Maguire

“ MAGUIRE, ROBERT (1826–1890) , controversialist, born in Dublin 3 March 1826, was son of William Maguire of Dublin, inspector of taxes there, and was educated at Trinity College, where he graduated B.A. 1847, M.A. 1855, and B.D. and D.D. 1877. On Trinity Sunday 1849 he was ordained to the curacy of St. Nicholas' parish, Cork. In 1852 he became clerical secretary to the Islington Protestant Institute, which had for its object ‘the awakening of Protestant Christians to the progress of Popery.’ Maguire's efforts increased the number of members from six hundred to fourteen hundred. ”

“ Let those who wish to understand the present history of Ireland, read Mr. Maguire's Irish in America, carefully and thoughtfully. If they do so, and if they are not blinded by wilful prejudices, they must admit that the oft-repeated charges against Irishmen of being improvident and idle are utterly groundless, unless, indeed, they can imagine that the magic influence of a voyage across the Atlantic can change a man's nature completely. Let them learn what the Irishman can do, and does do, when freed from the chains of slavery, and when he is permitted to reap some reward for his labour. ”

“ MAGUIRE, JOHN FRANCIS (1815–1872) , Irish politician, was eldest son of John Maguire, merchant, of Cork, where he was born in 1815. He was called to the Irish bar in 1843, but adopted the profession of a journalist. In 1841 he founded the ‘Cork Examiner,’ in support of O'Connell, and conducted the paper for many years. ”

“ Lord Maguire consented to join, and a meeting was held next day to which all the Ulster gentlemen then in town were invited. They readily engaged in the plot. It was desired to obtain the adhesion of the Lords of the Pale, who, though English in blood, and possessed of estates that had been the property of the native Irish, were Catholics, and smarting under the affronts put upon their religion, and apprehensive of further severities. ”

“ Joseph's cemetery, Cork. Maguire had been on friendly terms with the leaders of both political parties, and the national ‘tribute’ which was collected for his wife and children was contributed to by the home secretary (Henry Bruce, now Lord Aberdare) , as well as by several conservative members. Queen Victoria was also among the subscribers. He is said to have been a brilliant raconteur.
Maguire was an able writer, as well as an energetic politician, and in addition to the works already mentioned he was author of: 1. ‘The Industrial Movement in Ireland,’ 1852 [1853] . 2. ”

“ Meanwhile his emissaries in Lisbon and elsewhere were continuing negotiations for foreign aid, and the differences at home between Maguire and Brian Oge O'Rourke were composed by his intervention. Maguire, who had lately laid down his arms, was induced to rebel again in 1593. But the outbreak of hostilities cost Magauran his life. He was killed in an engagement between Maguire and Bingham on midsummer eve 1593. ”

“ Macmahon took him to Lord Maguire, who disclosed the whole plot. Strafford had stored arms for 30,000 men in the Castle, with which the conspirators expected to free the country easily. ‘And whereas,’ said Maguire, ‘you have of long time been a slave to that Puritan Sir John Clotworthy, I hope you shall have [Pg 320] as good a man to wait upon you.’ They then went with several others to the sign of the Lion in Wine Tavern Street, where they turned the waiter out of the room and fell to drinking health on their knees to the success of next day’s work. ”

“ Maguire advocated with equal vigour improvements in the system of public education in Ireland, the abrogation of repressive laws, and the necessity of relieving distress in Ireland between 1862 and 1865. He also procured a reform of the Irish poor law, by which the period of settlement required for relief was reduced to six months. On 10 March 1868 Maguire, in moving a resolution on the state of Ireland, laid great stress upon the evils of the Irish church establishment, and elicited from Mr. ”

“ Maguire actively promoted local enterprise in Cork, his native place, endeavouring to introduce the linen industry into the south of Ireland, and obtaining from parliament a vote for the construction of a naval harbour at Cork. He was elected mayor of Cork in 1853, 1862, 1863, and 1864. In 1866 he spent six months in travelling through Canada and the United States, and published on his return ‘The Irish in America,’ which was largely quoted by Mr. ”

“ Maguire remarks justly, without, however, bringing the matter of expenditure into sufficient prominence:
"For the glorious Church of America many nations have done their part. The sacred seed first planted by the hand of the chivalrous Spaniard has been watered by the blood of the generous Gaul; to the infant mission the Englishman brought his steadfastness and resolution, the Scotchman, in the northeast, his quiet firmness, . . . the Irishman his faith, the ardor of his faith. ”

