The Gazette
published Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Sep 14, 1848

NEWS BY THE  BRITANNIA!
Important from Ireland- Arrest of Smith O'Brien- Escape of O'Gormans to
America- Arrest of Several American Citizens, &c, &c.

VERY INTERESTING FROM IRELAND
Affairs in Ireland have not materially changed, though every day seems to
lessen the probability of any serious outbreak. That this unfortunate
country is not now plunged into all the horrors of a civil war, is not to be
attributed to the disinclination of the people to rise up in arms- but,
rather it would seem to be the want of bold, able, and trusted leaders.

There does not appear to have been any serious disturbance in any part of
the country since the Cambria sailed, and according to the English accounts,
it seems quite impossible that there should be any, so long as the
government sustains its present attitude of repression.

Numerous arrests continue to be made, and, among others of recent date, we
notice the names of Dr. M.Carron; Mr. Jas. Bergen, ship broker, of N. York,
and Mr. Nolan, of the United States.

Richard O'Gorman, for whose arrest £300 was offered, on attempting to escape
from the country, was arrested by the Coast Guard, after he had crossed the
Shannon in an open boat. Notice was forthwith sent to the police, but before
they arrived, O'Gorman had persuaded his captors that he was a mere
traveller from Perry to Clare- and he was allowed to leave in his boat. He
subsequently boarded a vessel bound down the Shannon, and going to America,
in which he had escaped. A war steamer was despatched after the vessel.

[From the Freeman's Journal.]
We have received the following important communication from a correspondent
in whom we have perfect faith--
THURLES, Tuesday, 7 o'clock, P.M.
I have just learned, through a source in which I can implicitly rely, that a
communication has been made to the Irish government through the mediation of
an influential Catholic Clergyman, from the parties, who, next after William
Smith O'Brien, were considered the most important against whom warrants have
been issued. The communication, I understand, is to the effect, that these
gentlemen undertake to surrender themselves to the government upon receiving
the assurance that none of the proceedings instituted against any of the
State prisoners shal lextend to the taking of life. It appears that this
communication was induced on the parties hearing of the arrest of Smith
O'Brien on Saturday evening.

It is stated that one of the chief witnesses for the Crown, at the trials of
Mr. Smith O'Brien, and the other parties implicated in the insurrection and
conspiracy, will be Mr. P.J. Barry, who had been Secretary of the first
Young Ireland Association, and who remained all along a prominent member of
the Confederacy.

The Government has issued another proclamation which may almost be
understood as Lord Clarendon's reply to the attempt to induce him to enter
into communication with the outlaying insurgents.- This proclamation, after
reciting the former one of the 1st of August, denouncing the penalty of
treason upon whoever should harbor or conceal the conspirators, adds the
following caution, intending to cramp their hopes of escaping to America in
British vessels.

FURTHER CAUTION
All masters of emigrant ships, packets and sea-going vessels, are hereby
warned that the penalty of treason will attach equally to them should they
be concerned in favoring the escape of any of the persons above named, or
others, whom they shall know to have been engaged in treasonable practices.

Annexed is a List of the Political Prisoners.
Wm. Smith O'Brian, M.P., for the county of Limerick
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor of the Nation.
John Martin, proprietor of the Felon.
Joseph Brennan, sub-Editor of the Felon
John Lawless, Secretary of the Sandymount Club, Dublin.
Francis Hawley, North Earl street, Dublin.
Mr. Nolan, supposed to be an American sympathiser, arrested at Thurles.
Mr. Ryan, surgeon, Carrick-on-Suir.
Mr. O'Ryan, Cashel.
Thomas Witty, farmer, or land owner, Wexford county.
Francis Strange, solicitor, Waterford, President of the Felon Club there.
Supple Glover, Waterford.
Patrick McAuliffe, clothier, Waterford
Mr. Fogarty, assistant surgeon, Waterford.
Thomas Wm Condon, whitesmith, secretary to the Wolfe Tone Club, Waterford.
Mr. Taafe, barrister, Dublin.
Twenty-one countrymen from the neighborhood of Ballingary, in the county of
Tipperary, charged with having assisted Smith O'Brian in the attack on the
police.
William Marron, editor of the Drogheda Argus.
J.S. Barry, editor of the Cork Southern Reporter.
Ralph Varien, Cork.
Isaac Varien, Cork.
Ten drapers' assistants from Messrs. Pims' establishment, Dublin.
S.J. Meany, of the Irish Felon.
Mr. West, surgeon, Dublin.
M. Carron, of America.
James Bergen, ship broker of New York.
Mr. Butler, editor of the Galway Vindicator.
Mr. Costigan of Castlebar.
Denny Dane, merchant, Cork.

Patries against whom Warrants are Issued.
Francis Morgan, solicitor to the Corporation, Dublin.
Thomas Francis Meagher, gentleman, Dublin.
Michael Doheny, barrister, Tipperary.
Richard O'Gorman, Jun., barrister.

