Life
1805-1883 [J. C. O’Callaghan]; b. Dublin, ed. Clongowes Wood; bar,
1829; contrib. The Comet, and Irish Monthly Magazine; early
articles collected as articles collected in The Green Book (1841),
verse and prose, ‘not altogether unserviceable to the cause of voluntaryism
and repeal’; staff of Nation, 1842; mbr. Repeal Association,
and designer of the Association Membership cards; supported O’Connell,
crowning him, with John Hogan, sculpt., on Tara Hill; ed. O’Kelly’s Macariae Excidium (1846), a ‘secret history’ of 1688-1691; History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France (1870).
ODNB DIB DIW DIH RAF OCIL
[ top ]
Works
The Green Book, or Gleanings from the Writing Desk of a Literary Agitator (Dublin: T. O’Gorman 1841; London: Dolman 1841; rep. edn. Dublin:
Duffy 1845).
[ top ]
References
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period,
1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol. 2; b. Dublin,
a lawyer, contrib. Nation; author of History of the Irish Brigades
... (Glasgow 1869; rep. IUP 1970).
Pearse St. Library: The Madden Papers in Gilbert Collection (MS 278), holds copies of The Tribune, incl. 2 printed extracts written by J. C. O’Callaghan, on ‘Burying Places that Preserve Corpses’, [being] Mrs. Trollope’s account of Krentzbergh Monastic Vaults (1409-1713) which J. C. O’Callaghan considered similar to St. Michan’s Dublin that contain the corpses of our Irish Martyrs for Freedom [viz., Sheares bros.], &c.; writes of ‘attachment of the Irish People to their country’s nationality’. (Tribune 5 July 1834; 2 Aug. 1834). Further holdings incl. 4 MS letters from him to Dr. R.R. Madden; 3pp. MS notes on him; 3pp. MS notes on ‘his productions’; copy of his ‘notice’ from Dr. Madden’s Memoirs, pp.306-10 [“GA” Stack]; copy of his picture from frontispiece of The Green Book (941.5; “A” Stack). See also references to him in notes on above listed newspapers to which he was a contributor. Mention is made (without printed extracts or transcripts) of ‘Ireland as a military nation connected with or separated from England’ (in Tait’s Magazine, Nov. 1832).
University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) holds The Green Book, or Gleanings from the Writing Desk of a Literary Agitator (Dublin, T. O’Gorman 1841, Duffy 1845).
[ top ]
Commentary
Patrick Kennedy, Modern Irish Anecdotes (n.d.) accredits O’Callaghan’s Green Book with a true account of how St. Ruth was killed at the battle of Aughrim with a shot fired by an aggrieved shepherd, O’Kelly, whose flock was taken by the soldiers, and who was refused even the skins by St. Ruth as needed by his men, and who was subsequently in service to the English gunner Trench when St. Ruth came into his sights.’ (p.21)
Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde, 1974): Hyde’s diary for June 1879 records a meeting at Traynor’s bookshop with John Cornelius O’Callaghan, to whom he inadvertently expresses adverse opinions about his ‘Green Book’, then in Hyde’s hand, ‘I told him I did not think the latter was a decent or a proper book because of certain things in it which I mentioned. Imagine my surprise when he roared at me in a voice like thunder, ‘Damn it, Sir, I wrote those pages myself! I wrote every line of them!’ I was very greatly taken aback ... He spent an hour talking to me, very fiercely anti-English. (The Green Book, or Gleanings from the Writing-Desk of a Literary Agitator, by John Cornelius O’Callaghan (Dublin: T. Gorman, 35 Upper Ormond Quay; London: C. Dolman 1841). (Daly, c.p.45.)
[ top ]
Quotations
The
Green Book, or Gleanings from the Writing-desk of A Literary Agitator,
by John Cornelius O’Callaghan (Dublin, 35, Upper Ormond-Quay: T.
O’Gorman; London: C. Dolman 1841), 480pp.; title-page epigraph-quotation
from Bishop Doyle [see supra], among others from Dr. Johnson, Lord Byron,
and Francis I of Germany. Ded., ‘To the People of Ireland, as containing
some fact not altogether unserviceable to the cause of voluntaryism and
repeal, and some defence of Irish military honor [sic] from English and
Anglo-Irish Misrepresentation, this Miscellany is inscribed by their Countryman,
The Author’ ; Preface assigns inspiration of collection to the desire
of correcting the errors printed in Quarterly Review [June 1836], regarding
two societies, The Comet Club and the Irish Brigade [sic], both suspected
of having been concerned ‘in some occupations which shunned the light’
[&.c; copied in ftn., p.107]; on voluntaryism: ‘to state his
views on the subject of voluntaryism in a manner which he hopes will prove
him to have been more qualified for [x] handling such a topic - or treating
it according to the arguments suitable to persons of every religious belief,
since all must be affected by the existence of such institutions as state-churches
- than if he were capable of assailing the existing Establishment for
the mere object of putting another Church in its place. As a layman, contented
with his own creed, and willing to leave others contented with theirs,
he cannot accuse himself of having been influenced, in any thing he has
written, by the slightest feeling of bigotry against the Irish established
clergy, for whom, - drawing a due distinction between the men and the
system, - he always advocated the payment of a life-provision, equal to
the value of the ecclesiastical income proposed to be taken from them.’
