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27 chapters
CHAPTER I. THE CRADLE AND THE WEANING.
CHAPTER I. THE CRADLE AND THE WEANING.
In the Old Abbey field of Ross Carbery, County of Cork, is the old Abbey Church of St. Fachtna. Some twenty yards south of the church is the tomb of Father John Power, around which tomb the people gather on St. John’s eve, “making rounds” and praying for relief from their bodily infirmities. On the tombstone it is recorded that Father Power died on the 10th of August, 1831. I was at his funeral; I heard my mother say she was “carrying” me that day. It is recorded on the parish registry that I wa
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CHAPTER II. AT MY GRANDFATHER’S.
CHAPTER II. AT MY GRANDFATHER’S.
It may be doubted that I remember things that happened to me when I was at my mother’s breast, or when I was three years old; but I have no doubt on that matter. Prominent in my forehead is a scar. I got that scar this way: The girl whose chief duty was to mind me had me on her back one day. I was slipping off; she bounced herself, to raise me up on her shoulders, and she threw me clear over her head, on the street. My forehead came on a stone, and from the cut I got remains the scar. I could to
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CHAPTER III. MY SCHOOLDAYS.
CHAPTER III. MY SCHOOLDAYS.
At the age of seven, I was brought home to my father and mother in Ross, to be sent to school, and prepared for Confirmation and Communion. I had received those sacraments of the Church before I was nine years of age. Confirmation day, the boys were lined along the chapel aisle in couples, the boy who was my comrade going up to the altar was Patrick Regan, and it was a singular coincidence that nine years before that, he and I were baptized the same day in the same chapel. And we went through sc
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CHAPTER IV. IRISH FIRESIDE STORY AND HISTORY.
CHAPTER IV. IRISH FIRESIDE STORY AND HISTORY.
I must have been at John Cushan’s school about six years. Paying a visit to the school after his death, I looked at the roll-calls, and I could not find my name on them after December, 1844. So I had been at school from the age of six to the age of thirteen. Bad times came on then. The year 1845 was the first year of the great blight of the potato crops in Ireland. The landlords of Ireland made a raid upon the grain crops and seized them and sold them for their rents, leaving the producers of th
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CHAPTER V. THE EMIGRANT PARTING.—CARTHY SPAUNIACH.
CHAPTER V. THE EMIGRANT PARTING.—CARTHY SPAUNIACH.
In the year 1841, the family of my father’s brother Cornelius, sold out their land and their house, and went to America. In that house the priests used to have their dinner on “Conference” days in Ross. My uncle had recently died. His widow was Margaret, the daughter of Daniel O’Donoghue, who belonged to a family of O’Donoghues whom England had plundered. She had four daughters and two sons: Mary, Ellen, Julia, Margaret, Denis and Daniel. They settled first in Philadelphia. All the girls are dea
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CHAPTER VI. THE GLADSTONE BLACKBIRD.—MANY FEATURES OF IRISH LIFE.
CHAPTER VI. THE GLADSTONE BLACKBIRD.—MANY FEATURES OF IRISH LIFE.
There were three or four hillocks in the field near the schoolhouse, that grew nothing but bushes and briars, and in these hillocks linnets and goldfinches would build their nests. I never robbed any of these nests, and the birds seemed to understand that I would not hurt or harm them. The mother would sit there hatching, she looking at me and I looking at her, and would not fly away unless I stretched out my hand to catch her. I was great at finding birds’ nests, and occasionally of a Sunday I’
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CHAPTER VII. THE LORDS OF IRELAND.
CHAPTER VII. THE LORDS OF IRELAND.
The landlords of Ireland are the lords of Ireland. England makes them landlords first, and then, to put the brand of her marauding nobility on them, she makes them English lords. And they do lord it over the Irish people, and ride rough-shod over every natural and acquired right belonging to them. Whether born in England or Ireland, they must be English, and anti-Irish in spirit, in action and in religion. Some of my readers may say that some of the lords and the landlords in Ireland at the pres
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CHAPTER VIII. A CHAPTER ON GENEALOGY.
CHAPTER VIII. A CHAPTER ON GENEALOGY.
When I was a little fellow, I got so much into my head about my family, and about what great big people they were in the world before I came among them, that when I grew up to be a man, I began to trace the genealogy of that family, and I actually did trace it up the generations through Ham, who was saved in Noah’s Ark, to Adam and Eve who lived in the Garden of Paradise one time. While at this work, I was for a few years in communication with John O’Donovan of No. 36 Northumberland Street, Dubl
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CHAPTER IX. “Repeal of the Union.”
