The Life Story of an Old Rebel

nessed many scenes of mob violence at the time, when, in deference to the prevailing bigotry in opposing what they termed "Papal Aggression" a part

d, as the following incident will show, while the mani

this time, occupied by a ramshackle place made into a temporary chapel out of a number of old houses

d days, particularly in the Famine years, when our panic-stric

airs, leading from Standish Street, the side street off Great Crosshall Stree

ed to suffocation. In the middle of the sermon an alarm was raised of a broken beam or somet

d that the police not only brutally struck men, women and children, but even a blind man who was trying to grope his way out. They also used foul expressions about "Popery" and the "bloody Papists," and it was afterwards proved that these very men had themselv

out, and another report by one Sergeant Tomlinson to be substituted for it. Mr. Mansfield, the stipendiary magistrate, who conducted the inquiry, denounced Dowling and Tomlinson fo

ral of the police were suspended. Dowling was dismissed from his post as head constable of Liverpool, and los

th adversity, and the manager, a worthy Scotsman, sat in his office on Monday morning w

sked for the editor, but that gentleman had not yet come down, and the manage

are not satisfied with the attitude of the 'Liverpool --' on the great question o

, his mind still on the balance

at only this morning I have heard the belief expressed by merchants on 'C

loom of the manager's soul, as he contemplated in a

fervently, "I wish

compared with the injury done to the Irish people arising out of the same Act. For it led to the ruin of the Tenant Right agitation in Ireland,

er disgraced Irish politics. These, while posing as the champions of Catholicity in opposing Lord John Russell's b

the union of North and South from which so much was expected, besides creatin

of John Sadlier and the scarcely less wretched end of Keogh-h

Right leaders, who had also played a prominent and honourable part in the Repeal and Young

h their conduct had been condoned by so many of the hierarchy, clergy and people of Ireland, that caused Gavan Duffy to lose heart for the time,

onal movement while in Australia, where he became first Minister of the Crown in a self-governing

el Hoey succeeded him as editor of the "Nation," he having, as one of his colleagues, A

when my country was concerned, the British constitution (with the making of which neither I nor my people had ever had anything to do) was a matter of very little moment. Any work for Ireland that commended itself

verpool Catholic Institute, by whom the Cardinal's fine play of "The Hidden Gem" was performed in the Hall of the Institute during his stay in town. The bringing of the Cardinal to Liverpool was only one of the many occasions when the good Father was the medium through wh

determined to make a new departure in celebrating the national anniversary, for though the processions were magnificent displays, and it was not the fault of their promoters if ever there was any scandal arising out of them, still there was much that was inconsistent with a worthy celebration of the feast of the national sai

ishman, with an eloquent and stirring panegyric on St. Patrick from Father Nugent himself, making a more

sh Parliamentary Party to hold themselves in readiness to be drafted off to one or another of these gatherings, which are the means of keeping steadily burning the fire of patriotism in the breasts of our people. And what is of consequence from a financial point of view, the proc

some months I was there again, as I have already mentioned, as a boy of twelve, under the care of my uncle, the Rev. Michael O'Loughlin. I had often desired t

o there. Reaching the Curragh, we found that many of the men slept in the huts they were erecting, being supplied by the contractors with the requisite bed and bedding. The contractors also erected a large "canteen," to be used afterwards by the

e got from the Curragh men who came to lodge with her was useful too. It was a good big house of the kind, and the widow made use of every available inch of it, so that she had about a dozen of us in all. Mrs. Walsh, though an easy-going soul herself, had a fine bouncing girl to help her, but, with a dozen hungry men coming with a rush at night, it used to be a scramble for the cooking utensils, as we were largely left to our own devices. We used to leave early in

himself to make an even surface. But if there is a large quantity this does not pay, and the contractor brings in another artist called a "flogger," who, in nine cases out of ten, in my time, was an Irishman. It was generally given out as "piece work" to one man, t

ir boys. This he could do most truthfully without letting his imagination run away with him. "Aye, indeed," he said, "Barney and John are lodging in the one house with me, with a decent widow woman, and many a glass we had together at Igoe's." Tom h

rator), then a captain in the Dublin militia, trying to get a lot of his men, who were the worse for liquor, out of Igoe's. It could not be said that he did not give an edifying example to his men, for I saw him, on another occasion, going to Holy Communion, at the Soldiers' Mass, where the

oetical contributor to the "Nation," where I find him represented by two very fine pieces

England! but her

ndly aid at need, a

her head, and, wi

's nations all, her

any other of the O'Connell family. He, too, is represented in "The Spirit of the Nation" by his rousing "Recruit

igin of the Curragh-how the saint, to get "as much land as would graze a poor man's cow" made the very modest request from the king for as much ground as her mantle would cover; how he agreed, and she laid her mantle down on the "short grass;" how, to the king's astonishment, it spread and spread, until it covered the whole of the ground of

Suncroft, and often in his sermons-which were none the less edifying because they were given in the same free and easy style as his gossips with us on the road-he would tell his people of the talks he had had with t

we met-you an old man and I a young one. I am an old man now, and you-you dear good old soul-must have gone to your reward long ago, where you in your turn will be hearing from St. Brigid herself, and from the fine old Irish king who gave the Curragh, th

rst Irish Round Tower I ever saw, and where the fine old ruined church of St. Brigid put us in mind of the patron saint of Ireland; or to Kilcullen, where the brave Kildare pikemen ro

e uniform by stress of circumstances, as good Irishmen as I ever met. Coming home from work one evening, I met on the road to the Curragh a party of them, ca

they have

e Shan

d by one impulse

urragh o

ys will al

pikes in

e Shan

harmless rejoicing, but this was too spontaneous to be anything but the outpouring of the

imself for the part he very efficiently filled some years later in the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, as recruiting officer among the soldiery of Brita

e most I have ever actually seen of my own country. Having a taste for drawing, I took sketches of the various not

everal years as a joiner and builder, before taking service with Father Nugent, first as secretary of his Boy'