Catholic Emancipation

"Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin."

In the waning years of the 18^th century, English leaders became increasingly concerned about the growing independence of the Irish Parliament. They determined to coerce the Irish to end any pretense of independence and become a part of the powerful English empire. To obtain Catholic support for this radical change, the Prime Minister promised Catholics they would obtain equality within the new union. Catholic leaders fulfilled their agreement and delivered their share of the needed votes, but the promised Catholic independence proved to be worthless words floated to deceive. The majority Catholic population continued to endure lives restricted by the remaining Penal Laws which enforced their second-class status.

In the early years of the 19^th century, the Catholics of Ireland finally found a strong and charismatic leader to fight for their rights, Daniel O’Connell. His great popularity with the Catholic population forced a number of concessions from Parliament. Unfortunately, one particularly galling restriction remained. Catholics were forbidden to hold public office or seats in Parliament where all the laws for Ireland were enacted. Finally, the unrest in Ireland produced long overdue action in England. Sir Robert Peel, the Home Secretary for the current Prime Minister, the fabled military leader the Duke of Wellington, addressed members of the House of Commons in the early days of 1829. England “must either grant further political concessions or that they must retract those which have already been granted.” The current laws for Ireland “poisoned the springs of social life.”

In order to gain support in Parliament, Peel proposed to raise the property standard for the right to vote, effectively removing the right to vote from laborers on the mainly Protestant estates who had previously been able to vote. Once this legislation had passed through Parliament, Sir Robert turned to the daunting task of obtaining enough votes to pass the Roman Catholic Relief Act, thus ending the last restriction created by the Penal Laws.

This legislation was strenuously opposed by the Protestants of Ulster. Localities and organizations flooded Parliament with petitions, 120 of them, protesting any further concessions to their Catholic neighbors. Notwithstanding their objections, Sir Peel’s legislation passed all the stages of the House of Commons on March 30, 1829 and moved on to the Lords. Irish Protestants were certain the legislation could never pass this stage. However, Prime Minister Wellington skillfully led the legislation through all the obstacles opponents of the legislation could erect. On April 10^th, the Emancipation legislation passed the critical second reading by 105 votes. It was clear that the last of the Catholic restrictions would be removed. Royal Assent was given on April 13^th. Since Daniel O’Connell had already been elected to a seat in Parliament, he would become the first Catholic from Ireland to participate in crafting the English laws for Ireland.

Alexander Peacock, who was then the owner and editor of the Newry Commercial Telegraph, wrote an impassioned plea to all the local residents. He hoped that these new laws would be greeted by “feelings of amity and good will by all classes of our fellow countrymen.” This English action represented “a complete revolution in Irish affairs and politics."

Mr. Peacock concluded, “Long, very long has she [Ireland] been the hapless victim of the fell demon of Party. Religion and politics have each, in turn, become subservient to its blighting influence.” All citizens must “cultivate a mutual spirit of charity and kindness.” Their only competition should be in “extending the right hand of friendship.”

A Dueling Dragons Glossary: Irish Land Units

One problem for the American reader of Dueling Dragons ("DD") is likely to be the unfamiliar terminology used for Irish land and governmental units. This very abbreviated discussion draws on wikipedia articles.

• A "townland" was originally part of a Gaelic hierarchical system.  It evolved to be the smallest administrative unit, averaging 325 acres.  (For Americans outside the original 13 states, think of the "township" or 640 acres as a parallel.) "Until the 19th century most townlands were owned by single landlords and occupied by multiple tenants."  A rough guess is a townland might support 80 people.
• A "parish" was comprised of many townlands.  Originally there were only church or ecclesiastical parishes of the Catholic Church but with Henry VIII they became Church of Ireland/Anglican parishes.  On the church side,  several parishes made up a diocese (sometimes a subdivision of a diocese was headed by a dean. In the 19th century civil parishes were created as units of local administration and their boundaries might differ from the church parishes.

In the case of DD, Ringbane and Loughorne are frequently mentioned townlands, though the name often serves to designate the homes of James Harshaw and John Martin (before exile).  Donaghmore is the parish which includes them.

Note that the Presbyterian church has "presbyteries", not parishes. 

From wikipedia: "the Down Survey was conducted, using physical measurements to make as accurate a map as was possible at the time of townlands, parishes and baronies. This became the basis for all future land claims.[4] Parishes are an intermediate subdivision, with multiple townlands per parish and multiple parishes per barony. A civil parish is typically made up of 25–30 townlands. It may include urban areas such as villages. A parish may cross the boundaries of both baronies and counties; in some cases it may be in several geographically separate parts.[5]"

WDH

Dromalane House Picture (Grave of Hentie)

Dueling Dragons is over 500 pages, so Marjorie and I were reluctant to add more pages. Consequently most of the illustrations are placed at the end of chapters, using pages which would otherwise have been blank to permit chapters to begin on odd pages. This picture shows the graves at Dromalane House, with that of Hentie Mitchel Martin in the center, and Hill Irvine (James Harshaw's landlord) on the right..