The following letter, from a member of the press, who has visited Tipperary,
gives a rather important detail of the feeling which prevails in the south
of Ireland:
"After having traversed the greatest part of both ridings of the county of
Tipperary, I halt at this little village, situated at the foot of the Galtee
mountains, and on the borders of the county of Limerick, to give you a brief
abstract of the result of my observations. Rebellion I found not. I have
said that I did not find rebellion- that is true. I did not see an army of
insurgents, or any thing that gave indication of the actual existence of
civil war; nevertheless a rebellion does exist- if the whole of the south of
Ireland is not at this moment plunged into all the horrors of a civil or
rather a servile war, the reason is to be attributed not to the
disinclination of the people to rise up in arms, but solely to the want of a
proper opportunity, and of bold, able and trusted leaders. This is no hasty
impression or idle guess-work. It is a deliberate conviction, founded on the
most satisfactory evidence. Every mile I've travelled, every person I
conversed with, every fact bearing on the subject which has come under my
obsdrvation- all have served to impress indelibly on my mind the truth of
the statement I have made. Let no man "lay the flattering unction to his
soul" that the spirit of disaffection has been crushed; true it is that the
wise and salutary precautions of the government have saved the country form
convulsion for the present; but the winter is fast approaching, the season
for a bivouac will have passed, the troops must be drawn into winter
quarters, and then the hour for mischief will have arrived. I have heard it
stated, and the statement seems probable, that the leaders intend to remain
passive until the winter sets in; that they are quite satisfied, for the
present, with harrassing the soldiery, and frightening the government; but
that they are steadily biding their time. Much, however, will depend upon
circumstances. In the course of my wanderings, I have met with a great many
country gentlemen, and all of them agree in thinking that the rebellion is
not extinguished- that it still smoulders, and they look with considerable
apprehension to he coming winter. Certainly it is unreasonable to calculate
that all the wild theories which have been propounded by the anarchists and
Jacobins- the visions of wealth, happiness, and independence which been held
out to the misguided people, it is unreasonable to suppose that these
congenial theories have taken no root, or that the people after such golden
dreams, will sing back without a struggle of some kind, into their former
position. The absentees are fast returning to the country, and there are at
present a great number of resident gentry in the county of Tipperary. I
trust their presence may serve to check the existing spirit of
insubordination in all quarters. I have heard that there has been no
surrender of arms worth speaking of, under the proclamation- the
constabulary are busily engaged in searching for them, and to-day I met a
large force in the neighborhood of the town of Tipperary, engaged in that
business, but with little success. The conduct of the Roman Catholic clergy,
in the present crisis, have been most praiseworthy, and I have heard it
commended by their bitter political opponents. On last Sunday, Dr. Howley,
the parish priest of the town  I have just mentioned, delivered a most
impressive discourse to his flock, on the criminality of the club system,
and I have authority for stating, that it produced the very best results.
The police in this county are extremely vigilant. Patrols scour the country
every night, and all persons found out at unreasonable hours, are searched."

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
October 26, 1848

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE
Interesting Details from Ireland.

We have been permitted to make the following extract from a letter received
in town this morning from Kilkenny. The letter was written by a gentleman of
the highest respectability:-

(Extract)
"KILKENNY, Tuesday, 13th September., 1848.
     "The neighborhood of Carrick is in a dreadful state--thousands of men
in array on the hills there. I have just seen a gentleman from Carrick at
the bank, who came by the car. They were stopped at the slate quarries by
about sixty men in arms, and he saw the police barrack, as he was passing,
in flames. He says it is owing to the tenants being driven on some estates
there, but that the hills are covered with armed men. I think he was so much
frightened that he exaggerated the matter.- However, there is no doubt, but
that they are on the hills in that place."

     The latest accounts are inclusive in the extreme. One thing only is
known with certainty, that the utmost alarm is felt by the authorities in
Dublin, nad that the most rapid military movements are taking place towards
the South. The positions taken by the people are naturally strong- they have
doubtless been selected by men possessing considerable skill, and if the
opposition be resolute and prevail, the troops may have already suffered a
defeat.
     The government papers state that a correspondence was found among Smith
O'Brien's papers, completely inculpating no less than a Catholic Archbishop,
and four Bishops, besides numbers of the inferior Clergy, in the late
revolutionary movement, and that a case of high treason can fully be made
out against them. The government, however, are not only  averse to
proceeding against them, but have sought to prevent the slightest
verification of the rumored guilt of the parties, for reasons known to
themselfs, but Mr. Broff has promptly served the government prosecution with
notice to produce the contents of the portfolio said to contain the
implicatory letters. The prosecutors are thus placed in a dilemma, or if
they decline to produce the correspondence, a strong prejudice will be
created against the government, and a feeling of lively sympathy awakened on
behalf of Smith O'Brien.- One thing, however, is certain, that if the trials
positively be proceeded with, the present movement will exercise a damning
influence upon any probabilities which might have been in Smith O'Brien's
favor. Nothing but the decided triumph of the people, it is greatly feared,
will now save him from conviction.

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE
Interesting Details from Ireland.
[ From English Papers per last Steamer]

The Liverpool correspondent of the New York Courier writes as follows under
date of the 16th ult.:-
The state of Ireland has assumed a new phase, and the slumbering tranquility
of the South has suddenly burst forth into open insurrection. The formidable
demonstration in which the peasantry are at this moment engaged is variously
represented but all accounts concur in showing that its extent far exceeds
any thing of the kind attempted since 1798; and that its probable issue is
difficult to be estimated. We cannot find that it has arisen from political
causes, but in the present state of the country it is utterly impossible
that it could continue long to be dissented from the ruling passion of the
day. Commencing as it did, in the agrarian discontent which pervades the
entire of the South- the result of the present want and prospective
starvation- we find that it speedily allied itself to the smouldering
elements of political violence, and that in the present outbreak all the
purposes of a decided revolution are unequivocally contemplated.

