Reading John O’Donovan’s papers in the Penny Journal, I took it in my head to write to him. I have not a copy of the letter I wrote, but the nature of it may be judged by this letter of reply that I received from him:
Dublin, No. 36 Upper Buckingham St.
December 24th, 1854.
Dear Sir—It amused me very much to learn that you have taken me for a Protestant! I have not the honor of having had one Protestant ancestor, from 1817 to 493, when St. Patrick cursed our ancestor Lonan, in the plain of Hy-Figenti. We have all remained unworthy members of the Church of Rome ever since! (The Protestant wives all turned to mass.) But I am sorry to think, and to be obliged to confess that we have not been a pious, wise or prudent race, and I am convinced that we are doomed to extinction.
Many curses hang over us! (if curses have aught of force in modern times). Saint Patrick cursed Lonan in 493; the holy Columb MacKerrigan, Bishop of Cork, cursed our progenitor Donovan (from whom we all descend), and our names Donovanides, in the year 976, in the most solemn manner that any human being ever was cursed or denounced; and, so late as 1654, a good and pious Protestant woman’s family (the children of Dorothy Ford), cursed Daniel O’Donovan of Castle Donovan, and caused a “braon-sinshir,” or corroding drop, to trickle from a stone arch in Castle Donovan, which will never cease to flow till the last of the race of the said Daniel O’Donovan is extinct. It appears, from the depositions in Trinity College, Dublin, that the said Daniel O’Donovan and Teige-a-Duna McCarthy hanged the said Dorothy Ford at Castle Donovan, to deprive her and her family of debts lawfully due unto them.
You and I escape this last curse, but we reel under that pronounced by the Holy Columb (if indeed, its rage is not spent). God’s curse extends to the fifth generation, but I believe man’s goes further. But in addition to these ancient maledictions, I, and my unfortunate sept of Ida in Ossory labor under two other denunciations which hang over us like two incubi!
I return you my warmest and best thanks for your kind invitation to Skibbereen, and hope to make a tour thither next autumn, but I will not be very troublesome to you, as my stay will not be long.
Wishing you many happy returns of this holy season, I remain yours truly,
John O’Donovan.
To Mr. Jeremiah O’Donovan-Rossa.