Here is text from the book: "County Down 100 Years Ago, A Directory" by George Bassett from the Google book website:

"Thomson JP Altnaveigh House Mr T D Arcy Hoey JP Dromalane House and Mr James M Mahon JP Bellevue Mr Barcroft's place has a glen formed by the action of a mountain stream which in its course from a high elevation produces several cascades and pools framed by trees of lordly proportions and by ornamental shrubs into pictures of sylvan beauty sweetly and refreshingly inviting The walks through the glen by the kindness of Mr Barcroft are open to the public Mr Hoey's place Dromalane House has a park of 6J acres in which some of the loveliest effects of landscape gardening are visible There are grottoes open rock work a cascade and two trout ponds fed by a sparkling brook and shaded by large trees which have captivated the hearts of a colony of rooks Dromalane House is near the Dromalane Spinning Mill and was the residence of its original owner the late Mr Hill Irvine It occupies the site of the birthplace of John Mitchel and he died in it Mr Irvine was married to one of Mr Mitchel's sisters John Martin also a brother in law of Mr Mitchel's caught cold while attending the funeral of the latter arid died in the same house Along the Downshire road are many private residences of a most substantial sort some of them being very elegant The road begins at the junction of Trevor Hill and Sandy's street and is marked by a tall granite monument which perpetuates the memory of Trevor Corry whose services as a magistrate secured him much public respect Among the handsome private places in the vicinity of Newry are Ivy Lodge residence of Mrs Swanzy Sheepbridge House residence of Mrs Cowan and Ashgrove residence of Mr Moorhead Ashgrove House was built by Mr John O Hare for the late Mr JM Magee Sessional Crown solicitor for county Armagh and cost 4,000 Some of the finest buildings in Newry notably the large flour mills of Messrs Sinclair & Son were erected under contract by Mr O Hare On the Rathfriland Road above the town is the Crown Fort from the antiquarian point of view most interesting of the sights of Newry It is an earth work 112 feet high with a base almost circular having a circumference of 585 feet The fosse surrounding it is 20 feet broad and 10 feet in depth It is supposed that the celebrated battle of Magh Rath 637 was fought in the valley around this mount instead of at Moira Domnahll the chief king and the forces of the southern provinces were opposed by king Cougal of Ullagh at the head of an army composed of his own people and of mercenaries Cougal was defeated and slain Shane O Neill 1567 in his rebellion against the English also used the Crown Fort as a base of operations"

Pulling Threads

One of the goals of this blog is to add stories for which there was no room in the book and to pull at small threads to see where they go. This post is one example.

On page 28, there is a single mention of David Jackson. He was a middle level farmer, rather like James Harshaw, who fell on hard times during the famine. As a result, the agent for the owner, Robert Mauleverer attempted unsuccessfully to seize his cows and collect the overdue rent from their sale. There turned out to be a very interesting story behing David Jackson and his family. Much of the information for this story comes from a wonderful blog about the Jackson family run by writer and genealogist Sharon Oddie Brown at the Silver Bowl.com.

David Jackson and his wife had a large family. One of the children, Thomas was only 9 years old when Mauleverer was murdered. Sharon has a wonderful tale of a gypsy fortune teller that involved both Thomas and Mauleverer on her blog.

Thomas should have been as little known as his father David was. But that wasn't at all what happened. Thomas left the family farm near Crossmaglen and moved to Portadown where he got a job in a bank there. His talents were soon recognized, and before he was 20 years old, he moved to Belfast and joined the Bank of Ireland.

Just 4 years later, he moved to Hong Kong for a much more important position at the Agra and Masterbank. Just a year later he joined the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) as an accountant. He would soon be the most influential and important international banker for the most important bank in Asia. He was considered both cautious and brilliant.

Thomas had a very well thought out business plan. He approached banking as the farmers he had known as a child approached farming. Always plan for times of scarcity. Care for your workers. Don't export profits. Remember to be a steward. His principled career was rewarded with a knighthood in 1902.