CHAPTER IX. “Repeal of the Union.”
I did not know what “Repeal of the Union” was when I heard all the grown-up people around me shouting out “Repeal! Repeal!” It is no harm now to let my young readers know what Repeal meant when I was a boy in Ireland. Before I was a boy—before you or I were in the world at all—Ireland had a Parliament of her own. Ireland’s representatives met in the Parliament House in College Green, Dublin. Or, more correctly speaking, the English breed of people living in Ireland held Parliament in College Gre
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CHAPTER X. HOW ENGLAND STARVED IRELAND.
CHAPTER X. HOW ENGLAND STARVED IRELAND.
Coming on the harvest time of the year 1845, the crops looked splendid. But one fine morning in July there was a cry around that some blight had struck the potato stalks. The leaves had been blighted, and from being green, parts of them were turned black and brown, and when these parts were felt between the fingers they’d crumble into ashes. The air was laden with a sickly odor of decay, as if the hand of Death had stricken the potato field, and that everything growing in it was rotting. This is
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CHAPTER XI. THE BAD TIMES: THE “GOOD PEOPLE.” JILLEN ANDY: HER COFFINLESS GRAVE.
CHAPTER XI. THE BAD TIMES: THE “GOOD PEOPLE.” JILLEN ANDY: HER COFFINLESS GRAVE.
This chapter that I have to write now is a very hard chapter to write. I have to say something that will hurt my pride and will make my friends think the less of me. But I’ll say it all the same, because the very thing that hurts my pride and humbles me in my own estimation, may be the very thing that has strengthened me to fight Ireland’s battle against the common enemy as I have fought it. If the operation of English rule in Ireland abases the nature of the Irishman—and it does abase it—the Ir
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CHAPTER XII. 1847 and 1848.
CHAPTER XII. 1847 and 1848.
In the summer of 1847, when Bill-Ned’s decree was executed on our house, and when all the furniture was canted, notice of eviction was served upon my mother. The agent was a cousin of ours, and he told my mother it was better for her to give up the land quietly, and he would do all he could to help her. She had four children who were not able to do much work on a farm. She had no money, and she could not till the land. There were four houses included in the lease—our own house, Jack McCart’s hou
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CHAPTER XIII. THE SCATTERING OF MY FAMILY. THE PHŒNIX SOCIETY.
CHAPTER XIII. THE SCATTERING OF MY FAMILY. THE PHŒNIX SOCIETY.
John Mitchel, John Martin, Smith O’Brien, Terence Bellew McManus and other prominent men in the Young Ireland movement of 1848 were transported to Australia, and the movement collapsed. There was no armed fight for freedom. The Irish people had no arms of any account. England seized all they had, and she supplied with arms all the English that lived in Ireland. She supplied the Orangemen with arms, and she supplied arms to the Irish who were of the English religion. In the year 1863, John Power
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CHAPTER XIV. LOVE AND WAR AND MARRIAGE.
CHAPTER XIV. LOVE AND WAR AND MARRIAGE.
The last chapter commenced with the arrest of the men of ’48 and ran over the succeeding ten years, up to the arrest of the men of ’58. Those ten years carried me from boyhood into manhood. I could very well skip them by, and say no more about them, but many men and women who are reading these “Recollections” in the United Irishman would not be pleased at my doing that. They have become interested in my stories of Irish life and Irish character, and, as one purpose of my writing is to make a tru
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CHAPTER XV. DOCTOR JERRIE CROWLEY, DOCTOR ANTHONY O’RYAN, CHARLES KICKHAM, THE PHŒNIX SOCIETY.
CHAPTER XV. DOCTOR JERRIE CROWLEY, DOCTOR ANTHONY O’RYAN, CHARLES KICKHAM, THE PHŒNIX SOCIETY.
After my marriage, my late employer moved into a new house he had built. I rented the house in which I had lived with him the previous four or five years, and I carried on the business of hardware and agricultural seeds merchant. I prospered, pretty fairly, every way. I had my advertising bills and posters printed in the Irish language. One side of the house fronted a square, and on that side, I had painted the words: The business language of the shop was mostly Irish, as that was mostly the bus
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CHAPTER XVI. THE START OF FENIANISM.
