his 
 bland and pleasant way, * In whose custody is 
 Mr. Duffy, my lord?' 'Why, of course, Mr. 
 Butt,' said the judge, * in the custody of the 
 Sheriff' ' But, my lord, which Sheriff ? ' The 
 Judge having asked for the calendar, replied, 
 ' The Sheriff of the County Dublin.' * Then, 
 my lord,' said Butt, 'the trial can't go on. 
 This is a change of venue. We are entitled 
 to ten days' notice. We have not received 
 ten days' notice or one day's notice.' The 
 point was argued. But the judges had to decide 
 in favour of Butt, and I was again put back. 
 
 "In December I was put forward again. 
 The indictment was the longest which, I believe, 
 was ever seen. It was a hundred feet of 
 parchment. There was a new count charging 
 me with inciting Smith O'Brien to rebellion. 
 My counsel attacked the indictment count by 
 count and riddled it. The judges ruled that 
 four out of the six counts were bad in law. 
 When the indictment was reduced to this con- 
 dition. Butt said, ' My lord, we are now ready 
 to Q-Q on.' But the Crown said there was no
 
 FIVE TIMES ARRAIGNED 213 
 
 necessity to go on ; that as I had demurred I 
 had admitted the facts, and all that was neces- 
 sary now was to pass sentence. Butt protested, 
 saying that in cases of High Treason the 
 prisoner could plead as well as demur, and that 
 the same rule applied to Treason Felony. The 
 Crown denied this, and the point was hotly 
 contested. Ultimately the judges decided in 
 favour of Butt. 'But,' said the judges, 'we 
 cannot go on with the case now because we 
 have arrangements which call us elsewhere, 
 and the sittings must be adjourned,' and so I 
 was put back for the third time. 
 
 " In February, 1849, I was put up for the 
 fourth time. We did not get a copy of the 
 panel, so I had no materials for preparing my 
 challenges, but when the names were read out 
 in court. Butt challenged the array, and while 
 the arguments were proceeding I had copies of 
 the panel taken and printed, and I sent them 
 round to my friends to get information about 
 the jurors. On the panel was the name of 
 Martin Burke. Burke was a Catholic, but 
 hostile to the National Cause, and wholly under 
 the influence of the Casde. 
 
 " That the Crown would put him on the 
 jury was likely enough. His presence would 
 give a colour of impartiality, while in reality 
 I would be as safe in the hands of any 
 Protestant. That we should object to Martin
 
 214 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 Burke went without saying. But on the morn- 
 ing of the trial Mrs. called on me with a 
 
 message from Mrs. Burke. " Don't object 
 to Martin, whatever you do. Don't let your 
 counsel object. Let him go on the jury. My 
 daughter and I will be in court, and we will 
 sit opposite the jury box." That was enough 
 for me. Martin Burke was called. Butt 
 wanted to object, but I said ' No,' O'Loghlen 
 told me that Butt would object on his own 
 responsibility, as he considered the exclusion 
 of Martin Burke vital, but I insisted that 
 Martin Burke should not be challenged. I 
 said, ' I shall take all the responsibility ; let the 
 consequences be on my head.' And Burke 
 was sworn. The jury was soon empanelled 
 and the trial began. Butt fought like a lion, 
 as he did all the time. In due course the jury 
 retired to consider their verdict. When they 
 returned to court the Foreman said they could 
 not agree. Eleven were for a conviction, one, 
 Martin Burke, was for an acquittal. The jury 
 were locked up for the night, but Martin Burke 
 held out. In the morning the jury were dis- 
 charged. I thought that I should be discharged 
 too, after eight months' imprisonment and all 
 the abortive attempts which had been made to 
 brino- me to book. But the Crown was re- 
 solved to keep me in its clutches, and I was 
 again put back.
 
 FIVE TIMES ARRAIGNED 215 
 
 " In April, 1849, after I had been ten months 
 in jail, I was put up once more. This was the 
 strangest trial of all. All the other Young 
 Irelanders had been tried by common juries. 
 It was the rule to try felony cases by common 
 juries. But the Crown was now resolved to 
 try me by a special jury, believing that such 
 a jury would be sure to convict. Special 
 jurors are drawn from the same class as grand 
 jurors, and, as you know, a grand juror who 
 has found a true bill against a prisoner cannot 
 sit on the petty jury which is to try him. So 
 many indictments had been sent up against me 
 that several special jurors were disqualified 
 from trying me because they had sat on the 
 grand juries that considered these indictments. 
 That was point number one. Again, several 
 of the special jurors resided out of Dublin, and 
 it was necessary that the jury which was to try 
 me should consist of residents of the City of 
 Dublin, where my offence was committed. 
 Thirdly, Butt argued successfully that no one 
 over sixty years of age could serve on a jury. 
 He said it was not a question of option, but 
 compulsion, and so the Court ruled. 
 
