Search Results for 'the Freeman'

Such is the weakness of man, it seems, that even the mighty Daniel O’ Connell may have succumbed to the allures of the fair sex, committing an indiscretion in his youth, which came back to haunt him in later years when he and his wife Mary shared ‘abiding affection’.

Mitchell Henry’s final days in Kylemore were sad ones. His adored wife Margaret had died at 45 years-of-age, and rested in a simple brick mausoleum in the grounds of his palatial Kylemore Castle. His political life, into which he put a great deal of personal effort, advocating on behalf of all Irish tenants the rights for them to own their own land, was out manoeuvred by Charles Stewart Parnell and the Land League. Henry described the Land League methods as ‘dishonest, demoralising and unChristian’. He probably was not surprised to lose his Galway seat in the general election of 1885. He blamed ‘Parnellite intimidation’.

Folklore, song, and verse dedicated to the rebellion of 1798 usually relay the romantic image of an heroic, clandestine, French army joining forces with a willing and equally heroic band of Irish rebels. Bound by a thirst for liberté, égalité and fraternité, the Franco-Irish forces grew in strength as they progressed through the county, bravely securing victories over the might of the British Crown. But one rebel's contemporary account of the Franco-Irish campaign challenges the notion of international solidarity among equals that has dominated the narrative of the events of 1798. 

Despite the excitement, the prospects, the agreement to carry mail, and new luxury ships, the Galway transatlantic adventure headed by J. Orwell Lever ended in failure within six years.