The Clonmel Chonicle adds:
The most exciting reports reached Clonmel this morning of an outbreak at
Carrick-on-Suir. A man fr om that place came into Clonmel this morning in
great haste, bringing with him all the money he could collect, to get gold
for it. He described Carrick as being in an awful state. The hills all
around covered with armed men, who have forced all the farmers to give
barrels of bread, meat and other supplies, as well as arms and ammunition.
Many of them have been also forced to join the movement, and he stated that
Carrick was to be taken forthwith. Not a laborer was seen between Carrick
and Clonmel, until he reached this town; all have joined the rebels on the
hills,  who are represented to number several thousand.

And in a Second Edition states:

At Newtown Hill, the insurgents, it is believed, have formed an encampment,
and I am assured by a person who travelled close by it, that it is covered
with people. The military have formed a camp close by. Last night Curraghmore
was attacked by a body of insurgents, for the purpose of taking the swivel
guns and cannon, with which the Marquis of Waterford recently fortified it.
The Marquis sent for the troops, but I did not hear of the result. A large
body of Marines left Waterford this morning, for the scene, having been
first served out with biscuit and meat for some days; they were marched off
by Major General Macdonald, who is busily engaged at that place, in the
disposition of troops at his command. Every thing leads me to believe that
we are on the eve of another insurrection.

At Carrick the greatest excitement prevails in consequence of the belief
there that the bridge of Graney had been thrown down to prevent the troops
crossing; the arches are still standing but the battlements are demolished
and the roadway picked up. The 3d Bu??s and 83d regiments which were to pass
through here today, have been stopped at Carrick, and despatched to the
scene of disturbance. A gentleman informed me that at Pilltown two pieces of
artillery had arrived an a large number of troops. the military which had
been sent for to Carrick, were returned towards Curraghmore; horse, foot and
artillery are now on the move in all directions.

The Iowa Democratic Union
Keosauqua, Van Buren, Iowa
Nov. 9, 1849

The Gazette
published Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Nov. 16, 1848

From the Mo. Republican
Telegraphic Dispatches
Arrival of the America

New York, Nov. 9
     The fine steamer, America, arrived last night at 12 o'clock from
Liverpool, bringing dates seven days later from Europe.
     The sentence of O'Brien, Meagher, McManus and O'Donohue, has been
commuted to transportation for life. In reply to the sentence, Meagher and
McManus spoke with the eloquence of Emmet.

IRELAND
Duffy's trial had been brought to a conclusion, but no verdict was rendered.
The country represented a deplorable picture, growing upon the failure of
the potato crop.

[From the Mo. Republican]
NEWS BY THE EUROPA
Unparalleled Barbarity- O'Brien to be Hung and Quartered.
New York, Oct 25--7 P.M.

     Smith O'Brien has been sentenced to be hung on Saturday, the 11th, and
have his head chopped off, and body drawn and quartered. The jury, however,
united in an unanimous recommendation of the prisoner to the mercy of the
Crown.
     Up to the sailing of the steamer, no definite information of the course
the Lord Lieut. would pursue, was ascertained.- The Court sat on Saturday,
and the Lord Chief Justice proceeded with his charge till after ten, when
adjournment occurred to listen to the evidence of a protest of students at
Trinity College going to show that Dobbl??, the informer, had perjured
himself. The judge resumed his charge at 4 o'clock, and the jury retired. In
an hour nad twenty minutes they returned a verdict of '[cannot read]' which
produced profound sensation. Appended to the verdict was the following:
     "We earnestly recommend the prisoner to the merciful consideration of
the Government- the jury being unanimously of the opinion that for many
reasons his life should be spared."
     On Monday, Mr. O'Brien was brought up for sentence. His manly bearing,
his calmness, composure, and firmness, were themes of observation throughout
the Court. The clerk of the crown then asked Mr. O'B. what he had to say why
the sentence of the law should not be passed on him.
     Mr. O'B. then said:
     "My Lord: It is not my intention to enter into any vindication, however
much I might have availed myself of this opportunity of so doing. With a
consciousness that I have performed my duty to my country, that I have done
only which, in my opinion, it was the duty of every Irishman to have done, I
am now prepared to abide the consequences of having performed my duty to my
native land. Proceed with your sentence."
     After a brief address to the prisoner, the Lord Chief Justice put on
the black cap. "SENTENCE is, that you, William Smith O'Brien, be taken from
whence you came, then be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, and
then be hanged by the neck until you be dead. That afterwards your head
shall be severed from your body--your body be divided in four quarters, and
be disposed of as Her Majesty may please; and may God have mercy on your
soul."
     The most profound sensation followed. He took an affectionate leave of
the crowd, who rushed to take him by the hand, and manifested good
composure. He was then removed in a prison van to the jail. Lady O'Brien was
flown to the Queen in behalf of her son. A rumor prevails that the Lord
Lieutenant was inexorable and that no mercy would be shown. McManus has also
been convicted. D.G. Duffey's trial was to open about the 21st. The trial of
Donohue for high treason was progressing.

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa

May 3, 1849
Ireland
The reports for the last year from the district poor-law inspectors to the
commissioners at Dublin, record volumes of misery. Every page of this book
teems with evidence of the exemplary patience of the peasantry of Ireland,
under sufferings that have had no parallel  in the annals of the civilized
world. A clergyman from a parish in Connaught says this whole district is
now almost a wilderness. Out of a population of twelve thousand, four years
ago, scarce on-half now remain; so that creatures that still live may be
termed rather an accumulation of dead and dying humanity than what is
generally meant by a population.

The Rev. Dr. Cooly, a Roman Catholic prelate, died of cholera at Drogheda on
the 6th inst. He was highly esteemed by all persons of all religious and
political persuasions.

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa

July 26, 1849

New York, July 18.
Several serious riots have recently taken place between the Catholics and Orangemen at St. Catharines, in Upper Canada- 6 were killed and several wounded. On the 12th, a street skirmish occurred at Hamilton, in which 9 were killed. The cholera is gaining rapidly at Montreal- on Saturday 45 deaths occurred; the increase of deaths is attributed to the sudden change in weather. The epidemic is spreading among the troops. Lord Elgin refuses to allow the soldiers to leave town, as requested by the Military Commander.
Many of the first class people have fallen victims to the epidemic in Quebec.

"EVICTION"- This is a new word to the American ear, as it is practically defined in Ireland at this time. It means, the pulling down the houses about the heads of the poor starving, dying tenantry. If, in the time, way and manner in which it is done, it will not rank lower in wickedness, in the eye of a just God, than common highway robbery and murder, we judge incorrectly. Do men on earth suppose that such inhumanity goes down uninvited with a curse?--Galena [Ill.] Gazette

The Gazette
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
October 17, 1850

MEAGHER, THE IRISH PATRIOT
     The following scene, transcribed from a recent letter written from
Australia by Thomas Meagher, the Irish Patriot, will be read with interest:-
     My landlady is a devout Wesleyan, and amiable female of stupendous
proportions, and proportionate loquacity; her husband is a Wesleyan too, a
shoemaker by trade, and a spectre in appearance; so much so indeed, that the
wife may be styled, with the strictest geometrical propriety, his "better
half," and three-quarters. Upon coming to terms with them in the first
instance, that is, when I had the two front rooms, and the two back ones,
and agreement dialogue took place, of which the following may be considered
a fair report:
     "Sir," said Mrs. Anderson, sticking a pin into the sleeve of her gown,
and spreading down her apron before her-
     "Well, Ma'am," said I.
     "Why, sir," says she, "you see how it is, me and my husband be
Wesleyans, and we don't like a-cooking on Sundays, and so if it don't matter
to you sir, we'd a soon not dress you any meat that day, for we're commanded
to rest and do no work upon the Sabbath, and that you see, sir, is just how
it is."
     "As to that," I replied, I don't much mind having a cold dinner upon
Sundays, but then, there are potatoes! "Potatoes, you know, Mrs. Anderson,
are very insipid when cold."
     This was a difficulty of great magnitude.- Mrs. anderson paused, and
swelled up immensely. When the swelling subsided a little, she cast an
enquiring glance at her husband, as if to implore him for a text, a note, or
comment, to help her out of a difficulty in which, like a sudden deluge, the
conflicting ideas of a boiled potatoe and the day of rest had invoked her.
     The glance had the desired effect. Mr. Anderson took off his
spectacles, held them with crossed hands reverently before him, threw back
his head, threw up his eyes, and fixing them intently upon a remarkable
constellation of flies, close to a bacon hook over him, seemed to inquire
from it, in the absence of the stars, a solution of the difficulty.
     A moments consultation sufficed- a new light descended upon Mr.
Anderson, and yielding to the inspiration of the moment, he pronounced it
his opinion that a boiled potato would not break the Sabbath, and "in that,
or any other way, he'd be happy to server the gen'l'm'n."
     At the close of the letter occurs this beautiful passage:
     Oh! should hearts grow faint at home, and, in the cold, dark current of
despair or grief, fling down the hope they once waved, like a sacred torch
on high; tell them that here in this stranger land, and in the loneliest
haunts and pathways of it- here, on the shores of a lake, where as yet no
sail has sparkled, and few sounds of human life as yet have scared the wild
swan, or started the black snake from its nest- tell them that here, upon a
lone spot in the far Southern seas, there are prayers full of confidence,
and faith and love, offered up for Ireland's cause and that the belief in
her redemption and her glory has accompanied her sons to their place of
exile, and there, like some beautiful and holy charm, abides with them,
filling the days of their humble solitude with calm light, and joyous
melodies, and visions of serene and radiant loveliness.

Burlington Hawkeye
Burlington, Des Moines Co, Iowa
July 17, 1851

Burlington Tri-Weekly News; Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa; 14 Nov 1854

Davenport Democrat
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
Oct 6, 1873

MARY CANAVAN
     It became part of my lot in life to help the Irish Government during
the eventful period of the Irish famine of 1846-7.
     I was a Poor Law Inspector, and had a large district in my charge. I
had necessarily to go about a good deal and visit workhouses, hospitals and
relief natations in the discharge of my duties. My mode of conveyance, as a
rule, was an outside Irish jousting car,and with one horse, or rather indeed
with a pony, I used of a day sometimes to get over fifty long Irish miles.
     I started one morning in the early spring from my headquarters to visit
a station in a very remote and wild part of my district. My man
servant-coach-man, groom, butler, valet, all comprised in one very original
and funny individual called "Mick" - accompanied me. The night before I left
on this particular journey, in which occurred an incident which I am about
to relate. I told Mick to be sure to stock the "well" of teh car with rye
bread, which I baked in my own house,and above all not to forget to fill my
flask with brandy, which, as we shall presently see, was not altogether used
for selfish purposes.
     Many a time when I have been driving along the wild roads, I have seen
people who, to my official knowledge, were in the rectn of the full amount
of ration relief, literally looking starved. The avidity with which they
seized and devoured the loaves of rye bread I used to give them the "well, "
satisfied me that the money which was sent to us Poor Law Inspectors from
all parts of the United Kingdom to expend in any we thought fit, and which
for the most part we applied to the establishment of bake-houses, and all
the good which it was intended to, and even more than the generous donors
could have anticipated.
     I scarcely think I was ever out on a more lovely day than that to which
I allude, and if one could only have felt that the people were not dying in
the hundreds throughout the district, and throughout the island generally,
such a day, amid such scenery, would have brought the fullest enjoyment.
     Skirting along lovely lakes, above which ran hills clad with vernal
beauty, I drove some ten miles, and then turned off by a mountain road which
led by a long descent to a wild and barren bog, stretching unbrokenly for
many miles toward the sea coast. As we got on the bog, there was an
indication that there had been a turf road, but gradually its traces became
more and more indistinct, nad we had to make the best of our way across the
"blasted earth." At last we came to a road again, and I was enabled to shape
my course for the relief station, which I was about to inspect.
     The path, or road, or whatever else one might choose to call it, was
straight and so there was nothing to interrupt the view right before us.
     Mick, who was never much inclined to wrap himself, up la? himself and
had been discussing eloquently on the value of good sound roads, giving me
his private opinions as to the character of that on which we were then
traveling, suddenly called out:
     "What on earth, air, is that before us?"
     "Where?" said I.
     "Don't you see, sir? The Lord save us- a body stretched across the
road."
     On looking before me at about a hundred yards' distance, I saw that to
which Mick directed my attention.
     "Yes, said I, "no doubt it is some poor creature who has died, on the
way to the station at _______; but we shall soon know."
     On coming up we found it was the corpse of a woman apparently about
forty years of age.
     Accustomed as I was to see the effects of famine, I was horrified at
the ghastly appearance which she presented. Her face was literally so
attenuated that I could see all its venous and arterial anatomy as well as
if the skin had been removed.
     While looking at this horrid sight, it seemed to me that she could not
have been very long dead. I could see no hatitation for miles around.
"Possibly," I said, "life is not quite extinct," and, recollecting the
little smattering of doctoring which I learned in early life, I thought it
worthwhile to see what effect a stimulant might have.
     "Bring me my brandy flask at once, Mick," said I, " and help me to
raise her head."
     "For what, sir?" said he. "Bedad, it would take more than your honor
could do to bring her back again."
     "Well, I added "do what I tell you, Mick, and let us hope for the
best."
     We lifted the body and placed it against a little hillock which was
quite close to where we found the woman, and at once proceeding to open her
mouth, a proceeding attended with considerable difficulty. Holding her head
back, I managed to pour nearly half of the contents of my flask ( a pretty
large one by the way) down her throat, when suddenly I felt a sort of
convulsion at the back of her neck which rested on my hand. This convulsion
was to my delight, speedily followed by a faint hiccup, and at once made up
my mind that if I only persevered, I might have the intense satisfaction of
restoring a fellow creature to life.
     Mick and I then set to work, and taking the cushions of the car we
stretched our poor patient in a recumbent position. We then commenced to rub
the extremities, which were like ice, and with a good will we rubbed and
rubbed until we were rewarded by seeing the head move, the lips twitch, and
various other indications of returning vitality. But to succeed must bea
work of some time, and here we were nearly fifteen miles away from the
station. We worked on, however, for a little time longer, and I then
determined to get as fast as I could to my destination. We placed her on the
car in a sitting position, and then started for ________.
     We had not gone more than four or five hundred yards when we
encountered a most abominable stench, which was so sickly that I determined
to stop and ascertain what it was. Looking to the right our attention was
directed to a thin column of bluish smoke, which came out of the bog.
Walking over to the place from whence the smoke issued, and scarcely able to
breathe from the offensive odor, which became worse and worse, I found to my
horror that the smoke was from a human habitation, if such could be called,
and old gravel pit, in which I very soon found the cause of the stench. Here
were lying two bodies in an advanced stage of decomposition, and old man and
woman. I shudder now when I think of the sight I saw. It was horrible beyond
description. It occurred to me at once that the womanwe found on the road
had crept out of this hovel on seeing the car coming across the bog and had
sunk in the helpless state of exhaustion in which we found her.
     And so it turned out to be when I made subsequent inquiry.
     We now resumed our journey and at last arrived at the station where I
lost no time in getting medical relief for my poor patient, and in sending
to the gravel pit to have the bodies removed and buried.
     The next day I returned to headquarters and from time to time
afterwards had letters from the doctor reporting to me that the woman very
speedily recovered, and out of moneys placed at my disposal for charitable
purposes I was enabled to contribute to her comfort in the shape of
clothing.
     A couple of months or more passed away and the severity of the famine
was mitigated by the abundance of food which came into the country. The
people began to look better, and every one was in better spirits.
     My visits to the remoter stations of my district were necessarily
fewer, for I had important duties to discharge at the town in which I lived,
and where the union workhouse was situated. They were now principally
directed to the prevention of ????? in the adjoining ????? of relief. Though
the disease was still great, yet it was an fact within the experience of all
those engaged in the Poor Law service, that [cannot read line] to a very
large extent, and it was no easy matter to control them.
     On another lovely morning, now far advanced in the ?????, I started for
the station at________., near which occured the incident which I have
endeavored to tell. As I passed by the spot where our progress on the road
was arrested by the body of the poor woman, Mick said:
     "Ah, your honor, glory be to God, and thanks to you, do your recollect
the creature we saw here?"
     "Yes, Mick," said I, " and I hope we shall never see such a sight
again."
     "Amen, sir," said he giving the pony a gentle reminder that he was to
get along as quickly as he could. We drove on for a couple of miles, when we
met a group of the peasantry of the district, going to the relief station
for their rations of Indian meal stirabout.
     I stopped to make some Inquiries, when suddenly I felt my knees
embraced, and I saw a girl about eighteen years of age kissing my feet.
     "What do you want, my good girl?" said I.
     "Ah! your honor, " said she, looking at me with an expression I can
never forget," don't you recollect Mary Canavan?"
     "Mary Canavan! surely you cannot be the woman I-"
     "Ah! yes, sir," she cried.
     And there she was, the shriveled hag of forty transformed into a girl
of eighteen and all by the simple administration of a wholesome food for a
few weeks.
     To those who saw such scenes as I did, this will not appear strange.
But even now, even at this lapse of time, when the great famine of Ireland,
with all its horrible circumstances, is well-nigh forgotten, I venture to
tell this story about poor Mary Canavan.