 "The special jury panel contained 1 70 names. 
 Of these only ninety attended, despite heavy 
 fines. The prisoner was entitled to challenge 
 twenty peremptorily, which we did. This re- 
 duced the number to seventy. Three were
 
 2i6 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 away through illness — ' sick,' a witty barrister 
 said, 'of the Queen against Gavan Duffy,' 
 Sixty-seven names then remained from which 
 to select a jury. The empanelling of the jury 
 gave rise to great merriment. A juror was 
 called. He stepped into the box and took the 
 book. Butt rose, and with a genial smile said, 
 ' May I ask, sir, if you served on any of the 
 grand juries which found a true bill against 
 the prisoner?' The juror answered 'Yes.' 
 'Very sorry, sir,' said Butt, 'that we cannot 
 have your services in this case ; I must ask 
 you to stand aside,' and he waved the juror 
 out of the box. Another and another and 
 another came forward, to be asked the same 
 question and to disappear the same way. At 
 length a juror came forward who had not been 
 on any of the grand juries. Butt said, ' May 
 I ask, sir, where you reside ? ' The juror said, 
 'In Blackrock.' 'Very sorry, sir,' said Butt, 
 ' that we cannot have you in the case, but you 
 live out of the district.' Another came who 
 lived in Rathfarnham, another who lived in 
 Kingstown, until a score was disposed of. 
 Then some one was called who had not served 
 on any of the grand juries, and who did not 
 live out of the district. ' May I ask, sir,' said 
 Butt, 'if you are over sixty years of age?' 
 And the juror answered, 'Yes.' 'Very sorry, 
 sir,' said Butt, 'that we cannot have the
 
 FIVE TIMES ARRAIGNED 217 
 
 benefit of your experience in this trial ; I 
 must ask you to stand aside.' Finally the list 
 was so attenuated by this process that the 
 Crown was forced to put on the jury Catholics 
 who were not ' tame ' and Protestants who 
 were Liberal. Then the trial went on. It was 
 Good Friday, and long after nightfall, the 
 jury retired to consider their verdict, and I was 
 permitted to retire too. I was sent for at mid- 
 night, and came back to find the court crowded 
 in every part. The Sheriff was sent to the 
 jury-room to ask if the jury were ready. He 
 came back in ten minutes to say they were 
 writing their verdict. Then they came in, 
 conferred with the Sheriff, and the Sheriff 
 announced that they could not agree. There 
 were six for a conviction and six for an 
 acquittal. They were locked up for the rest 
 of the night. When they came into court next 
 morning the foreman said that they had not 
 agreed and that there was no chance of their 
 agreeing. There were seven now for an 
 acquittal and live for a conviction. The Crown 
 lawyers put their heads together, the judges 
 deliberated, the jury was discharged, and — I 
 was let out on bail." 
 
 Over a quarter of a century later Duffy had 
 to defend his Government in Victoria against 
 a vote of censure. He was attacked himself
 
 2i8 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 as an Irish rebel. He replied in a memorable 
 speech : — 
 
 " I will soon have to account for my whole 
 life, and I feel that it has been defaced by 
 many sins and shortcomings ; but there is one 
 portion of it I must except from this censure. 
 I can say without fear, and without impiety, 
 that when I am called before the Judge of all 
 men I shall not fear to answer for my Irish 
 career. I did what I believed best for Ireland, 
 without any relation to its effect on myself. I 
 am challenged to justify myself for having 
 been an Irish rebel, under penalty of your fatal 
 censure ; and I am content to reply that the 
 recollection that when my native country was 
 in mortal peril I was among those who staked 
 life for her deliverance is a memory I would 
 not exchange for anything that parliaments or 
 sovereigns can give or take away."
 
 IRISH HISTORY AND. IRISH 
 POLITICS 
 
 Some English Liberals, who are sincerely 
 
 desirous of doing the best they can for Ireland, 
 
 view the Irish question altogether from a wrong 
 
 standpoint. They think that it is merely a 
 
 question of local grievances such as might exist 
 
 in an English county, and that it can be dealt 
 
 with in all respects as if Ireland were an 
 
 English shire. The Irish question is not a 
 
 question of local grievances ; it is a question 
 
 of nationality. The causes of the trouble in 
 
 Ireland lie deep down in the history of Ireland 
 
 — in the history of her international relations 
 
 with England. 
 
 An English Unionist statesman said in the 
 
 days of the Home Rule controversy that history 
 
 bound the English and Irish people together. 
 
 This was an extraordinary statement. Renan 
 
 once declared in effect that of the various 
 
 factors which went to make a nation — factors 
 
 of race, factors of creed, factors of language, 
 
 219
 
 220 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 factors of geography — the most important of 
 all was the factor of history. 
 