(pp.x-xi); expressed resistance to the thesis of ‘those Williamite
libellers’ that the Irish, who fought so we abroad, ‘fought
badly at home’ (p.xvi); ‘calumniated military character of their
ancestors’ (p.xxii); characterises the Williamite war as the ‘only
war deserving the appellation national that can be said to have taken
place between this country and England’, adding a footnote: ‘the
only war in which Ireland had anything like a resident Sovereign’,
and noting that the contemporaries flew a standard where the King was, “Now or never! Now and For Ever!” (p.xxvii, and ftn; this footnote
includes specific reference to several men aged as much as 140 who claimed
in 1792 and dates after to have marched with King James at the Boyne);
‘exaggerated descriptions of the conduct [xxviii] of the Roman Catholics
to the Protestants of Ireland, while the former held power under James
II, that the antinational scribes alluded to [‘libellers’],
and their patrons, for their own selfish and intolerant supremacy alone,
have been able to keep Protestanta dn Catholic disunited, to the loss
of almost every thing politically honorable and valuable to them as Irishmen;
the progaation of the calumny, that the Irish “always fought”,
and, by implication, would again “fight badly at home” [...
&c.]’ (p.xxviii-xxix); ‘even MacGeoghegan, who had sufficient
authorities, in his time, for giving a far better account than he has
done of the war of the Revolution, is miserablly concise and superficial’;
complains about paucity of ‘literary nationality’ (p.xxxi) among
Irish and and enlarges on ‘the most degrading of all the signs of
submission to a foreign yoke, or the miserable subserviency of mind, which
whould enslave this country, not only in a political sense but a literary
sense, by making it necessary to have the stamp of a London publisher’s
name afiixed to an Irish book, as well as the consent of a London parliament
to an Irish law’ (p.xxxii). Contents: I saw thee, Time’s rude
hand had dimmed’ [1]; The defeat of Sisera [3];Epigram on the weeping
and laughing philosophers [6]; The Temperance Society: A Song [6]; Orrar
and Muirne (from the Irish [9]; Epigram, on a wealthy and presuming upstart
[10]; Epistle from Dr. Southey, Poet Laureate and Author of the Book of
the Church, to the Editor of the Parson’s Horn-Book [11]; Impromptu,
written at the time of the Anglesey Proclamations, &c. [16]; Let fanatics
murmur at life: A Song [16]; A Character [18]; Epigrams [20]; The Parson’s “Horn of Chase”: A Parody [20]; Anacreontic [22]; Epigram, on
reading the Marquis of Londonderry’s speech, &c. [23]; A Valentine
[23]; Words for Music 25]; On an improvident Vocalist [26]; David’s
lament for Saul and Jonathan [27]; To **** [31]; Impromptu, on seeing
a Reverend Dignitary of the Establishment beating some poor boys from
behind his carriage [32]; Nabis and the Union (written upon the passing
of the Irish Coercion Bill) [32]; Almighty Lord [34]; Impromptu, to Miss
--- [36]; The Episcopal Mammoth, alias A-X-d-r the “Great” -
of Meath: A Parody [36]; Song for United Irishmen, or Irishmen United
[39]; Epigram on a big-mouthed glutton [40]; A Contrast for the Church
[41]; Bring me wine - bring me wine [43]; Epigram, on Miss .... [44];
from Voltaire’s tragedy of Mahomet [45]; Dear isle of my birth, ere
I sail from thy shores [58]; Epigram, on a ruby-visaged friend rather
partial to his tumbler [59]; Translation from Lucan’s Pharsalia [60];
Nay, do not tell me, when we meet [69]; The Duchess of Berri and the Jew
[70]; Stanzas [71]; Pikes versus Pike [73]; War-song of the Irish
Bards before the Battle of Clontarf [74]; Farewell to my Book [80]. POSTSCRIPT,
To Dr. Southey’s Epistle to The Author of the Parson’s Horn
Book: Reasons for the neeessity of substituting state-supported churches
in every country by the ‘the voluntary system’ and nore particularly
in Ireland - Origin of the general diffusion of hostility to the Irish
Church and tithe-system by the formation of the society of the original Comet Club, and the publication of the Parson’s Horn-Book and
Comet Plan of operations against the Church adopted by tbe Club and its
great sueeess - Prosecution and true causes of the extinetion of the Comet
- Correction of the misinformation of the Quarterly Review respecting
the two societies of the Comet Club and the Irish Brigade [85-114]. POSTSCRIPT,
to “David’s Lament’: David’s Lament and Wolfe s Lines
on Sir John Moore - Critical defect of the latter as compared with the
former poem, and the other chief remains of Hebrew song on important national
events. - Obscurity of Wolfe’s lines particularly demonstrated by
their translation into French by Father Prout - Fittest place for those
lines in a biography of Sir John Moore, or some future standard History
of England, on the model of the modern French historians, Michaud, Barante,
and Thiery - Historical use of national songs - Geddes’s critical
version of, and comments upon, David’s elegy - Concluding remarks
on the monotonous spirituality of Hebrew poetry, 111-143. POSTSCRIPT, “Nabis and the Union’: Historical sketch of, and resemblance
between, Scotch and Irish Anti-Unionism, and remarkable official testimony
to the predominance of Anti-Union sentiments in Ireland (145-54). Enquiry,
as regards the idea of maintaining a Union by force, into the number of
Irish who died in the British army and navy during the last half century,
and likewise into the comparative military qualities of the British and
Irish people (156-72). Statement (in reference to the same idea of a Union)
of the comparative size, in geographical square miles, of Ireland, and
the principal states of Europe, vith a view of her great natural capabilities
for being a maritime power, and the peculiar military strength of her
territory, as combined with the large amount of her population, and illustrated
by a plan of defensive operations, based on Napoleon principles (p.181-200).