The amazing story of the Jackson family's importance also connected to another of the small players in my book. David Jackson had a sister Margaret. She married well, a charismatic and well educated Presbyterian minister named Daniel Gunn Brown. Rev. Brown was very active in the struggle to gain recognition of tenant rights. He too makes an brief appearance in Dueling Dragons. He gave a number of speeches in support of these efforts. His remarks at one of them, a meeting in Armagh, was mentioned on page 45. George Henderson offered a harsh critique of the meeting and the lack of quality of the leaders. Given Rev. Brown's great academic achievements, George was wrong to disparage Rev. Brown.

The Henderson Newspaper Dynasty

There was a time before radio, TV, and smart phones when newspapers were the only public source of information. Not surprising then, that at the beginning of the 19th century, there were hundreds of them published around Ireland. The earliest among them was the Belfast Newsletter which was first published during the previous century.

Papers were usually published once or twice a week, usually containing four pages. They followed a similar pattern: advertisements, local news, reports on the actions of Parliament, and finally, a literary page with poetry, and a serialized fictional story. Some included birth, marriage and death notices of the most prominent Irish citizens. Most newspapers supported a political perspective, either Whig or Conservative, nationalist or loyalist. Papers cost a few pennies a copy. Those who could afford a subscription could instead subscribe to a reading room many newspapers offered. There they could read multiple newspapers from Ireland and England for the price on a single subscription. For years, they were very popular.

None of this was of much help to the majority of Irish citizens who had no spare pennies or were unable to read. But that didn't mean that they had no interest in the news or no way to access it. People like James Harshaw, who subscribed to two papers, the Newry Commercial Telegraph, which was a Conservative, loyalist newspaper, and the Banner of Ulster, which was published for a Presbyterian audience, shared each copy with his poor, but literate, workers and neighbors. Some of these shared newspapers found their way to the local pubs where they would be read aloud to illiterate patrons.

James Henderson and his wife Amelia were the first Hendersons to live in Newry. They weren't in the newspaper business when they came. The Newry paper was owned by Alexander Peacock. But they found Newry to their liking and settled in to raise a large family there. George Henderson, who is one of the principal writers in the Dragon books, was one of the younger sons in the family, the oldest son being James Alexander Henderson. It was this first son who started the Henderson newspaper empire. James #2 acquired control of the Newry Telegraph, by marrying Peacock's daughter Anne. He found greater opportunities in Belfast and left the Newry paper to younger brother George to manage.

A few years later, James #2, though still a very young man, was given the opportunity to go to Belfast and join Alexander Mackay in running the Belfast Newsletter. Not long after Mackay died, this James followed his father's example and married Agnes Mackay, thus gaining control of another very prominent newspaper. Ownership and management of this Belfast newspaper continued in this branch of the Henderson family for many generations. They embraced each new form of communication as it was invented, through radio and into the post World War II world of television, largely through the leadership of James and Agnes's son James Alexander #3. He became the first Lord Mayor after Belfast became officially a city. He led the building of the Belfast City Hall, and received a knighthood from Queen Victoria.

Sir James Alexander Henderson

Under George Henderson's leadership the Newry Telegraph also continued to play an important roll in Ulster society. However, when George left and moved to Dublin, the paper began to decline in readership and revenue. In 1873, the paper had hit "low water" financially. So James #2, who was still managing the Newsletter, dispatched James #3 back to Newry to rescue the paper. He continued to edit the paper until 1883 when his father died and he returned to Belfast to manage the paper there.

The Henderson family remains an important and well known media family in Belfast. Sadly, the current members of the family have no information on George Henderson or his contribution to Irish history. Hopefully, Dueling Dragons will provide him the recognition he deserves.

Who Painted John Martin's Portrait?

John Martin was a very modest man, and one with limited financial resources. So I never looked for a portrait. However, suddenly one turned up, a very large and impressive one, hung on the wall of the meeting room in the Newry Town Hall.

Who could have painted this very imposing portrait? The painting itself provided no answer, as it is unsigned. I'm vastly too curious not to at least attempt to uncover the artist.

So what clues could I pick up to help in any search? From looking at John's appearance, I could see that his beard had started to turn white. From existing photographs, I knew this happened around 1867 or so. That gave a useful hint about when it was painted.

This mystery painter had to be a young artist starting his career, as John had little money to pay for such a large painting. So who was painting in Ireland at that time? Wikipedia had the answer, providing a list of Irish painters of the time, and gave examples of their work.

I had gone down the entire list before I came to the name of a young artist, who painted portraits in the style of John's painting. I was stunned to see who the match was, John Butler Yeats.

This idea seemed an unlikely long shot, unless I could document some sort of connection between Yeats and Martin. That turned out to be surprisingly easy. Yeats lived in Dublin and had been a practicing lawyer, working with Isaac Butt. Isaac Butt was someone John knew well, as he had represented John in his 1848 trial. Certainly John and Yeats had met when Yeats was a successful lawyer..