 The English and Irish people are not only 
 less bound together, but they are more kept 
 apart by history than, perhaps, any two people 
 on the face of the globe. Examine the story 
 of the last three hundred years. There is not 
 a single event of that period which the masses 
 of Irishmen and Enolishmen view in the same 
 light — which they regard with the same sym- 
 pathies or the same antipathies. Take the 
 great landmarks of the time — the Protestant 
 Reformation and all that happened up to the 
 Revolution of 1688, the Revolution of 1688 and 
 all that has happened since. There is nothing 
 more remarkable in this retrospect than the 
 fact that events which, in the eyes of English- 
 men, are associated with the freedom and 
 greatness of their country, are, in the eyes of 
 Irishmen, associated with the subjection and 
 deofradation of theirs. Take the lonor duel 
 between England and France, which began 
 towards the end of the seventeenth century 
 and went on to the beginning of the nineteenth 
 — there is not one event which happened in that 
 struggle that stirs the same emotions in the 
 breasts of English and Irish. In the roll of 
 English victories, from Blenheim to Waterloo, 
 the representative Irishman takes no interest 
 and feels no pride. Ask him to name the
 
 IRISH HISTORY AND POLITICS 221 
 
 victories over which he rejoices, and he will 
 answer Landen — though a shade of sorrow 
 hangs over Landen, for Sarsfield fell there — 
 Cremona, and, above all, Fontenoy. The 
 glories of England bring but bitter memories 
 to the Irish, her humiliations joy. Derry, the 
 Boyne, Aughrim, recall English triumphs, Irish 
 defeats. Limerick is the story of Irish valour 
 and English perfidy. For nearly a century 
 after Limerick, Ireland was humbled to the 
 dust ; England trampled on her prostrate foe. 
 At length the day of Ireland's resurrection 
 came. It was the day of England's humiliation. 
 Beaten by her American colonists, threatened 
 by the children of her own blood in Ireland, 
 England surrendered to the Irish demands, 
 and Catholic and Protestant benefited alike by 
 the embarrassments of the Power which had 
 ill-treated both. The era of England's troubles 
 was the era of Catholic relief. Free Trade, and 
 legislative independence. The dawn of Irish 
 freedom broke as darkness overshadowed the 
 fortunes of England. England's difficulty was 
 Ireland's opportunity. 
 
 Years passed, dark days came to Ireland 
 again, and the historical gulf between the two 
 people was made wider than ever. On one 
 side of that gulf stand Pitt and Castlereagh, 
 representing the unscrupulous power and the 
 pitiless might of England. On the other lie the
 
 222 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 victims of '98 — traitors by English law, heroes 
 and martyrs by the acclamation of their own 
 people. In the background rises the noble figure 
 of Henry Grattan vainly struggling to preserve 
 the freedom of his country and to save the 
 honour of England. A new century opens, 
 and the gulf still remains as wide as ever. On 
 one side now stand Peel and Wellington 
 refusing the Irish demands in the name of 
 England. On the other stands Daniel O'Con- 
 nell rousing his nation to action, and hurling 
 defiance at the foe. And so the story goes on ; 
 so the continuity of Irish history is maintained. 
 It is not a story of wrongs perpetrated long 
 ages ago, and wiped out by some great act of 
 justice generously done in our own day. It is 
 a story of wrongs perpetuated through cen- 
 turies and never freely redressed ; a story of 
 bitter memories awakened by cruel oppression 
 and kept alive for generations by neglect and 
 insult; a story of national feelings outraged and 
 national rights denied to this hour. The tim.id 
 Liberal who has never studied the Irish ques- 
 tion an fond v^'iW not like this retrospect; neither 
 will the renegade Home Ruler, nor the per- 
 verse Unionist who tries to persuade himself 
 that there is no longer an Irish question, save, 
 indeed, in the sense in which there is a York- 
 shire question, or a Kent question, or a London 
 question. But, despite timid Liberals, renegade
 
 IRISH HISTORY AND POLITICS 223 
 
 Home Rulers, and perverse Unionists, the truth 
 must be told. The Irish problem will never be 
 solved until all its difficulties are understood. 
 These difficulties lie in the fact that the masses 
 of the English and Irish people are separated 
 by a gulf, which is not merely made by 
 differences of race, differences of religion, 
 differences of character, differences of mode of 
 thought, and of ideals of life, but that this gulf 
 has been widened by the hand of history. The 
 problem which English statesmen have to solve 
 is how to bring together two people who 
 naturally and historically stand as much apart 
 as any two people in the world. 
 
 Gulfs made by differences of race, of religion, 
 of character, of modes of thought, and ideals of 
 life have been bridged before now. But they 
 have not been bridged by those who saw no 
 gulfs. In the case of England and Scotland 
 the 2"ulf — not so wide a orulf as that between 
 England and Ireland — has been bridged. In 
 the case of the masses of the Irish nation and 
 the English colonists in Ireland, the gulf was 
 bridged in 1775-82, though the bridge needed 
 some finishing touches. England, however, 
 instead of strengthening the bridge, shook it 
 in 1795, and destroyed it in 1800. Two 
 important facts should be borne in mind — 
 (i) that the bridge which suits one case will not 
 suit another ; (2) that this Irish question cannot
 
 224 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 be dealt with as if it only involved a controversy 
 about local affairs among a people bound 
 together by the ties of a common race, a com- 
 mon religion, a common history, by identity of 
 interests, aims, character, ideals. 
 
 What, then, it may be asked, is this Irish 
 Question at the present moment ? Perhaps 
 the best answer may be given in the words of 
 the school child who, on being asked, " What 
 was the date of the Conquest of Ireland ? " 
 answered, *' It began in 1169, and it is going 
 on still." The settlement, if not the conquest, 
 of Ireland, is " sfoing" on still." From the time 
 of Edward VI. onward, the English idea for 
 the settlement of Ireland was to root out the 
 Irish race, to extirpate the Irish religion, and 
 to pour in English adventurers to possess the 
 land. The Irish fought to save their race, to 
 hold their own — their own creed, their own 
 laws, their own lands. The sti-uggle for three 
 centuries has been about these things. 
 
 In the reis:n of Elizabeth there was a war of 
 extermination followed by wholesale confisca- 
 tions. In the reign of James I. there was the 
 famous plantation of Ulster. In 1641 the Irish 
 struggled to recover the possessions of which 
 they had been robbed. Then Cromwell came, 
 and there were more wholesale confiscations. 
 In 1688-91 the Irish were again in arms, 
 fighting for all that men hold dear — worldly
 
 IRISH HISTORY AND POLITICS 225 
 possessions, religious freedom, national in- 
 dependence. The war of 1688-91 was ended 
 by the Treaty of Limerick, whose liberal terms 
 were alike a tribute to the valour of the Irish 
 and to the justice of William of Orange. The 
 Treaty was broken — "broken," as Mr. Bright 
 has said, " almost incessantly during two 
 centuries of time." After Limerick, instead of 
 an era of peace, there was an era of religious 
 persecution, accompanied by more wholesale 
 confiscations. "What then," said Lord Clare 
 in 1800, "was the situation of Ireland at the 
 Revolution, and what is it to-day ? The whole 
 power and property of the country have been 
 conferred by successive monarchs of England 
 upon an English colony, composed of three sets 
 of English adventurers, who poured into this 
 country at the termination of three successive 
 rebellions. Confiscation is their common title ; 
 and from their first settlement they have been 
 hemmed in on every side by the old inhabitants 
 of the island brooding over their discontents in 
 sullen indignation." 
 
 Throughout the eighteenth century the fight 
 went on, the " old inhabitants " struggling to 
 recover the "power and property" of which 
 they had been deprived, England and the 
 " colony " bent on keeping them in slavery. 
 Between 1775 '^^^'^ ^7^- ^^^ "old inhabitants" 
 and " the colonists " came together, and, as I 
 
 16
 
 226 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 have said, commercial freedom, Catholic relief, 
 and legislative independence were the result. 
 In 1793 the "old inhabitants" won a great 
 victory — they obtained the Parliamentary 
 franchise. In 1795 they demanded admission 
 to Parliament ; and England, having at first 
 held out hopes of granting the demand, ulti- 
 mately prevented its concession. In 1800 the 
 Union came, and the " old inhabitants " were 
 again beaten to the ground. Nevertheless, 
 they fought on. In 1829 they wrung Emanci- 
 pation from a reluctant Ministry, and demanded 
 complete religious equality, the Disestablishment 
 of the Protestant Church, and the Reform of 
 the Land Laws. 
 
 For years they fought in vain, but at length 
 victorv aofain crowned their efforts. Under the 
 pressure of a formidable revolutionary move- 
 ment the Church was disestablished in 1869, 
 and the first great Land Act was passed in 
 1870. But the victories of the "old inhabi- 
 tants " were not yet over. 
 
 In 1 88 1 another oreat measure of as^rarian 
 reform, which practically revolutionised the 
 laws of landed "property" in Ireland, was 
 passed ; and in 1898 local government was 
 "conceded." Still the fight goes on as 
 furiously as ever. Why ? 
 
 Immaculate Englishmen may say that the 
 cause of Irish discontent is the "double dose of
 
 IRISH HISTORY AND POLITICS 227 
 
 original sin" given to the Irish at the begin- 
 ning ; and the remedy, the submersion of the 
 island for four-and-twenty hours under the 
 ocean. But, be the cause and the remedy what 
 they may, there is no denying the fact that 
 Ireland is still disloyal. English statesmen 
 must face the fact. Church Acts have not 
 brought peace ; Land Acts have not brought 
 peace ; local government has not brought 
 peace. 
 
 What, then, is to be done? The Irish 
 people have stated distinctly what they want, 
 namely, the right to make their own laws in 
 their own land. Historically their claim is 
 incontestable ; politically, it has never been 
 stated with greater force than by Lord Rose- 
 bery. Speaking at Glasgow in 1887, he 
 said — 
 
 "In the first place, Grattan's Parliament was 
 what the Irish people wanted. There is no 
 principle, gentlemen, which seems so simple, 
 but which seems somehow to need so much 
 instilling into some of our greatest statesmen, 
 as the fact that the potato that one knows and 
 likes is better than the truffle that one neither 
 knows nor likes. And, therefore, when you 
 wish to give a benefit to a nation, it is better to 
 ufive something- that it likes and understands 
 rather than something that it neither likes nor 
 understands."
 