“ He was implicated in a plot of Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone (1540?–1616) [q. v.] , to murder Con MacShane O'Neill, who petitioned the lord deputy for protection. In 1589, on the death of his father, Maguire succeeded to the estates held by his ancestors since 1302. These were situated in co. Fermanagh, and the position of a considerable portion of them on the islands of Lough Erne gave Maguire an almost impregnable retreat; he considered himself able to hold his country against any power in Ireland. ”

“ It was followed by another letter, in which Sussex advised Elizabeth to show no mercy to the rebel: he had only written to stop Shane’s mouth, and to gain time. Maguire described in piteous language the outrages to which he was subjected, only for being a loyal subject. Shane had crossed the Erne at Belleek and burned corn and houses, falling upon the harvest people and killing 300 men, women, and children. ‘I am,’ Maguire had written to Sussex, ‘upon my keeping every day since his coming to Ireland. ”

“ The Clark of the House causing a Division.
"Exactly," said the Sage of Queen Anne's Gate. "I spoke for an hour and a half, and Balfour puts what I had meant to say in a phrase. What is all this action in Mashonaland, this spending of money, and making of war, but the Extension of Rhodes?"
Maguire undertook to defend Chartered Company against attack of Sage. "Terrible work, Toby," he said, mopping his heated brow. "Much rather approach Lobengula's kraal itself than stand up and face the House."
Had to be done, however, and Maguire not the man to run away from anything approaching a fight. ”

“ MacMahon had already been hanged, but the peerage in Maguire’s case made a difficulty. There were several precedents for trying in England treasons committed in Ireland. That being admitted as good law, it was easy to show that an Irish peer was a commoner in England, and as such Maguire was tried. ”

“ Bonbright got the idea back of that. Maguire was personally interested in results; Maguire wanted his room to beat other rooms in the weekly reports; Maguire was working for something more than wages—he was playing the game of manufacturing to win.
"You go on a planer," Maguire snapped, "and Gawd help you if you spoil more castings than I figger you ought to.... The boys here'll make it hot for you if you pull down their average." ”

“ Still the Irish people would not credit that, far towards the close of the nineteenth century, an act so dreadful durst be done.
During all this time the condemned lay in Salford gaol, tortured by the suspense inevitably created by Maguire's reprieve. Although every effort was made by their friends to keep them from grasping at or indulging in hope, the all-significant fact of that release seemed to imperatively forbid the idea of their being executed on a verdict whose falseness was thus confessed. ”

“ Maguire was declared independent both of O’Neill and O’Donnell, and sheriffs were appointed both in Ards and Clandeboye, which, being part of the Earldom of Ulster, had once had a feudal organisation. ”

“ So far from the last-mentioned being one of the objects in view, “there was,” says Maguire, “a fear of the Scots conceived, that they would presumably oppose themselves, and that would make the matter more difficult; to avoid which danger it was resolved not to meddle with them or anything belonging to them, and to demean ourselves toward them as if they were of us, which we thought would pacify them; and if the Scots would not accept that offer, we were in good hope to cause a stir in Scotland that might divert them from us.” ”

“ MAGAURAN, EDMUND (1548–1593) , Roman catholic archbishop of Armagh, a member of the clan Macgauran or Macgovern of Tullyhaw, co. Cavan, was born in Maguire's country in 1548, and appears to have been educated abroad, either like his successor, Peter Lombard [q. v.] , at Louvain, or more probably at one of the Irish colleges in Spain. In 1581 he was sent on a mission to the pope by the chiefs of his native country, and was appointed bishop of Ardagh on 11 Sept. ”

“ On October 15 Sir Phelim O’Neill, Lord Maguire, O’More, Ever Macmahon and Captain Brian O’Neill, Owen Roe’s envoy, met to make final arrangements. One hundred picked men from Leinster, under the guidance of O’More, were to take the little gate of the Castle, the main entrance being left to Maguire and one hundred Ulstermen. Sir Phelim was to go home and take Londonderry at the same moment, which he signally failed to do. The afternoon of Saturday the 23rd was the chosen time, for it was market day, and the [Pg 319] presence of strangers would be less noticed. ”

“ It is—that it is the Irishman who is in the condition of slavery, and that the English breed in Ireland would consider themselves degraded and disgraced at nursing an Irishman.
The second trick of the two tricks I have spoken of is the trick of sponsorship. The lands of the Maguires are confiscated, and are made over to an English surveyor who gets the title of Lord Leitrim. Young Andy Maguire has the name of being a Rapparee; he is out on the hills at night. Leitrim is afraid of him, and can’t sleep the nights well. ”

“ Nevertheless, a Captain Willis was made sheriff of Fermanagh; he maintained a force of a hundred men, and gathered as many more followers about him. Maguire in 1590 drove Willis and his men into a church and besieged them there. They were only saved from death by the intervention of Tyrone. Consequently the lord deputy invaded Fermanagh, declared Maguire to be a traitor, and took Enniskillen (Cox, Hibernia Anglicana, i. 402; Fynes Morison, Itinerary, ii. 12) . ”

“ Previous to starting, he received a telegram from Thomas Maguire, of the San Francisco Opera House, inquiring "what he would take for forty nights in Californis." Mr. Brown immediately telegraphed back,—
And, though Maguire was sorely puzzled at the contents of the dispatch, the Press got hold of it, and it went through California as a capital joke. ”

“ And when Emerson made his first trip to Australia about 1873, Maguire’s [44] Minstrels flourished on in San Francisco. Yes, the great coast metropolis owes much to Tom Maguire. Mr. Maguire died in New York, January 20, 1896; aged 72 years.
Dr. John P. Ordway was one of the earliest prominent managers engaged in permanent minstrelsy in one particular city.
He was the founder of the Aeolians, a famous minstrel organization who gave their first performance in Harmony Hall, Boston, Mass., December 16, 1849, and played in that city until September, 1859. ”

“ Among the letters which Alen brought with him from England was one of thanks for past services to Connor Maguire, chief of Fermanagh. Maguire belonged to the party in Ulster which opposed O’Neill, and consequently Kildare; and he seems to have been in some degree under Alen’s influence. He now wrote to the King, adding to the already overwhelming case against Kildare, and praying for the appointment of Skeffington. This despatch probably reached London about the same time as the Earl, who was examined by the Council and at once sent to the Tower. ”

“ For answer Shane attacked O'Reilly, plundered Tyrconnel, and reduced Maguire to the direst extremities. Maguire warned the lord lieutenant that unless O'Neill was effectually subdued, he would be ‘the strongest man of all Erlond.’
Sussex and Fitzwilliam, the latter of whom was despatched to England to report personally on the situation, were convinced that nothing but force would bring Shane to his senses. Meanwhile, until Elizabeth's consent could be obtained to that course, the lord lieutenant was obliged to act on the defensive. ”

“ Ulster at Shane’s mercy.
O’Neill’s tyranny was certainly hateful to his neighbours, who protested their loyalty and prayed earnestly for help. Maguire begged Sussex to write only in English, for clerks, ‘or other men of the country,’ might know his mind if he used Latin. The poor man seems not to have had a horse left to ride, and was fain to beg one of the Lord-Lieutenant, who sent him an animal for which he had given the high price of twenty-four marks sterling. The prevalence of official corruption is seen here, for the horse actually delivered was worthless. ”

“ Brian Oge O’Rourke had a dispute with the Binghams about his composition rent, and plundered the country about Ballymote. Maguire’s emulation was aroused, and, in spite of a promise to Tyrone, he also invaded Connaught, leaving Lough Allen to his left, and penetrating to Tulsk in Roscommon, where Sir Richard Bingham was encamped. The English party were outnumbered, and Maguire drove off many cattle, but, in the running fight which followed, Edmund MacGauran, titular primate of all Ireland, was killed. ”

“ Maguire had as customers, when they visited New York, Jackson, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. When prosperity came to him he opened road-houses that were the resorts of horse-owners like Commodore Vanderbilt and Robert Bonner. His Cayuga House, at McComb’s Dam, was named after his own fast trotter, Cayuga Girl. Maguire’s intimacy with Bonner was such that the hangers-on in the racing game believed that Bonner owned the Sun and transmitted his views to Dana through “Toppy.” Maguire worked for the Sun up to his death in 1889. ”