Ireland's Biggest Funerals

Ireland’s funeral traditions have been well documented and in modern times some of Ireland’s most famous citizens have been honoured with very large funerals. Today the ceremony and reverence displayed at a state funeral is often conveyed on television and with access to instant media, the large funerals of the latter part of the 19^th century and early 20^th century have become less common. This is a list of thirty of the largest funerals ever seen in Ireland.

To attract an attendance of over 15,000 at your funeral in 1729 was a remarkable achieved both to your status and the efforts of those to attend in an era when transport options were limited. This though is the esteem to which William Connolly, known as The Speaker Connolly was held when he died in November 1729. Born in Ballyshannon the son of an innkeeper, Connolly rose to become the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and a popular politician. Once in charge of the Revenue Commissioners though his position as the Speaker he was the de facto PM in Ireland. His legacy was to build the impressive Castletown House as the family residence which can still be seen today.

In the mid-19^th century with a growing sense of Irish nationalism in the face of the worst famine to hit the country, the funeral of the nationalist Daniel O’Connell was bound to draw a large crowd. O’Connell, after whom the main thoroughfare of our capital is named, died in August 1847 in Genoa, Italy and his body returned to Ireland for burial. According to the London Times 100,000 lined the streets of the city to bid farewell to the native of County Kerry.

In March 1861, the Evening Post reported that on a desperately wet day, over 20,000 people attended the funeral of Captain John Boyd O’Neill. O’Neill was Captain of HMS Ajax and had lost his life heroically saving others as a storm raged in the Irish Sea. He was buried in St. Patrick’s Catederal.

In November 1861, Fermanagh born Young Irelander Terence Bellew McManus died in San Francisco and his body transported to Ireland for burial. He had taken part in the 1848 Rebellion and having been convicted was sent to Van Diemen’s land. He escaped from Australia after three years and made his way to the United States. His funeral to Glasnevin cemetery according to the ‘The Nation’ newspaper was watched by over a quarter of a million people on the streets of Dublin. Of that total 50,000 marched behind the coffin as it made its way through the city.

When the Most Reverend Daniel O’Connor, the Bishop of Saldes died at the Augustinian Friary at John’s Lane Church in July 1867, fifty thousand Dubliners lined the cortege route from Thomas Street to Glasnevin Cemetery. Born in 1786, he joined the priesthood in 1810, he spent many years on the missions in India. He returned to Ireland suffering from ill health caused by the extreme tropical conditions to continue as a popular bishop in Dublin for over twenty years. These years included the worst of the famine years and the political upheaval caused by the growing rebellious movement across Ireland against British rule. He passed at the age of 81.

In May 1876, The Nation newspaper reported that a crowd in excess of 20,000 ‘sombre souls’ lined the funeral route for Joseph P Ronayne in his native Cork City. Born in 1822 the son of a Cork glass maker he made his name as a civil engineer especially through the expansion of the railways in Munster. He was elected as a Cork member of Parliament for the Home Rule League in a 1872 bye election, retaining the seat in the 1874 General Election. He died in Queenstown and in an obituary he was described as being ‘endeared by all, by a noble generosity, a genuine spirit of self-abnegation, a modesty that could conseal neither his remarkable powers not the brillancy of his wit. A gracious manner, open handed charity and a kindly heart.’

In October 1891, Dublin would witness one of the biggest funerals ever seen in the city, even to this day. Even at the relatively young age of 45 at his death, Charles Stewart Parnell left a lasting impression on his nation and a legacy that helped Ireland achieve independence. Born in Avondale, Co. Wicklow he was elected to the British House of Commons in April 1875 as a nationalist MP. His Home Rule party, The Irish Parliamentary Party struggled for the morale high ground with revolutionary nationalists like the IRB but his party in 1885 held the balance of power in Westminster and his support of the Liberal Government was conditional on Home Rule being adopted for Ireland. At the height of his success, a personal scandal when it was revealed that he was having a longtime affair with a married woman Kitty O’Shea and had fathered a number of his children irrevocably damaged his reputation and career. When he died in 1891 after a gruelling election campaign when he was already in ill health took his life, nearly a quarter of a million people lined the streets of cold snowy Dublin to bid farewell to the Irish patriot and statesman.

In a new century in March 1903, one of the old guard of Irish nationalism Charles Gavan Duffy died in France. His body was returned to Ireland where the Freeman’s Journal reported in excess of 20,000 on the streets of the capital to watch his coffin being transported from the docks to the Pro Cathedral and onwards to Glasnevin Cemetery.

One of the biggest funerals ever witnessed as an orchestrated piece of nationalist theatre. When the elderly leader of the IRB, Jerimiah O’Donovan Rossa died in New York, his body was transported back to Ireland in July 1915 for a stage managed funeral to Glasnevin which will historically be remembered for Patrick Pearse’s graveside oration which included the famous quotation, ‘they have left us our Fenian dead, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace’. The rallying cry was the opening verbal shots of the 1916 Easter Rising. Twenty thousand marched behind the hearse from the Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough Street to Glasnevin with the streets lined by over 150,000 according to Irish Independent and the Freeman’s Journal.

As the green fields of France turned crimson red with blood, a German U boat off the coast of County Cork caught the ocean liner The Lusitania in its torpedo crosshairs. On May 5^th 1915, as she reached the conclusion of her cross Atlantic crossing from New York to Liverpool with 1,962 guests and crew on board she was sunk by German torpedoes. 1,198 people lost their lives in the icy waters off the Cork Coast. Bodies that were recovered were taken to Queenstown (Cobh) where a mass grave was prepared long before a DNA service could identify those who had no personal belongings to repatriate them to their families. According to British Pathe over 10,000 lined the route as one hundred and forty-eight unidentified victims were taken to a small cemetery the crowds made up of locals and military personal based in Cork.