 228 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 What does Lord Rosebery now propose to 
 do ? Will he give us the *' potato " we "like," 
 or insist in forcing us to swallow the " truffle " 
 which we don't " like " ? He has said, I 
 believe, that whatever has to be done for 
 Ireland should be done "step by step." The 
 " step by step " policy may be a good policy for 
 dealing with the question of local reforms in 
 England ; it is not a good policy for dealing 
 with Ireland, because the Irish question is not 
 merely a question of local reforms. It is a 
 question of repairing the wrongs of conquest, 
 of reconciling to the English connection, in any 
 shape or form, a people whom English policy 
 has driven to dislike the English piirtnership 
 altoeether. In honest truth, the curse of 
 Ireland, the misfortune of England in the 
 management of Irish affairs, has been the 
 " step by step " policy — the doing justice 
 slowly, grudgingly, imperfectly ; yielding to 
 force ; surrendering to treason. 
 
 Looking at the subject from a purely English 
 point of view, assuredly Lord Rosebery must 
 see that the work which lies before the English 
 statesman in Ireland is the doing some act 
 which will gratify the national aspirations and 
 touch the national heart. 
 
 Throw the onus of Irish government on the 
 Irish people ; leave the guidance of Ireland to 
 Irish hands ; make the nation responsible for
 
 IRISH HISTORY AND POLITICS 229 
 
 the national well-being ; restore the one institu- 
 tion whose existence on Irish soil can alone 
 bring back the recollections of the days when 
 Irish freedom and Irish honour were not incon- 
 sistent with Irish loyalty to a common Crown 
 — let England do these things, for by them 
 only can she make any atonement for the past, 
 or build up any hopes for the future.
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATION 
 
 To gauge the political situation in Ireland 
 an intimate knowledge of Irish History is 
 necessary ; and this knowledge English states- 
 men do not possess, and never have possessed. 
 As each particular Irish question rises to the 
 surface, the English statesman, when the 
 exigencies of the crisis make the effort 
 imperative, takes it up and deals with it. He 
 legislates hurriedly, imperfectly, ignorantly. 
 But when he has placed on the statute book 
 an Act of Parliament embodying his views, he 
 thinks that he has " settled " Ireland. 
 
 " We thought," said Mr. Gladstone, " that 
 the Irish question was settled by the Church 
 Act of 1869 and the Land Act of 1870." This 
 was an extraordinary confession, coming, too, 
 from a man whose name will always be honour- 
 ably associated with the Irish cause. Mr. 
 Gladstone thouoht that he had setded the Irish 
 question in 1869-70, because he did not know 
 
 the History of Ireland. Any intelligent 
 
 230
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATION 231 
 
 student of Irish History could have told him 
 that he had settled nothing- by the Church Act 
 of 1869 and the Land Act of 1870; on the 
 contrary, he had unsettled everything. He 
 thought that the legislation of 1869-70 was 
 the end ; in truth it was only the beginning of 
 the end. The power of the Ascendency had 
 been undermined ; but the strength of the 
 nation was not consolidated. The struo^orle 
 between England and Ireland, which had been 
 carried on in some form or other almost 
 incessantly for three hundred years, had simply 
 entered upon its last phase. If Mr. Gladstone 
 had known the story of that struggle he would 
 never have imagined that the Irish question 
 had been settled by the disestablishment of the 
 Eno-lish Church in Ireland or the reform of 
 the land system. The Church and the land 
 system were the strongholds of the Ascendency. 
 The destruction of these stronoholds was not 
 the end, it was only the means to the end ; the 
 end — the transference of power in the govern- 
 ment of Ireland from a faction under English 
 influence to the people dominated only by 
 Irish thought and Irish ideals. 
 
 After the General Election of 1874 Mr. 
 Gladstone retired temporarily from the 
 leadership of the Liberal party, and Ireland 
 practically passed from his thoughts. Mr. 
 Disraeli came into office, and the Ascendency
 
 232 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 got breathing-time. But the Home Rule 
 movement had been founded in 1870 : in a 
 few years that extraordinary combination 
 between Irish Constitutional Nationalists and 
 Irish Revolutionists was formed; and above 
 all Charles Stewart Parnell entered the political 
 arena. 
 
 In 1877-80 Ireland was in a blaze; and 
 Mr. Gladstone once more turned his attention 
 to Irish affairs. In 1881 another Land Act 
 was passed. The second stronghold of the 
 Ascendency was shattered but not destroyed. 
 Landlordism was scotched but not killed. 
 The principle of Territorial Autocracy was 
 doomed to extinction, but was not extinguished. 
 I know not if Mr. Gladstone thought that 
 the Irish question was settled by the Land 
 Act of 1881. He probably did not; for the 
 measure did not tranquillise Ireland for four- 
 and- twenty hours. On the contrary, between 
 1881-84 Irish agitation was as fierce as ever; 
 and it is possible that during those years the 
 seeds of Mr. Gladstone's conversion to Home 
 Rule were sown. 
 
