John O'Mahony

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John Francis O'Mahony (1815 – 7 February 1877) was an Irish scholar and the founding member of the

Early life

O'Mahony was born in 1815 in

Upon the death of an elder brother, O'Mahony inherited a property that yielded £300 per annum.[3] However, he would later yield this inheritance to his sister in order to pursue his Fenian activities.^[1][2]

Education

O'Mahoney was educated at

In 1857, he published History of Ireland, by Geoffrey Keating, D. D., translated from the Original Gaelic, and Copiously Annotated (New York, 1857). Dr. Todd, in his preface to the Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaell, says, "His translation of Keating is a great improvement upon the ignorant and dishonest one published by Mr. Dermod O'Connor more than a century ago, but has been taken from a very imperfect text, and has evidently been executed, as he himself confesses, in great haste." O'Mahony's notes are copied from O'Donovan's Four Masters, and it was on this ground that Hodges & Smith procured an injunction against the sale of the book in the United Kingdom.[3] The mental strain to which O'Mahony was subjected in the preparation of this work, which brought him no pecuniary gain, affected his reason, and he was removed by his friends for a short time to a lunatic asylum.^[5]

Fenian Brotherhood

In 1855, O'Mahony, alongside the likes of Thomas J. Kelly and Michael Corcoran organised the Fenian Brotherhood in the U.S., closely associated with the newly founded Irish Republican Brotherhood in Ireland.^[6][7] The object of the association was to secure the separation of Ireland. The name was probably derived the Fenian Cycle, a body of medieval Gaelic poems about a mythical pre-Christian Irish army.^[5] The early portion of Geoffrey Keating's History is occupied with the exploits of the ancient Fenians.^[3] The organisation of the new society was completed at conventions that were held in Chicago in 1864, and in Cincinnati in January 1865.^[5]

Civil War

At the time of the Cincinnati convention, O'Mahony held the rank of colonel of the

Fenian growth

The close of the civil war in the spring of 1865 gave a great impetus to the Fenians, owing to the number of Irish-American soldiers that were disbanded and anxious to see service elsewhere. Money poured into the Fenian exchequer; probably $500,000 was subscribed between 1860 and 1867.^[5] Many differences occurred between O'Mahony and James Stephens and the Central Council relative to the policy to be pursued for the attainment of their object,^[3] but O'Mahony remained president of the organisation for several years. He did not take any part personally in the attempted Fenian Rising of 1867 or in the raids on Canada, although his advice counted for much in these enterprises.^[5][1][2]

In New York, O'Mahony and his paper the Irish People was challenged by the IRB exile David Bell and his paper the Irish Republic. Bell, a committed supporter of the Radical Republican agenda of black franchise and Reconstruction, repeatedly criticized O'Mahony's branch of the Fenian Brotherhood, dubbing it the "bloated carcass of gaseous Manhattanism." He argued that O'Mahony was indifferent to the need to "cleanse" the spirits of the Irish in America: "Let our people fling off the scales of bigotry and declare that all men are entitled to 'life, liberty, and happiness.'"^[8]

Later years

He devoted the last years of his life to literary pursuits, but suffered from ill health, and he had a hard struggle to secure the bare means for subsistence. However visionary may have been his objectives, he was honest, and although thousands had passed through his hands, he was often at a loss for a dollar. When his poverty was discovered, he declined to receive assistance in any shape.^[5] He died in New York City in 1877 and soon after his death his remains were taken to Ireland and interred with the honors of a public funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.^[3][1][2]

References