The most deaths the following year was those executed in the aftermath of the Rising but they were not accorded a normal burial instead buried by the British in then unmarked graves. In September 1917 more than forty thousand lined Dublin streets in defiance of the British authorities to witness the funeral of Thomas Ashe who had died following complications in Mountjoy Prison when he was force fed by the prison authorities after being on hunger strike. The British in their clumsy attempts not to create another martyr for Irish nationalism offered the perfect patriot for a huge funeral on the streets of battle damaged Dublin.

Outside the capital, in Cork in November 1920 the Mayor of Ireland’s second largest city Terence McSwiney died on Hunger Strike at Brixton prison in England after 74 days on strike. Future Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh who was in London at the time of McSwiney’s death remarked, ‘a nation that has such citizens will never surrender’.  After the murder of his mayoral predecessor Thomas McCurtain on March 20^th 1920, McSwiney was elected mayor. He was arrested by the British military forces on August 12^th and sentenced to two years in prison following a court martial charged with having seditious material. Thirty thousand filed passed his coffin at St. George’s Catederal in London. Fearing a massive Republican funeral in Dublin, the British forced his family to take his body directly to Cork. Despite heavy and at times brutal security arrangements put in place by the British, over 15,000 attended the funeral in Cork where McSwiney was laid to rest in St. Finbar’s Cemetery.

The politician who would deliver the graveside oration for Terence McSwiney would be the recipient of the next big funeral in Dublin in August 1922, when Arthur Griffith died. Griffith had headed the delegation that attended Downing Street for the Treaty negotiations at the end of the War of Independence. He worked tirelessly and even though ill continued a heavy workload leading to his collapse and death on a Dublin street on August 12^th 1922. According to various newspapers reports of the day over 100,000 people lined the streets of Dublin from the Pro Catederal to Glasnevin cemetery four days later. One of the most high profile mourners was Michael Collins who would replace Griffith’s as the de facto head of state.

Collins himself morbidly would be the next big funeral in Dublin. Ten days after Griffith’s death, while touring his native County Cork, Michael Collins’s motorcade was ambushed near Beal na Blath outside Macroom. In the midst of a bloody Civil War, the Free State forces transported Collins’s body via ship from Cork to Dublin where his body lay in state at City Hall. The funeral mass was celebrated by the Archbishop of Dublin Rev. Byrne along with 300 priests. A gun carraige drawn by six black horses carried the coffin and fourteen further cars were required for the wreaths. To allow as many as possible to witness the occasion, the cortege left the Pro Cathederal and headed down Gardiner Street, over Butt Bridge onto Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street), around Merrion Square, onto St Stephens Green, down Grafton Street, through O’Connell Street and onto Glasnevin via Dorset Street taking over four hours to pass any one point on the route. A half a million people paid their respects to the fallen leader followed by a graveside oration delivered by General Richard Mulcahy before internment.

 In April 1932, one of the largest funerals for a woman took place when the mother of the executed 1916 leader Patrick Pearse, Margaret passed away. Having lost two sons to the executioner’s bullets in 1916, Patrick and William, Margaret continued to be a political activist for the rest of her life. In 1921 she was elected as a Sinn Fein MP but having taken the anti-treaty side during the subsequent debates in Dail Eireann she left with DeValera. She helped DeValera found Fianna Fail and also strived to keep open her son’s school St. Enda’s in Rathfarnham raising thousands to keep it going.  Her funeral, soon after Fianna Fail and DeValera had taken power for the first time was a propaganda coup for the new Government. An estimated 40,000 filed passed her coffin laying in state in City Hall and over 100,000 lined the four mile route from Westland Row to Glasnevin where DeValera delivered the graveside oration.

One of the saddest funerals in Dublin was that of three firemen Thomas Nugent, Peter McArdle and Robert Malone of Tara Street station who were killed as they fought a fire on Pearse Street in October 1936. Led by Eamon DeValera and members of the Government, along with the families of the fallen firefighters and colleagues from Dublin, Ireland and further afield, the cortege travelled from the con-celebrated Mass in Westland Row to Glasnevin watched by what the Irish Press estimated as 100,000 people but other sources put the total nearer 40,000, still an impressive turn out in tribute. A volley of shot was fired over the graves by colleagues of Robert Malone, who had served alongside DeValera in Boland’s Mill during the Easter Rising.

In November 1960, Ireland was taking its place amongst the nations of the world and lending its weight to UN peacekeeping missions around the world but events in the Congo would according to the Irish Independent bring 300,000 Irish citizens onto the streets of Dublin to pay tribute to 9 Irish soldiers murdered at the Niemba ambush in the Congo. Those who died were Kevin Gleeson and Michael McGuinn from Carlow, Hugh Gaynor, Peter Kelly, Liam Dougan, Matthew Farrell, Thomas Fennell, Anthony Browne and Gerard Killeen all from Dublin.

In the days before the Easter Rising, former British diplomat Roger Casement was arrested for treason for his contacts with the Germans as he attempted to land arms off the coast of Kerry. He was secretly transported to London where he was tried and executed at Penteville Prison. In accordance with most execution he was buried within the prison walls in an unmarked grave but as relations between the two islands thawed, Roger Casement’s body was returned to Ireland for burial at Glasnevin cemetery in March 1965. According to the Evening Herald 30,000 lined the streets of the capital as the cortege passed the GPO on its way to the northside burial grounds.

Dublin born Sean T. O’Kelly became Ireland’s second President in June 1945 and served two terms. A veteran of the Easter Rising and the War of Independence, he served in various roles including Sinn Fein’s envoy to the US after the Civil War and in various Fianna Fail cabinets after 1932. He passed away in November 1966 with the Irish Press reporting 30,000 lining the streets of the capital to bid farewell to the former President.