CHAPTER XVI. THE START OF FENIANISM.
In these times preceding the Phœnix arrests—from 1852 to 1858—the time of the Sadlier and Keogh Tenant Right movement, the time of the Crimean war, and the time of the Indian mutiny, the Irish National cause was in a swoon. But England was playing one of her tricks, endeavoring to get the people to put trust in Parliamentary agitation and petitions to Parliament, for the redress of their grievances. Men who had no faith in these petitions would join in, saying, “We will try once more; but this i
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CHAPTER XVII. ARREST OF THE PHŒNIX MEN.
CHAPTER XVII. ARREST OF THE PHŒNIX MEN.
In the Autumn of 1858, Patrick Mansfield Delaney and Martin Hawe were arrested in Kilkenny, and Denis Riordan was arrested in Macroom. While they were in jail, the Kilkenny men came in numbers into the farm of Mr. Delaney, and harvested all the produce of the land for his family. Denis Riordan died in America. Patrick Mansfield Delaney died in America. I met Martin Hawe at his home in Kilkenny in the year 1894. In those early years of my life—embracing the Tenant-Right movement, and the start of
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CHAPTER XVIII. A STAR-CHAMBER TRIAL.
CHAPTER XVIII. A STAR-CHAMBER TRIAL.
On the evening of December the 5th, 1858, there was an entertainment at my house in Skibbereen in compliment to Dan McCartie, the brewer, who was leaving town, to accept the position of brewer in some Brewery in the County Galway. The company did not separate till about two o’clock. I went to bed, and was soon aroused from sleep by a thundering knocking at the hall door. When it was opened a dozen policemen rushed in and took charge of me and of every one in the house. Then every room was ransac
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CHAPTER XIX. THE MCMANUS FUNERAL—JAMES STEPHENS AND JOHN O’MAHONY VISIT SKIBBEREEN—FENIANISM GROWING STRONG.
CHAPTER XIX. THE MCMANUS FUNERAL—JAMES STEPHENS AND JOHN O’MAHONY VISIT SKIBBEREEN—FENIANISM GROWING STRONG.
Coming on the year 1860, the men of Skibbereen took up the threads of the organization that were let slip through the arrest of the Phœnix men in ’58. We met James Stephens in Bantry, and Mr. Dan McCartie, Morty Moynahan, and I, with the Bantry men, Denis and William O’Sullivan, Pat, Jerrie and Michael Cullinane, and some others, went in Denis O’Sullivan’s yacht to Glengarriffe, where we had dinner at Eccles’ Hotel. Stephens paid for the dinner. Sailing through Bantry bay, Stephens was smoking a
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CHAPTER XX. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE ENEMY.
CHAPTER XX. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE ENEMY.
Dan Hallahan, John O’Gorman, Willie O’Gorman, William McCarthy, Jerrie O’Donovan, John Hennigan, Jerrie O’Meara and others who had charge of the flags the night of the Polish demonstration, took them to my house. They went up to the roof and planted them on the chimneys. That was more high-treason. But I let the flags fly, and would not haul them down—much to the alarm of the men of the English garrison who had “charge of the peace” of the community. McCarthy Downing, trying to reason me out of
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CHAPTER XXI. JAMES STEPHENS AND JOHN O’MAHONY.
CHAPTER XXI. JAMES STEPHENS AND JOHN O’MAHONY.
After the arrest of the Phœnix men in December, 1858, James Stephens went to France. In April, 1859, when I and my companions were in Cork Jail, he wrote this letter to John O’Mahony: No. 30 Rue de Montaigne, Paris , April 6, 1859. My dear O’Mahony —The contemplated modification of our body, as well as the still more important step spoken of to you and friends the night before I left New York, you are henceforth to look upon as facts. I need scarcely say, however, that it will be wise to limit t
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CHAPTER XXII. A LETTER OF MUCH IMPORT, WRITTEN BY JAMES STEPHENS, IN THE YEAR 1861.
CHAPTER XXII. A LETTER OF MUCH IMPORT, WRITTEN BY JAMES STEPHENS, IN THE YEAR 1861.
