Frank Hugh O'Donnell
Frank Hugh O'Donnell (also Frank Hugh O'Cahan O'Donnell), born Francis Hugh MacDonald (9 October 1846 – 2 November 1916) was an Irish writer, journalist and nationalist politician.
Early life
O'Donnell was born in an army barracks in Devon, England, where his father, Sergeant Bernard MacDonald, was stationed.[1] His mother, Mary Kain, was a native of Ballybane, close to Galway city in Ireland. He was educated at the Erasmus Smith School in Galway, Coláiste Iognáid (the "Jes"), and later enrolled in Queen's College Galway, where he studied English literature, history and political economy. While a student at the college, he acquired a considerable reputation as an orator, and was a frequent contributor to meetings of the college's Literary and Debating Society, of which he became vice-auditor for the 1864–1865 session.
Even in his student days, O'Donnell seems to have been quick to voice his opinions, and revelled in controversy. In November 1866, addressing the Literary and Debating Society on the question "Was the character of
"I hold that Debating Societies are the nurseries of independent thought, and the training schools of sober criticism. I believe in the power and impartiality of an enlightened studenthood ... I have followed the mind of Austin. I have sat at the feet of
Cairnes. I have drunk of the philosophy of Mill. I claim for Judicial Science, for Economic Science, for the Philosophy of History, a place in the discussions of our society, I pity and I scorn the formidable confederacy of fools who dare not call a spade a spade."
This incident, combined with the reluctance of the society to prevent O'Donnell from addressing its meetings, eventually led to the suspension of the society from the Queen's College and its temporary migration to rooms in the city of Galway.
O'Donnell graduated from the Queen's College with an M.A. degree in 1868, winning several gold medals for his academic performance. By this stage, he had begun to style himself 'Frank Hugh O'Donnell', believing himself to be a descendant of Hugh O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell.
Leaving Galway, O'Donnell moved to London, where he embarked on a career in journalism, following his college contemporary T. P. O'Connor. O'Connor's knowledge of modern European languages had helped him to establish himself as a correspondent on European affairs, and he assisted O'Donnell in developing a similar reputation; he spent a brief period on the staff of the London Morning Post.
Politics
In the
In 1875, he was a founding member of the Constitutional Society of India, a group promoting political autonomy for India. In 1877, O'Donnell secured a more permanent election to the
Parnell refused to let O'Donnell be nominated in 1885.[4] He left the Irish Parliamentary Party and conventional politics, but not its general aims of promoting home rule and tenant farmers' rights. His last and perhaps most important contribution to the fortunes of the party was the libel case he launched against the Times in 1888 over the series "Parnellism and Crime"; though the case was lost, it resulted in the establishment of the Parnell Commission which exonerated Parnell from condoning the Phoenix Park Murders, and exposed the Piggott Forgeries.
Author
In his later years O'Donnell began investigating misconduct by both the British Civil Service and the
After careful investigation, O'Donnell accused members of the Catholic clergy of illegally diverting Government money earmarked for economic development into new Cathedrals, parish churches, and other ecclesiastical building projects. O'Donnell argued that the British Government needed to provide better oversight of how the Congested Districts Board's funds were being used.[5] He believed that 'in Ireland material ruin has accompanied clerical despotism'. His hostility to the Church drew the ire of Catholic historians who systematically undermined his credibility.
Publications
- A History of the Irish Parliamentary Party (2 vols), London, Longmans Green & Co., 1910[6]
- Paraguay on Shannon Hodges & Figgis, Dublin, 1908.
- A Borrowed Plume of the "Daily News": The First Description of the Bulgarian Rising in 1876. London: Arthur L. Humphreys. 1912. .
See also
References
- ^ O'Day, Alan. "O'Donnell, Frank Hugh". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
- ^ Stanford, Jane, That Irishman: the Life and Times of John O'Connor Power, Part Two, Parliamentary Manoeuvres, pps. 81, 246
- ^ William O'Brien, Recollections, 247 fn.
- ^ Michael Davitt, John Devoy, the Gaelic American, eds Carla King, W J McCormack, p.160, note 3, UCD Press, 2008.
- ^ Online version of Paraguay on Shannon
- ^ Online text accessed 2009
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