 In 1884 another shot was fired into the 
 Ascendency. A Reform Act was passed con- 
 ferring household suffrage on the Irish people. 
 There is nothing more remarkable in the 
 story of English rule in Ireland than the 
 inability of English statesmen to foresee the
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATION 233 
 
 consequences of their own acts. English 
 Liberals thought that the Reform Act of 1884 
 would strengthen the Liberal party in Ireland. 
 Ulster Liberal members told English Liberal 
 politicians that it would have the opposite 
 effect. But, of course, English politicians knew 
 more about Ireland than Ulster members, or 
 Leinster members, or Munster members, or 
 Connaught members. However, at the General 
 Election, 1885, the truth was unpleasantly- 
 brought home to these politicians. Not a 
 single Irish Liberal member was returned to 
 Parliament. The Nationalists swept the board 
 in three-and-a-half provinces and the Ascen- 
 dency only held their ground in the north-east 
 corner of Ulster and in Dublin University. 
 Whatever mitrht have been Mr. Gladstone's 
 
 o 
 
 frame of mind before the General Election 
 of 1885, that event which enabled Irish 
 Nationalists to hold the balance between 
 English Parties opened his eyes completely 
 to the Irish case. He now saw clearly that 
 the Irish question could not be settled by 
 Church Acts, or Land Acts, or Education 
 Acts, or Reform Acts ; that what the Irish 
 people wanted was the government of Ireland, 
 in an Irish Parliament, by Irishmen possessing 
 the confidence of the Irish nation ; and such a 
 government he resolved to establish. By force 
 of his extraordinary personality, he drew the
 
 234 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 majority of the Liberal party to the side of 
 Ireland, and in 1886 introduced the first Home 
 Rule Bill. He was beaten by a combination 
 of Tories and dissentient Liberals, and driven 
 from power. 
 
 Lord Salisbury came into office, and the 
 Ascendency once more got breathing-time. 
 But in 1892 Mr. Gladstone was Prime Minister 
 again, and in 1893 he introduced the second 
 Home Rule Bill. It was carried through the 
 Commons, but rejected by the Lords. Mr. 
 Gladstone did not dissolve. He ouoht to have 
 dissolved. Dissolution was the Constitutional 
 course, and Mr. Gladstone was the most con- 
 stitutional of Ministers. But a majority of the 
 Cabinet was bent on holding office, and Mr. 
 Gladstone, lacking' the nerve of former days (he 
 was now eighty-four years of age), gave way. 
 
 That dissolution would have been the best 
 thing for Ireland, there cannot be a particle 
 of doubt. The process of educating English 
 public opinion on the Irish question would 
 have crone on. The Liberals might have been 
 defeated at the polls, but Ireland would have 
 held the field. The Tories might have come 
 in by a small majority ; but the Parliament 
 would, probably, have been short-lived and the 
 difficulties of governing Ireland in opposition 
 to the wishes of the Irish people would have 
 been emphasised by the continued confusion in
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATION 235 
 
 the ranks of English parties and the continued 
 block in the workino' of the Eno-lish Parlia- 
 mentary machine. 
 
 The existence of a government kept in office 
 by Irish votes, not to do Irish business — inca- 
 pable of doing Irish business — but to do English 
 business, was worse than useless to Ireland, 
 and from the clays of that government the 
 decline of the Home Rule movement in Eng- 
 land may be distinctly traced. The faith of 
 English Liberals in the cause of Irish Nation- 
 ality was sapped by the acquiescence of Irish 
 members in a policy of inaction and drift. The 
 Irishmen were good-natured. They wished to 
 show their orratitude to Mr. Gladstone because 
 he had tried to serve Ireland. But had they 
 consulted Mr. Gladstone — and had he spoken 
 his innermost thoughts — he would probably 
 have told them not to let any government 
 which they could destroy exist for four-and- 
 twenty hours unless it was pledged to a fighting 
 policy for Ireland. 
 
 That the refusal to dissolve — the refusal to 
 "nail the screen flae to the mast " — was beneficial 
 to the Liberal party is more than doubtful. 
 The postponement — I will not say the abandon- 
 ment — of Home Rule by official Liberalism, 
 and the lukewarm feelings with which in con- 
 sequence eminent Liberal leaders came to 
 regard the movement, have perhaps more than
 
 236 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 anything else helped to divide and distract the 
 Liberal party. Had Liberals stood shoulder 
 to shoulder on the Irish question, the Liberal 
 party would now be strong and united, capable, 
 at all events, of forming a staple government 
 if they got the chance. As it is, the Liberals 
 have not been in office since 1895. They are 
 disunited and demoralised, and there are those 
 who think that they could not, If the oppor- 
 tunity offered to-morrow, form a government 
 which would last a twelvemonth. 
 
 The Tories and Unionists have been in 
 office since 1895, t>ut the Ascendency have 
 no lonofer o-ot breathina--time. Much as the 
 Tories opposed the Irish policy of Mr. 
 Gladstone, they found it impossible to undo 
 his work. The hands of the clock could not 
 be turned back. They were not allowed even 
 to stand still. They were pushed forward. 
 The Tory-Unionist Government of 1895- 1904 
 recoofnised that Ireland could no lono-er be 
 ruled by a faction ; that the power of the 
 Ascendency was broken ; that landlordism was 
 on its last legs ; and that the tide of Home 
 Rule could not be kept out by the pitchfork 
 of coercion, though it might (in their opinion) 
 be diverted into a narrower channel by the 
 spade of administrative reform. In 1898 a 
 great revolutionary measure, the Irish Local 
 Government Bill, was passed, transferring the
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATION 237 
 