In 1867, Yeats suddenly ended his law career and moved to London to study art. This was the time he learned to paint in oils, the medium of the Martin painting. Unfortunately, Yeats didn't keep records of his paintings, so no documentation existed to support my theory. But in reading about Yeat's life, I discovered some supporting hints. Yeats was always in need of money, so his early work often sold for just a few pounds. John was a charitable man and could afford to sit for a painting to help out a friend. Also Yeats wasn't pleased with most of his early works, and so he didn't sign them.

After a year of study in London, Yeats returned for a short time to execute some commissions that Butt had arranged for him. This is the most likely time and place the painting was done. Yeats talked while he worked, so often the subjects of his paintings were looking at him, as in John's portrait.  Yeats enjoyed doing portraits of his friends. As he put it, "Portrait painting with me is friendship, or it might be hatred, but I must have a real personal interest in whom I paint." He strove to reveal the soul of his subjects.

There can be no absolute certainly as to the identity of the painter. Only an examination of the painting by an art expert could add more substance to my theory. But in the meantime, this painting is something for Newry residents to treasure.

Finding a Title

I was several years into researching and writing the first of my two books on Irish history without a title. The horror of the "Great Irish Famine" proved difficult to capture in a few pithy words. For 6 years in the middle of the 19th century, the potato, the single source of food for millions of poor Irish men, women and children, was infected with a blight,which overnight could turn healthy food to a black and stinking heap.

Thousands upon thousands died, sometimes shut away in their hovels, sometimes lying unburied along lanes to become food for animals. A few found refuge in the prison-like poor houses created by an act of the British Parliament. Whole sections of the south and west of Ireland went quiet, as those who had the money to escape fled to ports to escape to England, Canada or America. Many of these refugees died in deadly storms on the Atlantic or of disease during the dangerous voyage.

My delete button removed dozens of failed effort. One morning, I was looking for some information in an Irish history when I saw a footnote that solved my problem. I discovered the phrase, "Dwelling place of dragons." It was the story behind the author of that phrase that convinced me I had indeed been given a special gift.

Ipswich, the small historic town that has been home for several decades, was founded in 1634 by Puritan settlers fleeing persecution in England. The Puritans were determined to create a civic society that matched their religious beliefs. So each new settlement needed a Puritan minister to ensure that their principles would be carefully taught and rigorously enforced. The first minister dispatched to Ipswich was Rev. Nathaniel Ward. He lived just a few minute's walk from my house.

Rev. Ward had other talents that proved very helpful to the new Puritan colony. These were religious pilgrims, now facing the challenge of creating a government. Rev. Ward had been a lawyer before becoming a minister, so he was called upon to help create the new government. He wrote a document called the "Body of Liberties," which codified the rights that citizens should have under the new government. It later became the base for the Massachusetts constitution. He also wrote one of the first books published in the new colony, "The Simple Cobbler of Agawam."

When the Puritans in England seized power two decades later, Rev. Ward decided to risk the ocean voyage, returning  to England in 1646. So he was living in England when Oliver Cromwell took his Puritan army to Ireland in 1649. This powerful force stormed ashore near Dundalk, laying waste to the town and murdering the opposing forces and many of the civilians who had sought refuge there.

While Cromwell headed south with his main army, he dispatched Robert Venables with a force of 5000 north to take the east coast of Ulster. After conquering Dundalk, they headed east to Carlingford where they attacked some of the ancient castles there. The next day, they conquered Newry without a struggle. The major battle of the campaign took place at Lisnagarvey, near Lisburn. There Venable and his forces defeated an army of Scotch Covenenters. The victors slaughtered many of the fleeing Royalists. Carrickfergus fell without a battle, and Cromwell controlled eastern Ulster.

Rev. Ward was a great supporter of the Cromwell invasion of Ireland. Though he had been supportive of human rights in Massachusetts, he was less concerned about Irish right. In 1647, he exhorted Cromwell to undertake an invasion of Ireland, to make it a total wasteland of ruined buildings and dead Irishmen. The ruin he wished for Ireland was very like the ruin that occurred during the famine. And I had my title. "Cursed be he who holdeth back the sword from blood; yea cursed be he that maketh not the sword stark drunk with Irish blood; who doth not recompense them double for their treachery to the English; but maketh them in heaps on heaps, and their country the dwelling place of dragons-an astonishment for nations.  Let not that eye look for pity, nor hand be spared, that pities or spares them; and let him be cursed that curseth them not bitterly."

From Jeremiah 51-37 in the King James version: "And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant."