Richard Barry O'Brien

“ Duffy suggested to his friends a new weekly journal, which should impart to the people sound political education based on historical study. The result was the 'Nation,' of which Duffy was proprietor and editor. The first number appeared on 15 Oct. 1842. Its motto was 'to create and foster public opinion in Ireland and to make it racy of the soil.' The creed of the Young Irelanders (as the writers of the 'Nation' came to be called) was to unite all Irishmen for the purpose of re-establishing the Irish parliament, by force of arms, if necessary. ”

“ Under Drummond the four hundred Dublin watchmen were replaced by a thousand able and efficient constables, while that great constabulary force, now grown to ten thousand men, and composed chiefly of catholic peasants, was formed to justify the belief of Drummond that the peace could best be kept in Ireland by trusting Irishmen, when fairly treated, to keep it. Drummond's innovation startled many minds, but an experience of seventy years has proved the soundness of his judgment. Drummond found the local magistrates as untrustworthy as the old police. ”

“ O'Connell supported a resolution adopted by the Repeal Association to the effect that moral force furnished a sufficient remedy for public wrong in all times and in all countries, and that physical force must be abhorred. The young men declined to admit that physical force could never be justifiable. Open war followed between O'Connell and the 'Nation.'
Duffy and his associates formed a new association the Irish Confederation which disclaimed alliances with English parties and repelled O'Connell's moral force theory. In January 1847 the first meeting of the confederation was held. ”

“ The Irish Tenant League, which Duffy joined, was now founded to secure reform on the basis of parliamentary enforcement of the three F's—fixity of tenure, fair rents, and free sale. In the summer of 1849 Carlyle again visited Ireland, and he and Duffy spent some weeks together travelling throughout the country. At the general election of 1852 Duffy was elected parliamentary representative of New Ross, and the party of independent opposition (which he had proposed in 1847) was formed to oppose every government which would not pledge themselves to grant the demands of the Tenant League. ”

“ Orange processions were put down, Orange magnates reprimanded, and the organisation entirely stripped of the power for mischief and disturbance which it had so long possessed. The notorious faction fights, which were of constant occurrence in the south, met with treatment of equal vigour. It had been the practice to allow the faction fighters to settle their differences among themselves. Drummond reprimanded the police for their listlessness, urged them to vigorous action, and under pain of dismissal ordered the chiefs to prevent the coming together of the opposing factions. ”

“ Of the work of the commission it has been said ‘the labours of the commissioners were most arduous; their report, with the evidence on which it was founded, and the explanatory maps and plans which accompanied it, is one of the ablest ever submitted to parliament.’ Of the minor work done by Drummond for Ireland the municipal boundaries commission, the abolition of the hulks at Cork, and the suppression of the disgraceful Sunday drinking booths in the Phœnix Park, Dublin, may be mentioned. ”

“ Before his arrest O'Brien was manager of a wholesale tea and wine business at Cork. He resumed the post on his release, and was soon appointed a traveller for his firm. Having rejoined the Fenian organisation (finally becoming a member of the supreme council of that body) he combined throughout Ireland the work of Fenian missionary and commercial traveller until 1873. Subsequently he carried on the business of a tea and wine merchant in Dublin, and was at a later period secretary to the gas company at Cork. ”

“ For the first and only time in Irish history an organisation of Irish peasants was formed to help the executive in bringing agrarian offenders to justice, and this society was formed in the very centre of agrarian disturbances itself—Tipperary. ”

“ Abandoning the old methods, he enforced the ordinary law with vigour. The abandonment of coercion made him popular with the masses of the people, and even those who sympathised with the agrarian organisations forgot the severity in the justice of the ruler. ”

“ The 'Herald' urged the union of Irishmen of all creeds and classes in the cause of Irish nationality. Among the contributors was Thomas O'Hagan [q. v.] , Duffy's lifelong friend, afterwards the first catholic lord chancellor of Ireland since the revolution. In 1836 Duffy left Monaghan for Dublin, where he joined the staff of the 'Morning Register' (founded by the Catholic Association) ; of this journal he finally became sub-editor. ”

“ On 8 Oct. 1855 he sailed for Australia, where he was received with great enthusiasm by his fellow-countrymen, and began life anew as a barrister in Melbourne. But he soon glided into politics, and his admirers in the colony presented him with property valued at 5000l. ”

“ Drummond set out for Ireland on 18 July 1835. On 19 Nov. following he married, in England, Miss Kinnaird, the ward and adopted daughter of Richard (‘Conversation’) Sharp [q. v.] , an accomplished, attractive, and intelligent woman, who entered into his labours with sympathy and zest. In December 1835 Drummond took up his residence at the under-secretary's lodge in the Phœnix Park, Dublin. His attention was first directed to the organisation of an effective police force. Prior to his time the police were an inefficient, partisan, and corrupt body. ”

“ In 1858 he met James Stephens [q. v. Suppl. II] , one of the founders of the Fenian organisation, and Stephens led him to join the local branch. On the outbreak of the American civil war in 1861 he served as assistant-surgeon in a volunteer militia regiment, consisting mainly of Irishmen. ”