 control of local affairs from the Ascendency to 
 the people, and a disposition was shown to 
 make popular appointments in almost all 
 departments, so much so that the Ascendency 
 declared that to be a Catholic or a Nationalist 
 was the best passport to office, A few years 
 ago I met a representative Irish landlord who 
 denounced the Irish members. "Why, sir," 
 said he, " these men would have been hung up 
 in the last century, and they ought to be hung 
 up now." I did not attempt to make a frontal 
 attack (it was the time of the Boer War) by 
 defending the Irish members, but I tried a 
 turning movement by asking, " What do you 
 think of the Balfours .? " "The Balfours," 
 said he; "why, damn them, they ought to be 
 hung up too ; they are the worst enemies the 
 loyalists of this country have ever had." 
 I met a resident magistrate — a Unionist of 
 course. I asked him what he thought of the 
 Local Government Act. " A most mischievous 
 measure," said he. "The administration of local 
 affairs has been taken out of the hands of the 
 cultured classes and put into the hands of the 
 mob." "This English Parliament," said I, "is 
 clearly playing the devil with the country." 
 
 I discussed the situation with the clever 
 editor of a provincial Tory newspaper. He 
 said, " In England they know nothing about 
 us. It does not matter whether it is a Tory
 
 238 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 or Liberal Government. It is all the same. 
 The English are always looking for results 
 which never happen. Gladstone thought he 
 could settle the Irish question by Church Acts 
 and Land Acts. Of course he did not. The 
 Unionist Government of to-day are simply 
 carrying out the old Gladstonian policy, the old 
 Liberal policy of concessions. They are pre- 
 pared to give the Nationalists everything but 
 Home Rule, and they think that by these 
 means they will kill Home Rule. The thing 
 is grotesque. In England they do not realise 
 what a revolution has taken place in this 
 country in recent years. Look at this town. 
 I came here thirty years ago. The proportion 
 of Protestants to Catholics in the population 
 was the same then as it is now. The Catholics 
 were in an overwhelming majority. The 
 Protestants were a mere handful. But every 
 position of local authority was in the hands of 
 the Protestants. The magistrates, the Poor 
 Law Guardians, the Inspector of Police, Chief 
 Constable, the dispensary doctor, the infirmary 
 doctor — all were Protestants. That state of 
 things is changed completely. Almost all 
 these positions are held by Catholics to-day. 
 Protestants were the masters then ; Catholics 
 are the masters now. I do not say that is 
 wrong, looking at the matter from any abstract 
 point of view. It is natural that Catholics
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATION 239 
 
 should rule in a Catholic country. I under- 
 stand all that. But I am looking at the 
 matter from an English point of view. I am 
 putting English statesmanship to the test ; and 
 I say it is grotesque to suppose that Ireland is 
 to be pacified, that the Union is to be upheld — 
 for that is the point — by taking all power out of 
 the hands of the loyal classes and putting it 
 into the hands of the rebels. Remember that 
 the Protestants of this country are bound to 
 England by historical associations, the Catholics 
 are not ; quite the reverse. Of course you may 
 bind a number of Catholics to England by 
 their salaries ; but there can be no other bond. 
 And is the whole Catholic population of 
 Ireland to be bound to England because a 
 handful of the population are made judges, and 
 magistrates, and gangers ? Why, the very 
 Catholic office-seekers won't be satisfied, for 
 every Catholic, every qualified Catholic, cannot 
 be made a judge, a magistrate, or a ganger. 
 There will be a horrible amount of malcontents. 
 Why, when Morley was here, it was constantly 
 said by the Catholics that he did not make 
 Catholic appointments, as Protestants and 
 Unionists say now that the Unionist Govern- 
 ment does not make Protestant and Unionist 
 appointments. Morley, to show his ' impar- 
 tiality,' sometimes appointed Protestants, as 
 Cierald Balfour, to show his 'impartiality,'
 
 240 IRISH MEMORIES 
 
 sometimes appoints Catholics and Nationalists. 
 But it is not impartiality that the office-seeker 
 wants, but jobs. Ireland will not be jobbed 
 into loyalty. Nobody cares for jobs, unless — 
 the man who is jobbed into something ; and 
 you can't job a whole nation out of its con- 
 victions, passions, and prejudices. In the Irish 
 Protestant, England had a friend apart from 
 the question of jobbery — though the Irish 
 Protestant likes a job as well as anybody else ; 
 but he was bound to England by religious and 
 historical ties. In the Irish Catholic, Plngland 
 has not a friend apart from the question of 
 jobbery, for the Irish Catholic is not bound to 
 England by any tie but the tie of corruption — 
 a loose tie in every sense. The Irish Catholics 
 represent the old Celtic population of the 
 country — there is no mistake about that, — and 
 they want to have the country in their own 
 hands — to govern it in accordance with Irish 
 ideas, Irish sentiments, and Irish prejudices. 
 That is quite natural, but it is not what 
 England wants. Yet England is taking the 
 means which must bring this state of things 
 about — that's my point. I say the only way 
 to govern Ireland in English interests is by 
 and through the loyal Protestant population of 
 the country, but that way England has utterly 
 abandoned. The English policy of the future 
 will be to govern Ireland directly from Eng-
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATION 241 
 
