Statue Of Grattan

Statue Of Grattan.

Oconnells Statue, Dublin

Oconnells Statue, Dublin.

Daniel O'Connell

Daniel O'Connell.

Statue Of O'Connell At Limerick

Statue Of O'Connell At Limerick.

On another occasion, a witness denied having been drunk, because "he had only had his share of a quart." "Come," said O'Connell, "on your honor now, wasn't your share all but the pewter? " The man acknowledged that it was.

The O'Connell Bridge

The O'Connell Bridge.

Ireland has produced many great orators, but never one who had such perfect mastery over himself and his audience as O'Connell. While Government spies watched eagerly for any phrase on which it would be possible to indict him for sedition, the Irish leader delivered, day after day, to enormous and excited crowds, hundreds of addresses, which he had had no time to prepare ; yet he rarely gave his enemies a chance to attack him. In any case, it would have been difficult to prove the exact language of a man who could utter two hundred words a minute for four consecutive hours. His wit, too, was invariably a match for his antagonists. At one important gathering some English stenographers had been ordered to report his speech with special accuracy. O'Connell received them courteously and, to the astonishment of his friends, provided them with chairs and a table directly in front of the platform. Then, when they had assured him they were quite ready to take down his words, he rose and addressed the crowd in Irish! The effect produced by his orations was prodigious. He had the art of a versatile actor in adapting himself to widely different audiences and situations. His presence was commanding; his manner, even when most impassioned, was self-controlled; his voice was deep-toned, penetrating and sonorous as a bell; while his smooth, sympathetic brogue completed a charm that captivated all who heard him. To listen to him, the Irish people would come by-thousands from great distances, travel all night, and stand for hours without any shelter, patiently waiting for his coming. Some of these monster open-air meetings were unparalleled in point of numbers. One hundred thousand people was a comparatively small gathering. In 1843, five hundred thousand persons are said to have assembled at Cork, seven hundred thousand at Clare, and seven hundred and fifty thousand at Tara. Of course, only a small minority of such multitudes could hear the speaker's voice, but what he said could in a measure make its way to the outskirts of the crowd, and the great leader could at least be seen. It is a wonderful proof of the control which O'Connell exercised over these masses, that their behavior was exemplary, and unattended by disorder or drunkenness. This was, however, partly due to the fact that many of these gatherings partook of a religious, as well as a political, character. Thus, at Tara, from daybreak until the arrival of O'Connell at noon, mass was celebrated at forty different altars, erected in the fields; and the people could be seen kneeling by-thousands at the elevation of the Host, as if they were in adjoining churches, the walls of which had been removed, the one roof common to them all being the sun-lit dome of heaven.

Ireland Part 7 47

"We Heard O'Connell."

The O'Connell Monument, Glasnevin

The O'Connell Monument, Glasnevin.

Ireland Part 7 49

O'Connell's Residence, Dublin.

Ireland Part 7 50

O'Connell Monument In Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

In the cemetery of Glasnevin, near Dublin, rises a stately granite shaft, one hundred and sixty-four feet high, and built in the style of the old Irish Round Towers. At the base of this grand and dignified monument, lofty like his aims, strong like his character, and enduring as his memory, sleeps Erin's uncrowned king. Standing beside it, it is pathetic to recall the shadows that darkened his last days. It seems almost incredible that one of the most frightful calamities the world has ever seen, could have occurred so recently, and in a European country; but it is unfortunately true that in the years of 1846 and 1847, owing chiefly to the failure of the potato crop, the peasants of Ireland died by thousands of starvation. Entire families perished; and records prove that one hundred and thirty dead bodies were found along the roads in a single district in one day. In two years famine and fever destroyed one-fourth of the whole population of the island.