As 1969 arrived the troubles in Northern Ireland intensified and in September 1971 the death of a fourteen year schoolgirl shot dead in Derry brought 10,000 out onto the streets of the Maiden city for her funeral. Annette McGavigan was caught in crossfire between an IRA unit and British soldiers near her home in the Bogside. She became the 100^th civilian to be killed since the start of the troubles and her memory remembered in the ‘Death of Innocence’ mural in the Bogside where she is depicted in her green school uniform. Civil rights leaders including Ivan Cooper and John Hume attended the large funeral.

One of the survivors of the Easter Rising and a man at the heart of Irish history for over a quarter of a century Eamonn DeValera died aged 92 years in August 1975. His wife of 65 years passing away earlier the same year. Having cheated the executioner bullet after the Rising, he would go on to lead the anti-treaty forces during the Civil War and in its aftermath found a new party Fianna Fail who came to power in 1932. He led the Government until 1959 when he became President of Ireland serving two terms in Aras An Uachtarain. Over the first weekend of September, his casket lay in State at St Patrick’s Hall in Dublin Castle and according to the Irish Examiner more than 100,000 filed through the great hall to pay their respects. More than 100,000 lined the streets of Dublin as the cortege travelled up O’Connell Street passed the GPO and onto Glasnevin for burial.

One of the few sportsmen to make the list is the great Cork hurler Christy Ring. When he died in March 1979 he was a legend in the GAA. Just 58 years old when he suffered a massive heart attack as he walked along the streets of his beloved city, Christy’s prowess as a centre forward earned him nine Munster titles, eight All Ireland titles and eighteen railway cups hurling with Munster. In 2000 he was named as the right wing forward on the team of the millennium. The former Taoiseach and fellow Cork native Jack Lynch said upon his passing

‘As long as young men will match their hurling skills against each other on Ireland's green fields, as long as young boys swing their camáns for the sheer thrill of the feel and the tingle in their fingers of the impact of ash on leather, as long as hurling is played the story of Christy Ring will be told. And that will be forever.’

Two years later saw one of the biggest funerals ever seen on the island in May 1981. Following sixty six days on hunger strike at the Maze prison also known as the H-Blocks, twenty seven year old Bobby Sands died. During his strike and incasaration he was elected as a British member of parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Sands became the first of ten Reublican prisoners to die during that period as the Brotosh Government refused to give into the demands of the prisoners who were seeking political status rather than. Over 150,000 people lined the streets of Belfast as Sands was buried in the Republican plot at Milltown Cemetery.

In June 1996, as IRA subversives attempted to rob a cash in transit van in Adare, Co Limerick, the gang opened fire on two Garda special branch detectives who were protecting the delivery. Garda Jerry McCabe was shot dead, His funeral was attempted by in excess of 40,000 shocked locals lined the funeral route through Limerick City with mourners led by his wife Anne. Four IRA men were subsequently convicted of manslaughter of the Garda.

The sudden passing of motor cycling superstar Joey Dunlop following an accident in Estonia drew in excess of 50,000 to the small town of Ballymoney Co. Antrim. It took the hearse bearing the sports stars body who had made the famous Isle of Man TT races  over an hour to travel the single mile from his family home to the local church for the funeral service.

Edward Blake - The Irish Canadian Politican

While many Irishmen have travelled the globe to take up State roles, one politician has travelled in the opposite direction. Edward Blake’s father was from County Wicklow and Edward was born in 1833 in what is now Ontario, Canada. In 1858 he married the daughter of an Anglican Bishop, Margaret Cronyn.

Edward joined the legal profession and began to practice in what became one of Canada’s biggest law firms. He entered politics and was elected as a Provincial MP for the Blake South Constituency in the Ontario Parliament. His Irish background was an important factor as two thirds of Irish immigrants at the time lived in the province of Ontario.

By 1868, Blake had become leader of the Ontario Liberal Party then in opposition. On December 20th 1871 he was appointed Premier of Ontario and under a dual mandate rule whereby he served in both the provincial and the Federal parliament he helped bring down the scandal ridden government of Sir John McDonald and while he was offered the Premiership of Canada he turned it down due to ill health. Following the 1874 General Election, Blake was appointed Minister for Justice in the Government of Liberal Party Leader Alexander McKensie. Following the party’s electoral defeat in 1878, McKensie resigned and Blake became the leader of the Liberal Party now in opposition. They lost the subsequent election of 1882 and 1887 to the Conservative Party.

Ill health was again playing a factor in his life and he decided to quit Canada and found himself in London. He was then recruited by the Irish nationalist party to stand in the July 1892 General Election in the South Longford constituency in Ireland. He officially represented the Irish National Federation that emerged during the split in the Irish home rule movement following Charles Stewart Parnell’s affair with the married Kitty O’Shea. He was elected a Home Rule MP defeating Liberal Unionist candidate George Miller garnering 88% of the vote with strong local clerical support. An estimated crowd of 8000-10000 gathered in a field outside Longford to hear a victorious speech from their new MP Edward Blake. The gathering was described by the Toronto World newspaper as ‘the greatest demonstration ever seen in Ireland’

Many described it as similar to the great meetings of Daniel O’Connell and his speech was described as in the mould of the great orator.

At meeting in London attended by Prime Minister William Gladstone in August 1892

‘All of Canada’s experience with home rule justified Ireland in seeking the same measure of self government’ declared Blake. He was returned unopposed in 1895,  1900 and 1906 as an Irish Nationalist as the split was healed after the tumult of Parnell’s departure. Blake raised thousands of dollars in Canada to save the Irish Parliamentary Party from financial ruin

Blake’s political foresight led him to write in the early years of the twentieth century

‘If home rule were not granted, Irelands discontent will increase perhaps to the point where nothing sort of complete separation will satisfy her’

Following a stroke he retired 1907 as an MP on health grounds and returned to Canada. In 1912 he died in Toronto.

Irish Statesmen Abroad - The Series

The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world.                    This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Nine - Natal

Sir Albert Hime was born at Ballydonerea House near Kilcoole County Wicklow in August 1842 and received a third level education at Trinity College as an engineer. Soon after marrying Josephine Searle he found himself in Bermuda working on a major engineering project constructing a causeway. He travelled again in 1875 across the Atlantic but this time he found himself in South Africa and the Colony of Natal, a British colony created after the born war and the short lived Natalia Republic. In 1878 Hime designed and built the Natal Mounted Police Headquarters.

On June 9th 1899 Hime was appointed the Premier of Natal replacing Sir Henry Binnes. In his role he attended the coronation of Edward VII in 1902 and visited Dublin to receive a hononary degree from UCD before returning to Natal. Hime remained Premier until August 17th 1903. The post of Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal also became extinct on 31 May 1910, when it joined the Union of South Africa. He remained in Natal until his death in 1919. 

The Irish Statesman Abroad - The Series

The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world.                    This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Seven - Ontario

While many Irishmen have travelled the globe to take up State roles, one politician has travelled in the opposite direction. Edward Blake’s father was from County Wicklow and Edward was born in 1833 in what is now Ontario, Canada. In 1858 he married the daughter of an Anglican Bishop, Margaret Cronyn.

Edward joined the legal profession and began to practice in what became one of Canada’s biggest law firms. He entered politics and was elected as a Provincial MP for the Blake South Constituency in the Ontario Parliament. His Irish background was an important factor as two thirds of Irish immigrants at the time lived in the province of Ontario.

By 1868, Blake had become leader of the Ontario Liberal Party then in opposition. On December 20th 1871 he was appointed Premier of Ontario and under a dual mandate rule whereby he served in both the provincial and the Federal parliament he helped bring down the scandal ridden government of Sir John McDonald and while he was offered the Premiership of Canada he turned it down due to ill health. Following the 1874 General Election, Blake was appointed Minister for Justice in the Government of Liberal Party Leader Alexander McKensie. Following the party’s electoral defeat in 1878, McKensie resigned and Blake became the leader of the Liberal Party now in opposition. They lost the subsequent election of 1882 and 1887 to the Conservative Party.

Ill health was again playing a factor in his life and he decided to quit Canada and found himself in London. He was then recruited by the Irish nationalist party to stand in the July 1892 General Election in the South Longford constituency in Ireland. He officially represented the Irish National Federation that emerged during the split in the Irish home rule movement following Charles Stewart Parnell’s affair with the married Kitty O’Shea. He was elected a Home Rule MP defeating Liberal Unionist candidate George Miller garnering 88% of the vote with strong local clerical support. An estimated crowd of 8000-10000 gathered in a field outside Longford to hear a victorious speech from their new MP Edward Blake. The gathering was described by the Toronto World newspaper as ‘the greatest demonstration ever seen in Ireland’

Many described it as similar to the great meetings of Daniel O’Connell and his speech was described as in the mould of the great orator.

At meeting in London attended by Prime Minister William Gladstone in August 1892

‘All of Canada’s experience with home rule justified Ireland in seeking the same measure of self government’ declared Blake. He was returned unopposed in 1895,  1900 and 1906 as an Irish Nationalist as the split was healed after the tumult of Parnell’s departure. Blake raised thousands of dollars in Canada to save the Irish Parliamentary Party from financial ruin

Blake’s political foresight led him to write in the early years of the twentieth century

‘If home rule were not granted, Irelands discontent will increase perhaps to the point where nothing sort of complete separation will satisfy her’

Following a stroke he retired 1907 as an MP on health grounds and returned to Canada. In 1912 he died in Toronto.

Irish Statesmen Abroad - The Series

The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world.                    This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Six - The President of Israel

The late President of Israel Chaim Hertzog was born on Cliftonpark Avenue Belfast in September 1918 but would spend much of his early life in Dublin. His father Rabbi Isaac Hertzog was made the Chief Rabbi of Ireland a year after Chaim was born and the family moved to Bloomfield Avenue near Portobello in Dublin. The area had become known as Little Jerusalem.  The young Chaim studied at Wesley College.

As a young boy in Dublin some of his earliest memories was of war and the battles in the South Circular Road area between opposing sides of the Irish Civil War. He wrote once

            ‘I was only three years old but already quite inquisitive and probably too mischievous. As I wandered out into the front garden (of 102 South Circular Road) to watch the battle a man driving a horse and cart went past and shot dead in front of me. I recall the horse wandering aimlessly a dead man lying in the cart in a grotesque manner.’

Despite the fact that Hertzog senior was born in Poland, he became a fluent Irish speaker as was his son Chaim and was a supporter of Sinn Fein and the first Dail Eireann. In 1935 the entire Hertzog family immigrated to what was then Palestine. Within a year of the move Chaim Hertzog had become involved in a Jewish paramilitary movement and took part on the 1936 -39 Arab Revolt.

Chaim Hertzog then studied for a law degree at University College London and qualified as a barrister at the Kings Inn. During World War Two he served with the British Army in a tank crew and was present at the liberation of some concentration camps in Germany including Bergen Belsen during the last days of the war. After the war he returned to Palestine and married Eygptian born Ora Ambache. As the new Jewish state emerged from British rule into independence in 1948 Chaim’s father became the first Chief Rabbi of Israel but their new state was plunged into violence as Arab neighbours objected militarily to the new Jewish state.

He would serve in the Israeli military until 1962 when he retired at the rank of Major General. After leaving his military career he returned to law and created one of the largest legal firms in Israel. In 1975 he was appointed the Israeli representative at the United Nations apposition he held for three years.

In 1981 he won a seat to the Israeli parliament and in 1983 was elected to the position of President of Israel. He served two five year terms. He became the first Israeli President to visit the United States when Ronald Reagan was President and the first to visit Germany. In 1985 he made a state visit to his native Ireland opening the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin during his visit. He visited both Belfast and Dublin where he was born and grew up and reports at the time were laced with witticisms such as ‘the only President of a foreign country who speaks as Gaeilge’ and ‘ the man who achieved the presidency in one generation while it took the Kennedy’s three’.  In 1997 he passed away in Tel Aviv and is buried in Jerusalem. In a New York Times obituary they described Chaim Hertzog as being ‘steeped in the splendours and sorrows of Jewish History’ who had never lost his Irish brogue. 

Irish Statesmen Abroad - The Series

The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world.                    This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Five - A Nation Named after an Irishman

Many Irish men have traveled away from the Emerald Isle he be part of democracies around the world but one Irishman went one step further and had a country named after him. Die Republiek van Upingtonia or the Republic of Upingtonia was a Boer republic from 20th October 1885 until 1886 when it was placed under the protection of the Germans in what was then called Damaraland.

What is now part of Nambia, the Republic of Upingtonia was named after Tomas Upington. Upington was born in Rathnee, near Mallow in Cork on 28 October 1844. He was educated at Cloyne Diocesan School, Mallow, and at Trinity College Dublin. 

In 1874 he immigrated to the Cape Colony in South Africa where four years later he was elected to the State legislature. He was immediately appointed Attorney General of the Cape Province a position he held until 1881.

He became the fourth Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1884, after the growing Afrikaner Bond Party compelled the government of Premier Thomas Scanlen, the son of Irish parents to retire. He was appointed to form a government but held office for only two turbulent and strife-torn years, in what subsequently became known as the "Warming-pan" Ministry. During his Premiership other politicians with more pro British leaning described Upington as both a Fenian and a Parnellite. While trying to push the boundaries of the economic success of the Cape Colony he was attacked from all sides of the political divide and internal conflict with Boer mini republics of Goshen and Stellaland brought an end to his Ministry in 1886, citing ill health for his resignation. He died on 10 December 1898 leaving behind a wife Elizabeth Geurin also born in Cork and four children.

In 1885, William Jordan a hunter and trader bought almost fifty thousand square kilometers of land from a local tribal chief Kambonde for three hundred pounds which was paid as twenty-five firearms, one salted horse, and a cask of brandy. Chief Kambonde had hoped to rely on the help of Jordan to defeat his rival for power, Nehale.

Between 1876 and 1879, many Boers crossed the area, heading for Angola. In 1885 some of these trekkers returned and settled at Grootfontein on farms of land given to them free of charge by Jordan in April 1885. The Republic of Upingtonia was declared on 20 October 1885 under a treaty signed by forty six Boers. At that time, the population of Upingtonia was estimated at five hundred settlers but it was rich in copper deposits. According to the book ‘A drink of Dry Land’ Upingtonia was a ‘complicated place’ and ‘a new world from restless people’.  The state was named after Upington who was by then prime minister of the Cape Colony from whom the new state was hoping for support. However, none was forthcoming. Under the influence of the Boers returning to the Transvaal in 1886 the name of the new State was changed briefly from the Republic of Upington to Lijdensrust. Upingtonia's capital was Grootfontein originally known by the locals as Leopard’s Hill, and appointed a head of State, President George Prinsloo.

The new state fought the nomadic tribesmen of the Herero tribe and according to ‘Sovereigns, Quasi Sovereigns, and Africans: Race and Self-determination’

By Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui the new state attempted to align itself with Portugal but in an alliance between the British to the South in the Cape Colony and the Germans to the north in Damaraland Upingtonia became dependent on German protection. Upingtonia had sought the assistance of the British Governor of Natal Sir Arthur Havelock but he declined and so they came under the protection of the Germans who were extending their dominion in South West Africa. In July 1886 Jordan was murdered by members of the Ovambo tribe and Kambone’s brother Nehale and the republic collapsed. The following year the area was incorporated into South-West Africa.

According to Leader newspaper in Melbourne, who took an in depth look at the Republic of Upingtonia in 1887 said that Upingtonians claimed almost an area of 33,000 square miles which was three quarters the size of The Orange Free State.

Corkonian Thomas Upington also has the South Africa town of Upington named after him and according to the town’s tourist website

‘Like Wild West towns, Upington had its share of skirmishes and its share of fortune-seeking scoundrels. One of these was a man called George St Leger Gordon Lenox, alias 'Scotty Smith'. An adventurer born in Scotland, he bought and sold illegal diamonds, stole horses and masterminded highway robberies. His gravestone is one of Upington’s tourist attractions.’

His eldest son Beauclerk who was just one years old when the family moved to the Cape was like his father educated at Trinity College Dublin and created one of the largest legal firms in South Africa and was from 1913 – 1922 President of the South African soccer federation.

Irish Statesmen Abroad - The Series

  The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world.                    This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Four - The Premier's of the Australian State of Victoria

Born in Ballinahow, County Tipperary John O’Shanassy would become the Australian state of Victoria’s second Premier. He initially held the post for a month March – April 1857 but his Government fell and he was replaced as Premier by the man he himself had replaced William Haines. On March 10th 1858 he once again became Premier of Victoria and a powerful Irish Catholic alliance dominated a mainly protestant Victoria with O’Shanassy’s Deputy Premier Charles Gavin Duffy. This led to sectarian tensions in the state but relations between the two men deteriorated as Irish politics came between the two politicians, the two men on opposite sides of the 1848 Irish Rebellion.