Dyersville Commercial
Published Dyersville, Dubuque Co, IA
Friday, June 21, 1878

An Irish Eviction Described

In my checkered life I have been a private soldier, and, between 1840 and
1850, I was in the county Cork, stationed at Ballancholy. Those of you who
are Irishmen will want no description of that beautiful valley of the Lee
which stands between the hills from Cork, and, in summer, seems a very
paradise, green grass growing on the water's side, and burnished with gold
in the morning, and ruddy to very crimson in the evening sunset. I went
there on a November day. I was one of a troop to protect the law officers,
who had come with the agent to make an eviction a few miles from Inniscarra,
where the river Bride joins the Lee. It was a miserable day- rain freezing
into sleet as it fell, and the men beat down wretched dwelling after
wretched dwelling- some thirty or forty perhaps. They did not take much
beating down; there was no floor to be taken up; the walls were more mud
than aught else, and there was but little trouble in the leveling of them to
the ground. We had got our work about three parts done when on of them, a
woman, ran and threw herself on the ground. We had got our work about three
parts done when one of them, a woman, ran and threw herself on the ground,
wet as it was, before the Captain of the troop, and asked that her house
might be spared- not for long, but for a little while. She said her husband
had been born in it and that he was ill of the fever and could not live
long, and she asked that he might be permitted to die in it in peace. Our
Captain had no power; the law agent wanted to get back to Dublin;  his time
was of importance and he would not wait; and that man was carried out while
we were there, in front of us, while the sleet was coming down- carried out
on a wretched thing- you could not call it a bed- and he died there, while
we were there; and three nights afterward, while I was sentry on the front
gate at Ballancholy barracks, we heard a cry, and when the guard was turned
out we found this poor woman there, a raving maniac, with one dead babe in
one arm, and another in the other, clinging to the cold nipple of her
lifeless breast. And if you had been brothers to such a woman, sons of such
a woman, father of such a woman, would not rebellion have seemed the holiest
gospel you could have preached? Two hundred and fifty thousand evictions
took place in the twenty years preceding 1866. Two hundred and fifty
thousand! Can you multiply the misery of that 250,000? Brother separated
from sister, husband separated from wife, the Union Workhouse taking one,
and the other going out to find life if he can.-
CHARLES BRADLAUGH

