Newry News and Irish Fun
Mitchel’s travels in Ireland during the Famine had a huge and lasting effect on him, cementing his determination to champion the people of no property.
‘ … husband and wife fought like wolves for the last morsel of food in the house; families, when all was eaten and no hope left, took their last look at the sun, built up their cottage doors, that none might see them die or hear their groans .. ‘
A new leader of considerable stature soon emerged. James Fintan Lalor argued that the Irish Confederation had to focus on the land issue to win greater support for Repeal.
Every one’s personal and political philosophy will mature dependent on the influence of other like-minded individuals and groups and of political developments of the time. The early Young Ireland group included landlords…
In the early 1840s there was much political discontent and turmoil all over Europe. Kings, emperors and aristocrats, returned to power after Waterloo, were facing growing unrest and even open rebellion. The popular ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity …
Perhaps the most potent political force, today as it has been for millennia past, is Nationalism. When combined with foreign occupation, a deep sense of injustice and a prevailing mood of liberalism, it can become the prime political motive force in any country, uniting individuals of otherwise disparate opinions and interests.
Some time ago we offered a synopsis of John Mitchel’s career and some quotes from his writings. Mitchel was arrested and transported before some fellow patriots and friends pursued the ill-fated rising at Ballingarry in 1848, when the whole nation was on its knees in the worst year of the Great Famine. In his Jail Journal he makes allusion to these events.
1766
1779 Formation of the Irish Volunteers
Forkhill parish, 41/2 miles NNW of Dundalk, has currently 7063 inhabitants of which 152 are in town, writes Lewis in 1837.
All political, parliamentary and municipal boundaries in our area are an artificial construct of the occupying English and designed for their better management of our affairs.