Though I spoke of the McManus funeral before, I have now to speak of it again. I find among my papers a letter written by James Stephens to John O’Mahony, the week after the funeral took place in Dublin. It deals trenchantly with the milk-and-water Irish patriots of that time and even of this time who are ever telling us that “England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity,” and ever calling upon us to “bide our time,” and do nothing until that time comes. This is that letter: Brother —Your last
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CHAPTER XXIII. JOHN O’MAHONY, WM. SULLIVAN, FLORRY ROGER O’SULLIVAN, BRIAN DILLON, JACK DILLON, MICHAEL O’BRIEN, C. U. O’CONNELL, JAMES MOUNTAINE, AND OTHERS.
CHAPTER XXIII. JOHN O’MAHONY, WM. SULLIVAN, FLORRY ROGER O’SULLIVAN, BRIAN DILLON, JACK DILLON, MICHAEL O’BRIEN, C. U. O’CONNELL, JAMES MOUNTAINE, AND OTHERS.
The two letters published in the last chapter, written by James Stephens and Thomas Clark Luby to John O’Mahony, at the start of the Fenian movement, speak for the Irish side of the house. The following letter, written by John O’Mahony to William Sullivan, of Tiffin, Ohio, at the start of the movement, speaks for the American side. I may add that there is not a line or a word added, omitted or altered in this original manuscript letter of John O’Mahony’s: No. 6 Centre St. , N. Y., 4th April, 185
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CHAPTER XXIV. ADMINISTERING RELIEF TO POOR PEOPLE—A FIGHT WITH THE LANDLORDS.
CHAPTER XXIV. ADMINISTERING RELIEF TO POOR PEOPLE—A FIGHT WITH THE LANDLORDS.
In the summer time of the year 1862 something occurred that brought me face to face with the English landlord garrison of the South of Ireland; something showed me the spirit of exterminating the old Irish race, that possesses some of these landlords. Rumors reached Skibbereen in the month of May that much distress prevailed in the islands of Sherkin and Cape Clear—Innis Cleire—“the island of the clergy”; that the people were dying of starvation. Special messengers from the island waited on the
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CHAPTER XXV. JOHN O’DONOVAN, LL. D., EDITOR OF THE ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS.
CHAPTER XXV. JOHN O’DONOVAN, LL. D., EDITOR OF THE ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS.
The life of my early manhood is full of my acquaintance with John O’Donovan, the great Irish scholar; and when now—forty years after that acquaintance—I am writing my “recollections,” it would not be right to pass the old times by, and pass the old friends by, without saying a word about them. I will, therefore, devote this chapter to the letters of John O’Donovan that are here before me. When writing to me he used to touch upon all subjects: Genealogy, politics, public men, history, seanachus,
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CHAPTER XXVI. MY FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA.—MY MOTHER, JOHN O’MAHONY, THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, ROBERT E. KELLY, AND HIS SON HORACE R. KELLY, MICHAEL CORCORAN, P. J. DOWNING, P. J. CONDON, WILLIAM O’SHEA, AND MICHAEL O’BRIEN THE MANCHESTER MARTYR.
CHAPTER XXVI. MY FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA.—MY MOTHER, JOHN O’MAHONY, THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, ROBERT E. KELLY, AND HIS SON HORACE R. KELLY, MICHAEL CORCORAN, P. J. DOWNING, P. J. CONDON, WILLIAM O’SHEA, AND MICHAEL O’BRIEN THE MANCHESTER MARTYR.
On a fine sunny morning in the month of May I found myself on board the City of Edinburgh steamer, steaming into the harbor of New York. She stopped while the quarantine doctor came on board to make examinations as to the state of her health. Gazing around from the deck of the ship, the scenery was grand—the hills of Staten Island looking as gay and green as the hills of Ireland. John Locke’s words, in address to the Cove of Cork, may be addressed to Clifton: And the two forts—Hamilton and Wadsw
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CHAPTER XXVII. GREAT-GRANDFATHER THOMAS CRIMMINS—HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF THE MEN OF ’98, AND OTHER MEN.
CHAPTER XXVII. GREAT-GRANDFATHER THOMAS CRIMMINS—HIS RECOLLECTIONS OF THE MEN OF ’98, AND OTHER MEN.
In the spirit of the concluding words of the last chapter, I take this last chapter of the first volume of my “Recollections,” from the recollections of Mr. Crimmins who has lived in New York for the past sixty-three years. In his early life, he was acquainted with many of the United Irishmen of ’98, who had made their homes in America, after the years of the trouble. It is among my “recollections,” to have met Mr. Crimmins; to have talked with him; and to have received from him information rega
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