Fairfield Tribune
Fairfield, Jefferson Co, Iowa
Thursday, Oct. 9, 1879

Ireland and The Irish
N.Y. Tribune, Sept. 30

     Ireland seems greatly disturbed. The discontented tenants, who have no money to pay their rent and do not seem to be much in the humor of paying it if they did have money, are holding mass-meetings all over the country. The regular formula at such gatherings during the last six weeks has been to pass resolutions calling for abatement of rent and the establishment of peasant proprietorships. But when twelve or twenty thousand angry Irishmen are collected, among whom Fenianism is latent, however well kept out of sight, something more than resolutions is always meant and accomplished. Mr. Parnell, M.P., the foremost advocate of Home Rule and vigorous defender of the Irish University bill, has just made a triumphant progress from one of the meetings to the other carrying the Irish with him. It needed but a spark to fire his inflammable audiences to the point of revolution. At Limerick thunders of cheers were given whenever Fenianism was named; it was declared with wild fury that the only way of dealing with the landlords was by "shooting them" by "an ounce of lead", etc. etc. and Mr. Parnell, though he did not propose these heroic remedies, did not, it is asserted, censure or discourage them. In Munster the Queen's name was hissed whenever it was mentioned. The Home Rule League have issued orders for a series of meetings to be held in the coming month in the chief political centers in Ireland. It is significant that these meetings are ordered as "demonstrations," and that the rebellious utterances of the speakers are emphasized by the presence of mounted contingents armed with guns, pikes and even plough-shares, as in the times of the Croppies and Peep o' Day Boys.
     Mr. Parnell, O'Connor Power and other Home Rulers receive their due share of abuse, which they probably have worked for and want to strengthen their hold over their passionate constituency. But the volume of indignation is poured out on this credulous half-starved, ignorant constituency. All Irishmen are denounced as traitors and conspirators. It has become suddenly apparent, too, to loyal Englishmen, that Ireland is greatly over-represented in Parliament, and gobbles up more than her share  of benefits and indulgences; the the large Irish vote in English cities, especially in the West and Northwest, influences English elections in favor of Home Rule, and that the enormous fertility of the Irish race in England is poisoning and deteriorating the Nation. In short, Ireland is the bugbear at present in English politics, not to be dreaded probably, but by all means to be put down at any cost. If there was any chance of an abatement of rents, or the establishment of peasant proprietorships, for these poor people, they have lost all hope of it by their recent furious demonstrations. Their real condition, the failure of their crops, their hunger and their just demands for relief, are all lost sight of in England; nothing is remembered but their Fenianism.
     Mr. Parnell probably induces them to believe that there is some present actual good to be gained by these threats of rebellion; or that there is a chance of success if they do rebel-indeed he drew a vivid picture at Limerick of their English landlords cringing in terror before them. But to an outsider it looks as if he and his colleagues were simply stirring up Ireland to fury to increase their own prestige and power in Parliament. The man is likely to have his own way who holds an angry bull-dog in check. But in this case neither the man nor his opponent apparently cares much what becomes of the bull-dog.

Fairfield Tribune
Fairfield, Jefferson Co, Iowa
Thursday, Nov. 27, 1879

ABROAD

IRELAND

     Two men have been arrested in Dublin charged with having used language
in public speeches tending to incite a breach of the peace. James Daly,
editor of the Connaught Telegraph, has also been arrested for articles
appearing in his paper. It is reported that Parnell has entirely abandoned
his proposed visit to America. The garrisons at Clare Castle, West Point,
and other important places are to be reinforced.
     More arrests are to be made in Ireland of parties charged with
seditious conduct, including several clergymen. A London dispatch says it is
believed that it will be almost impossible to sustain the indictments for
sedition against the persons just arrested. At the Home Rule conference in
London on the night of November 20th, it was resolved to hold a mass meeting
of the Irish inhabitants in London and all sympathizers with Ireland in Hyde
Park, not later than the 30th of November, to protest against the arrest of
Daly, Killian and McDevitt. All the Home Rule members of Parliament,
resident in London, will be invited to attend.
     ...Parnell moved that the meeting call upon the Irishmen to pronounce
by public meeting their condemnation of the action of the government which
is unconstitutional and illegal, and thus show to the world that Irishmen
are not to be intimidated by persecution. Mr. Parnell accused the government
of entrapping Irishmen by the use of paid spies. He advised Irishmen to be
calm, because if they attempted to emulate the government in illegal action,
violence and disorder, then they would be doing what the butcher and
destroyer of the poor Afghans and Zulus desire them to do. [Jos. Gillis]
Beggar said no earthly power could ever succeed against the united and
determined efforts of Irishmen in their struggle for their soil. The
Irishmen would show Lord Beaconsfield that they knew how to win a battle and
though they played against a man who had loaded the dice, their cause was
the strongest. He said the land system was already tottering to its fall,
and declared that Parnell was the leader of the Irish people!
      The anti-rent agitation in Ireland still continues. A great meeting
was held near Balla, Nov. 22d. The chair was occupied by John Louden,
President of the National Land League of Mayo. Charles S. Parnell and Edward
Dwyer Gray, and several other prominent gentlemen were present. Resolutions
were passed protesting against the recent attempt of the government to
stifle the voice of constitutional agitation and drive the people into acts
of violence; also calling upon the people of Ireland to maintain the
attitude of self control which has hitherto characterized the movement, and
to carefully abstain from giving the government any excuse for inaugurating
a policy of coercion, which the meeting was convinced they have in
contemplation. After the Balla meeting, hundreds of those in attendance
marched in procession to the farm of Dempsey, the tenant who was to have
been ejected. Much excitement was manifested there.