 land. Of course Dublin Castle will be re- 
 formed — swept away ; the Unionists are as 
 much bent on this as the Liberals. . , . Irish 
 administration will, I suppose, be directed by 
 the Home Office ; and English Unionist 
 statesmen, having established County Councils 
 and District Councils and Parish Councils and 
 all the rest of it in Ireland, imagine that these 
 bodies will be delio-hted with the direct domi- 
 nation of a minister or more properly a clerk 
 sitting in a room at Whitehall. The thing is 
 ludicrous. The Unionist policy of the day 
 must lead to one of two things in the long run — 
 either to Home Rule or to the reversal of 
 everything which has been done in recent 
 years, and the government of Ireland as a 
 Crown Colony. Were I to say this to an 
 English Unionist Minister he would laugh at 
 me. But faith, these English Ministers, 
 Unionist and Liberal, have often had to laugh 
 at the wrong side of their mouths as far as 
 Ireland is concerned." 
 
 The whirligig of politics is extraordinary. 
 Mr. Gladstone tried to carry Home Rule by a 
 coup de main, and failed owing to the opposition 
 of Tories and Liberal Unionists. And to-day 
 Tories and Liberal Unionists are carrying 
 Home Rule inch by inch, though they know 
 it not. 
 
 17
 
 Nearly all the papers (revised) in this volume 
 appeared originally in the Conihill Magazine, 
 the Freemans Journal, and the Speaker, to 
 the editors of which, for permission to reprint, 
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 Compiled by Henry Compton. 
 
 10. THE MEMOIRS AND TRAVELS OF COUNT DE 
 
 BENYOWSKY in Siberia, Kamdchatka, Japan, the Linkiu 
 Islands, and Formosa. Edited by Captain S. P. Oliver, R.A. 
 
 11. A MASTER MARINER: The Life of Captain Robert W, 
 
 Eastwick. Edited by Herbert Compton. 
 
 12. KOLOKOTRONES: KLEPHT AND WARRIOR. 
 
 Translated from the Greek by Mrs. Edmonds. Introduction 
 by M. Gennadius. 
 
 II, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.G. *c
 
 U The Literary Pen is the Best. U 
 
 " Mr. PUher Unwln has beguiled his 
 leisure momenta with experimenting In 
 pens, and now ' The Literary Pen ' is 
 Issued in a nice little booklet box for 
 the benefit of authors. It is guaran- 
 teed to write anything from a sonnet 
 to an epic, and it certainly rung very 
 easily and quickly. 'U'is the letter 
 it bears, and ' U ' it will, doubtless, 
 remain to a grateful posterity."— .B/<Ji.-A 
 and Whitt. 
 
 M 
 
 "Certainly the new nibs are excel- 
 lent — a great Im- 
 provement on the 
 avcr.ige 'J.'"— JOH.iJ 
 OUVBR HonBES. 
 
 " For writing easily, 
 legibly, and without 
 excessive use of ink — 
 which is a saving 
 of time In dipping 
 — the ' Literary U 
 Pen ' which Mr. 
 Fisher Unwin has 
 brought out cannot 
 be excelled. Its ac- 
 tion Is smooth, and 
 very Uke that of a 
 quill." — 
 
 Lttds Mercury, 
 
 " We Uke the way 
 It writes. It is an improvement on the 
 best pen we have used, and will 
 speedily become popular with those 
 vvho appreciate an easy pen to write 
 with."— SA<^«W Daily Indifendent. 
 
 "A new pen, the merits of which 
 are undoubted. We have been using 
 one of these ' U ' nibs for the past 
 week, and it still writes as well as 
 when we first inserted it in the holder. 
 There is certainly a successful future in 
 store for the ' Literary U.' "—Bookseller. 
 
 " Proves to be an easy running but 
 not too soft pen, with which one may 
 write at great spetd.'— Newsagent. 
 
 « 
 
 " Anyone who loves the smooth 
 action of the quill and the distinctness 
 of the fiaest-polnted steel nib com- 
 bined, should get a box of 'U' Pens at 
 once."— Weekly Times and Eth». 
 
 "We can recommend it for the 
 smoothness with which It passes over 
 paper."— jEax/ 
 A nglian Daily Times. 
 
 "We have tried the 
 'U' and Uke it."— 
 Academy. 
 
 « 
 
 " It is a pleasant, 
 smooth-running pen, 
 and altogether very 
 agreeable to work 
 with. It ought to be 
 a boon to those who 
 write much." — 
 Dublin Daily 
 
 Express. 
 
 "Writes very 
 smoothly, and all 
 who write much 
 know that that is the 
 first quality desired 
 
 la a pta.''—Rtyt tUU' Nemspafer. 
 « 
 "Altogether fery agreeable to work 
 
 with. It ought to be a boon to those 
 
 who write much."— Warder, 
 
 "It ll a good pen and justifies its 
 Uae."— People, 
 
 " Literary worker* will find the Lite- 
 rary Pen well worth their attention."— 
 Publishers' Circular. 
 
 U Smooth RnnniDg, with a Quill-like Action. U
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILin 
 
 A 000 029 448 8