Examination of the assertion of Voltaire and others, that the Irish “have always fought badly at home,” and confutation of that assertion,
by an account of what men, and how much domestic dissension and money
enabled England to terminate the Elizabethian and Cromwellian wars (200-08).
Extension of the same enquiry, in greater detail, to the Jacobite and
Williamite war, containing a true, in opposition to the false, or British
and Anglo-Irish statements, respecting the comparative amount of the Irish
and English numbers, artillery, &c. at the Boyne; and also a passing
review and comments on the events of that campaign, including William’s
repulse at Limerick, Marlborough’s capture of Cork and Kinsale, the
subsequent defeat of Ginckle’s [Ginkel’ attempted winter-operations
against Kerry and Connaught, and the great annoyance given to the invaders
by the Irish guerillas, or Rapparees (208-51). Great preparations of
the English for the next campaign, or that of 1691, and strictures on
the equally base and impolitic conduct of the French, who, by any thing
like proper succours, would have enabled the Irish, at the very least,
to maintain James on the throne of Ireland, as is shewn by the events
of the war in Ulster, previous to Kirk’s and Schomberg’s landing
- or, in other words, by the complete defeats of the Orange insurgents
by the Irish army, with very inferior numbers, at Dromore-Iveagh, the
passes of the Ban and at Clady-ford before Derry, and even by a fair view
of the shamelessly-overrated Williamite defence of that place (251-85).
Privations endured by the Irish army previous to the arrival of St. Ruth;
great diminution of the national force through the treachery of O’Donnell
and other causes; and a detailed account of the campaign down to, and
inclusive of the battle of Aughrim, by way of showing what sort of ‘bad fighting’ the Irish displayed “at home” (285-55). Complete
confutation of the notion of the Irish having ‘fought badly at
home’, by a full exposé of what an immense sum it took to
put them down (459-63). Capabilities of Ireland for national or self-legislative
independence, as contrasted with the native strength of Greece in the
time of Philip and Alexander, Spain under Philip II, Holland from the
time it threw of the Spanish yoke to the French Revolution, Portugal before
and after it cast off the same yoke, and Prussia down to the French Revolution
(464-71). Proof of the enormous injustice and spoliation imposed on Ireland
by England, as evinced by the general effects of the Act of Union, but,
more particularly, by the violation of that Act in reference to the portion
of the national debt agreed to be borne by each country; and concluding
induction from the whole of the preceding facts, that Ireland is entitled
to, would be able to obtain, and can only only expect justice from, a
REPEAL Of The UNION (471-75). APPENDIX, From Tait’s Magazine,
illustrating, from Scotch testimony, the fallacy of asserting that a Union
with England, which was so good for Scotland, must also be good for Ireland. NOTE, text includes parenthetical expression of ‘my
hatred of any nation’s either directly or indirectly pluming itself
upon the merits of another, after the English Union mode, or “british-heart-and-British-arm”
style!’ (identifying Wauchope, Gov. of Scotland, as a Scottish, not
an Irish, soldier; p.318; ftn.) Copy examined includes some manuscript
corrections, viz., ‘6 twenty-pounders’ corrig. to ‘twenty-four’
[p.320].
[ top ]
Notes
Very Rev. Canon Murphy, DD, PP, Pres. of Maynooth, Two
Irish Parliaments, A Contrast (CTS 1909), a 32pp. pamphlet, quotes O'Callaghan's editorial notes in Macariae Excidium (1846) referring to Sir Richard
Cox's view of the regicides whom he wished he could call Irish. (See under Cox, infra.)
[ top ]