Fairfield Tribune
Fairfield, Jefferson Co, Iowa
Thursday, Nov. 13, 1879

Fairfield Tribune
Fairfield, Jefferson Co, Iowa
Thursday, Jan 1, 1880

Fairfield Tribune
Fairfield, Jefferson Co, Iowa
Thursday, July 1, 1880

IRISH AMERICAN
A Ringing Letter from Mr. Frank Madden, of Keokuk, in Reply to Sophist John Brennan of Sioux City.
(From the Keokuk Democrat)

     Mr. Editor: I have read Mr. Brennan's letter appealing to Mr. King of Des Moines to move in the formation of an Irish-American Anti-Free Trade League in Iowa.
     It is with some regret that I enter into this discussion, but my sense of duty to my countrymen prompts the act. I think that I understand this move. The last election has made Iowa a fighting ground, with chances favorable to democracy in the future. The republican leaders see clearly their loss, and perhaps defeat. They are now resorting to the wily ways of the strategist. They have resolved to tamper, if possible, with the faithful "old guard" of democracy, the Irish. That invincible phalanx, that has never proved false to party affiliation, cannot be bought and sold in the political shambles of Iowa, for the insignificant consideration of a single party issue.
     The price for which Mr. Brennan proposes to transfer the Irish democratic vote of Iowa to the republican party is free trade. He says, "It is now proposed to reverse this policy, to tear down the high fences which have guarded the dignity and comfort of American labor for twenty years." His memory must be at fault. He has forgotten but a few years past when the tariff was the highest in 1877, when every highway, from the pineries of Maine to the shores of the calm and placid bosom of the Pacific contained an endless throng, an innumerable army of laborers begging for a day's labor and piteously appealing at every wayside door for a crumb to ease their hunger? These unfortunates were then known as an army of tramps; where then was the dignity and comfort of American labor under your high protective tariff?
     If the tariff protects labor, why does not labor receive the same compensation in Iowa as it does in western Colorado? There is but one law governing labor, and that is applicable in every locality. Supply and demand regulate price. Your designing schemes will miscarry. Your attempts to delude us by your free trade sophistry will produce barren fruit.
     In looking over the tariff list, I find that there is a duty of 10 per cent upon diamonds and all gems, while upon the overall that the  poor Irish laborer wears there is a duty of 52 1/2 per cent. Why has not the sympathy for your countrymen prompted you to use your brilliant pen in denouncing such damnable legislation?
     Again, I find there is a duty of 10 per cent upon paintings and statuary, while upon buckskin mitts, which the poor Irish laborer wears, the duty is 50 per cent. Has your love for the party of wealth, whose mansions are adorned with the paintings and statuary that pay almost no duty, crushed from your heart a desire to see your countrymen righted by judicious legislation?
     Again, I find that morocco leather for fine boots, such as those worn by the Allisons, the Harlans and the Wilsons pays duty of 10 per cent and the coarse flannel shirt that the poor Irish laborer wears pays a duty of 64 per cent. Is your sympathy real or hypocritical? If real, why have you stood for the last 15 years with folded arms, a silent spectator and watched your countrymen plundered of half their daily labor by such insidious legislation, and robbed by the acts of the very party to which you not propose to adhere to?
     Again, I find on the tariff list that cheap dress goods, worth from 10 to 20 cents per yard that the wives and daughters of the poor Irish laborer wear pays a duty of 70 per cent; while the velvets that grace the receptions at our capitol only pay a duty of 35 per cent.
     Why have these things escaped your attention? Has your love for party crushed form your heart the welfare of your countrymen? We can only look to one party to right us, that party that is pledged to revise the tariff, that party that will compel the wealthy to pay its proper share of the revenue.
     Again, Mr. Brennan says, "The tie of religion is but a silken thread compared to the wire cable which binds them (the Irish) to the indefinite and every varying something called the democratic party." Such an assertion is a sacrilege, and should have withered upon the lip before an Irishman should have uttered it. As a nation you may exterminate us, you may crush us from existence, you may scatter us to the four winds of the world, you may assail us with adversity, poverty may always be our lot, but we only kneel to our God, and our religion we hold too sacred to compare with party affiliations.
     Irishmen, will you prove recreant to democracy, the party that has stood by you in adversity? Do you remember the young American party, where has it gone to? Did it go into the ranks of democracy, that great party that crushed it out of existence? You perhaps can answer that question, but their acts are as vivid in our minds as if but of yesterday, when the gutters of many of our western cities ran red with the blood of Irishmen; when our temples of divine worship, which we had dedicated to our God, went up in one fearful holocaust of destruction; when the atmosphere was stagnant with the groans of our dying countrymen; when the glare of their little homes illuminated the heavens; when the blood of our murdered clergy perfumed the scene of destruction-who was it, I ask you, that in this hour of trial extended to us the helping hand of fellowship? Who was it that stood manfully insisting that we should possess equal rights with all men? Answer, I repeat! Who was it but the democratic party? Now you ask us to prove false to such, recreant to duty, and to smite that hand that raised us, black and bloody from that fearful conflict. Think you that we will be guilty of such base ingratitude? Every fibre of our nature revolts at such a thought.
     "If there be a crime
      Of deeper dye in all the guilty train
      Of human vice, it's ingratitude."
          FRANK MADDEN