Their Government fell in October 1859 but O’Shanassy was back in the Premier’s seat one final time from14th November 1861 to 27 June 1863. In 1866 he returned briefly to Ireland where he was presented with a banquet ‘fit for a king’ in his native Tipperary. He was asked by the Cork Examiner if he had seen any change in Ireland since he had departed the newspaper reported,

'When a man returned to Ireland after a long absence, a natural question was, do you see any great change in the country? He answered at once 'I do.' He saw the agricultural position of the country was better than when he left it. He saw an improved price for labour, making a very considerable difference in the condition of the labouring population. He saw railways opened, and an excellent system of roads, which, were a great improvement upon what existed when he was there before. And he saw, what was peculiarly pleasing that Ireland had been complimented by politicians on every side because in the matter of ordinary crime her calendar was almost a blank. He had also noticed a marked development in ecclesiastical architecture in this country — the united zeal of the people and their pastors building magnificent churches, that were strong proofs of the sincerity of religion conviction of those who worshipped in them. In social matters, too, he saw marked progress, for now men of every shade of opinion, religious and political, could come together to promote a common object. ‘

He retired from the Victoria State Parliament in February 1883, shortly before his death in May of that year in Boroondara, Victoria, Australia.

Having served as Deputy Premier under O’Shanassy, Gavin Duffy would go on to be the 8th Premier of Victoria with a history of rebellion left behind in Ireland before his departure to Australia.  Duffy was born on Dublin Street, Monaghan Town, and the son of a shopkeeper. Both his parents died while he was still a child and his uncle, Fr James Duffy, who was the parish priest of Castleblaney became his guardian for a number of years with an education achieved in Belfast. Gavan Duffy was one of the founders of The Nation and became its first editor; the two others were Thomas Davis and John Dillon, who would later become Young Irelanders. All three were members of Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal campaign. The paper, under Gavan Duffy, transformed from a literary voice into a "rebellious organisation"

As a result of The Nation's support for Repeal, Gavan Duffy, as owner, was arrested and convicted of seditious conspiracy as the result of a Monster political Meeting that was planned for Clontarf in North Dublin city. This was also a period of rebellion with the Young Irelanders 1848 rising that centered on County Tipperary, more familiarly known today as the ‘Cabbage Patch rebellion’.

In 1852 he was elected an MP to the British House of Commons for the constituency of New Ross, retaining his seat until his resignation in November 1855. Tiring of the malaise that was Irish politics, Gavin Duffy decided to cross the world to Australia and arrived in Victoria State. He was feted when he arrived and a public campaign changed the rules for those who could be elected to the state legislature. In 1856 Gavin Duffy entered Victorian politics being elected for the constituency of Villiers and Heytesbury

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In 1871 Duffy led the opposition in parliament to Premier James McCullough’s plan to introduce a property tax on the grounds that it unfairly penalised small farmers. When McCulloch's government was defeated on this issue, Duffy became Premier and Chief Secretary (June 1871 to June 1872). Victoria's finances were in a poor state and he was forced to introduce a tariff act to provide government revenue, despite his adherence to the then British principles of free trade.

As an Irish Catholic Premier he was very deeply unpopular with the Protestant majority in the state and Duffy was accused of favouring Catholics in government appointment. In June 1872 his government was defeated in the Assembly on a confidence motion allegedly motivated by sectarianism. He was succeeded as premier by the conservative James Francis and later resigned the leadership of the liberal party.

In 1874 he returned briefly to Ireland and was offered a seat by the Irish Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons but he declined returning to Victoria. In 1880 he left Australia for good and moved to the south of France. He died in 1903 having outlived three wives. His body was returned to Ireland for a large funeral through the streets of Dublin. 

The Irish Statesman Abroad - The Series

The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world. This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Three - New Zealand

Much has often been written about the ancestral connections of US Presidents with Ireland but Irish citizens have travelled the world becoming much loved and treasured statesmen in other nations. Ireland has produced three Irish born Prime Ministers of New Zealand. These are their stories.

DANIEL POLLEN

On July 8^th 1875 Daniel Pollen became the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Daniel was the son of Hugh Pollen, a dock master at the mouth of the newly opened Grand Canal as it entered the River Liffey and Elizabeth O’Neill. Daniel was born on June 2^nd 1813 when the family lived in what later became known as Pollen Cottage in Ringsend. Hugh Pollen received both the house and an annual salary of £100 per annum for his role as dock master.

Little is known about the early part of his life, but it is supposed that he grew up in Ringsend before emigrating to New Zealand in 1840, shortly after his father died in 1837 and the role of dock master and use of the house was taken over by Thomas Pollen, brother of the late Hugh. He arrived at the Bay of Islands settling in a town called Parnell near Auckland which probably made him feel right at home. He practiced as the local doctor but Daniel also became actively involved in politics with the formation of the Auckland Province in 1852 and was well regarded as a great debater and famous for his wit.

Two years after he was appointed the local coroner in 1846 he had married Jane Henderson a daughter of a Royal Naval officer and they went onto to have four sons and four daughters. Pollen entered politics first serving on the local provincial council representing Auckland East and then became a member of the New Zealand Parliament on May 12^{th 1873}.  He rose through the political ranks and served in the Government of Julius Vogel as Colonial Secretary but when that Prime Minister left New Zealand to travel to Great Britain, Daniel Pollen from Ringsend in Dublin was appointed July 6^th 1875 as Prime Minister of New Zealand. He held the position until the return of Vogel on February 15^th 1876 when he returned to the position of Colonial Secretary and continued in that position under the following Prime Minister Harry Atkinson before he retired from politics.

Pollen died at his residence ‘The Whau’ in Avondale in 1896.

JOHN BALANCE

The 14^th Prime Minister John Balance was born in Ballypitmave near Lisburn in County Antrim in March 1839. Born into a farming community to father Samuel, John Balance was the eldest of eleven children. As an eighteen year old he headed for Belfast City before crossing the Irish Sea to live in Birmingham. While there in 1863 he married a butcher’s daughter Fanny Taylor. His new bride became ill and the decision was taken in 1866 to immigrate to New Zealand where Fanny’s brother lived.

Once in New Zealand after a brief period as salesman he studied to become a journalist and from journalism he found his way into local politics. The move for the Balance couple down under proved futile as two years after their arrival down under Balance’s wife passed away. Two years later he married Ellen Anderson and the couple adopted a daughter Kathleen.

He was first elected to parliament in 1879 only to loose his seat in the subsequent election by just four votes when a horse drawn coach shed a wheel and seven of his supporters inside failed to register their vote. He won the seat back in 1884 and joined the Julius Vogel cabinet as Minister for Native Affairs. Out of Government, Balance accepted the role as leader of the then opposition Liberal Party. When the Government of Prime Minister Atkinson resigned, Balance became the Prime Minister in January 1891.

As Prime Minister he attempted to turn his Liberal party into a nationwide party rather than just regionally based. He was not known as a charismatic leader or a good public speaker, he was described as honest, courteous and displayed great patience and integrity. His wife became a leading figure in the fledgling feminist movement in New Zealand. His success as a Prime Minister was short lived as he developed cancer and passed away on April 27^th 1893 receiving a state funeral in his home town of Wanganui. His wife Ellen outlived her husband by forty two years. 

WILLIAM MASSEY

The 19^th Prime Minister of New Zealand was William Massey who was born in Limavady, Derry in March 1856. He was a member of the Reform Party, a political force he helped to found, when he became PM in 1912. Born into a farming Presbyterian family, the family moved to New Zealand in October 1862 without young William who remained in Ireland to complete his education. He followed the family over to the far side of the world in December 1870.

He became involved in local politics through the local school board before being elected in an 1894 by election for the constituency of Waitemata before contesting the 1896 General Election for the neighbouring constituency of Franklin which he represented until his death in 1925.

After founding his reform Party in 1909, they became the largest party after the 1911 General Election but the incumbent Liberal Party remained in power with the support of Independents. The Liberals lost a vote of confidence in Parliament and Massey was invited to form a new administration and officially became Prime Minister on July 12^th 1912. His first years in power were a period of great industrial unrest and his use of force to break strikes did not endear him to either his electorate or party colleagues but like many other politicians across the world the intervention of the First World War diverted attention from domestic matters. In the 1914 General Election no party won enough seats to be effective as a Government and Massey invited the leader of Liberal Party Joseph Ward to be party of a national unity Government in time of war.

Massey signed the Versailles Peace treaty on behalf of New Zealand at the end of the war. With war at an end the unity coalition fractured and in the 1919 General Election despite the rise of the new Labour Party, Massey and his Reform Party won a majority. He governed a troubled New Zealand both socially and economically until the 1922 General Election where he failed to win his majority winning just 37 of the 80 available seats but clung to power with the support of Independents.

His health deteriorated in 1924 and he passed away in 1925. 

Irish Statesmen Abroad - The Series

  The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small 
island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world.                       This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode Two - The U.S.A.

There have been six US Presidential visits to Ireland, Obama, Clinton, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan and Bush but the only US President to have direct connections with Ireland was Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States of America. His father Andrew senior was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim and his mother Elizabeth was also born in Northern Ireland both of Presbyterian Scots origin. In 1765 Andrew, Elizabeth and two older sons Hugh and Robert immigrated to the United States arriving in Philadelphia. The future President Jackson was born on March 15th 1767 just fourteen days after the death of his father in a logging accident. His now widowed mother raised the three boys in Waxhaws, South Carolina. He was elected President in 1829 serving two terms and he is considered as the founder of the present day Democratic Party. He died in Nashville, Tennessee in June 1845.

Before the thirteen colonies of the original United States of America gathered together under one President, George Washington many of these colonies had their own Presidents and some of them were Irish born.

GEORGE BRYAN

George Bryan was born in Henry Street, Dublin in August 1731 to Samuel and Elizabeth Bryan. George was a middle child of five, two older sisters Elizabeth and Amy, two younger brothers Arthur and Samuel. Samuel Bryan was a well known merchant in Dublin whose trade also included exports to continental America. Young George who would eventually earn the nickname ‘The Dublin Boy’ attended Trinity College before accepting an offer in 1752 from a partner of his father to cross the Atlantic to learn business management in Philadelphia. He quickly settled into life in Pennsylvania becoming a well known and wealthy merchant and in 1757 he married Elizabeth Smith with the couple going on to have ten children. With the onset of the American war of Independence he became quickly involved in the politics of the day especially in the colony of Pennsylvania. When the first President of Pennsylvania Thomas Wharton died in office he was replaced by George Byran who served as President from May 23rd 1778 to December 1st 1778. When the Pennsylvania Assembly head a formal meeting to replace their first President Byran lost the vote to Joseph Reed but was appointed Vice President, a position he held for two years. During his tenure as President one of his achievements was on June 28th 1778 the Assembly returned from exile in Lancaster to the colony capital Philadelphia, the exile had been forced on this by the British occupation of Philadelphia.

JOHN McKINLEY

Another Irish born colony President was John McKinly who was President of Delaware from February 12th 1777 to September 22nd 1779. He was born in Northern Ireland in February 1721 and moved to Wilmington Delaware in 1742. He became involved in the local militia and was a Lieutenant during the French and Indian war. Described as Federalist he married Jane Richardson. In 1776 he was involved in some of the battles as the new colonies sought independence from Britain. He was elected to the Delaware Assembly in 1776 and the following year was elected President of Delaware. The colony due to the on going was in turmoil politically, militarily an economically. The British raided the President home and arrested him imprisoning his on board a warship. He was replaced in September 1777 by Thomas McKean. He was freed in August 1778 but left politics to concentrate on his medical profession founding the Delaware Medical Society in 1779. He died in August 1796. 

CHARLES THOMSON

In 1776, the United States continental congress signed the declaration of Independence. The Continental Congress was the then rebel Government of the United States’ then thirteen colonies. On October 28^th 1777, the President of the then United States John Hancock unexpectedly resigned as being denied permission to take a leave of absence. As the Congress debated his successor in these turbulent revolutionary times the position was temporary taken by Charles Thomson who served as President from October 29^th to November 1^st 1777 when Henry Laurens was elected President.

Thomson was born near Maghera, Derry in November 1729. Following the death of his mother in 1739, his father decided to emigrate with Thomson’s younger brothers to America. Their father died as they crossed the Atlantic and the penniless brothers were separated upon their landing. He married the sister of Benjamin Harrison whose son and grandson both became Presidents of the United States of America.

He became secretary of the Continental Congress and his name appears on the first published edition of the Declaration of Independence. His diligence of recording all the debates is now a valuable historical resource as the United States struggled militarily to free themselves from British dominance.

He is also credited with designing the Great Seal of the United States along with William Barton. He resigned his position as the new constitution gave life to the present United States and the election of George Washington in 1789. In his retirement he worked on a translation of the bible and developed a passion for beekeeping. He died in Pennsylvania in 1824 at the ripe old age of ninety four.  

Irish Statesmen Abroad - The Series

The 1916 Easter Rising generated a generation of Irish leaders and statesmen but as a small island we have punched well above our weight providing statesmen for nations across the world. This series published everyday over the next two weeks looks at their stories.

Episode One - Great Britain

Two Irish born men have served as Prime Minister of Great Britain since the role was created in 1721. At the time when they were in office their title included Ireland.

LORD SHELBOURNE

Born William Fitzmaurice in the Fingal area of North County Dublin, on the death of his maternal uncle Sir William Petty, the family inherited the title of The Earl of Shelbourne and later William took the Petty family surname replacing Fitzmaurice. He spent many of his early years living near Ardfert in County Kerry. He joined the army and served with distinction in Germany during the Seven Years War. When his military career ended he assumed the family’s seat in the House of Commons for the constituency of Chipping Wycombe. Following the death of his father he entered the House of Lords.

In Westminster although seen as a shrewd politician with lofty ambitions, he found himself on the opposition benches and at the time advocated the controversial policies religious tolerance and free trade. He led the opposite for over a decade and was an outspoken opponent of the war with the future United States of America.

In March 1782, Shelbourne was appointed Home Secretary in the administration of Prime Minister Charles Watson Wentworth, The 2^nd Marques of Rockingham but following the sudden death in July of the same year, he was appointed as a Prime Minister. During his tenure in the office he secured peace with the U.S., France and Spain. As part of the peace agreement with the U.S., the Treaty of Paris was rejected by Parliament and in April 1783, he resigned from office.

Shelbourne married twice, first in 1765 to Lady Sophia Carteret who died in 1771 and then to Lady Louisa Fitzpatrick in 1779. He was created a marquis in 1784, assuming the title of 1st Marquis of Lansdowne. He died in 1805 and was succeeded by his son John, 2nd Marquis of Lansdowne. The Dublin Four roads of Shelbourne Road and the adjacent Lansdowne Road home of the Aviva Stadium are named as the first Irish born Prime Minister of Great Britain.

DUKE OF WELLINGTON

  

Arthur Wellesley was born at 24 Merrion Square part of the Merrion Hotel today and opposite Government Buildings. The second tallest obelisk in the world after the Washington Memorial in DC located in Dublin’s Phoenix Park commemorates his death after a stellar military and political career better known as the Duke of Wellington.

Wellesley was born on May 1^st 1769. After a schooling that included a stint at Eton for three years from 1781, Wellesley returned to Dublin having joined the army in 1787 working as an aide de camp in Dublin Castle. He was a socialite and lost a lot of money gambling. In 1790 he was elected  as an MP to the Irish House of Commons for Trim in County Meath close to the family home of Dangan Castle.

His contributions in Parliament were few and far between, making him the perfect candidate for today’s Dail Eireann. In 1796 just before revolution engulfed Ireland, Wellesley departed to fight in India. Throughout his military career he fought in over sixty battles across various continents. In 1806 after returning from India he was elected to Westminster as MP for Rye. In 1807 he was back in Ireland having been appointed Chief Secretary, the British political leader in Ireland under the Viceroy of the day the Duke of Richmond and he also had married Catherine Pakenham with whom he had two sons but the marriage regarded as loveless and the couple spent most of the lives living separately. 

His global fame would arrive in 1815 when he led the British army to success over Emperor Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Wellesley commanded a multi national force as they took on Napoleon who had regained power after escaping from Elba. The British/Dutch/Belgian/Germany/Prussian force numbered 110,000, 26,000 of whom were British, one third of them were Irish born soldiers. The cost in lives on both sides was sixty five thousand dead.

A year later the newest pedestrian bridge over the River Liffey was named the Wellington Bridge in his honour, the once tolled bridge it is now colloquilly known as the Halfpenny Bridge. And of course the wellington boot which were specially made for him was named after him now a stable part of the fashion of rural Ireland, the ‘wellie’.

He first assumed the mantle of Prime Minister as a member of the Tory Party from January 22^nd 1828 to November 16^th 1830.   He oversaw the introduction of Catholic Emancipation in Ireland dismantling the hated Penal Laws. His second tenure began on November 14^th 1834 only holding office on a temporary basis as a replacement for Robert Peel for a month. He also served as Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, Minister for War and Leader of the House of Lords.

He died on September 14^th 1852 and given a state funeral in London.

acres of land.