I forgot to ask you in my last letter what happened to our American friend, your cousin Florence, who expected to be appointed Consul at Cork. Has he written to you since? Has he any desire to return home?
I do not believe that my ancestor Edward comes under the curse of the Braon-Sinshir of Dorothy Ford, for he was killed by a cannon ball, which I think I have, about six years before she was hanged by Daniel O’Donovan and Teige-a-doona McCarthy; but I labor under the curse of the holy Bishop Kerrigan, and so do you, and the whole race; but I believe—hope—it lost its withering force, or that its fulminatory influence was nearly spent after the fifth generation. Curses among the Jews exhausted themselves in the fifth generation. The Irish belief is that the curse returns on the pronouncer if it was not deserved. Our ancestor really deserved the curse pronounced on him.
Let me congratulate you on the subject of your many sons. I am particularly fortunate in that respect, for I have no daughter to run away with any Kerrigan; but, as the Emperor of China said: “Where there are many sons, there are many dangers.” Excuse hurry, late toward midnight, and after a hard day’s work. My sight is failing.
Yours sincerely,
John O’Donovan.
Dublin, Nov. 10, 1858.
My dear Friend—You will oblige me by returning to me the descent of the Rev. Mr. Hayman of Youghal (with any remarks you have to make on the Nagles), at your earliest convenience. I want to try what my grenadier namesake in London can make of it. He is pedigree-mad, if any man ever was so, and would read a whole library for one fact relating to any branch of the O’Donovans.
Write me such a note as I can send him (without making any allusion to Protestants) and I will get him to make any searches you like about the Kilmeen or Glean-a-Mhuilin Sept.
My eldest boy John entered Trinity College, Dublin, on the 5th instant, and was admitted to contend for mathematical honors. He feels himself like a fish out of water among the Tory Protestants, after leaving the Jesuit fathers of Great Denmark street.
It is reported here that a young Ireland war is beginning to be organized in Cork and Kerry, but I do not believe it. You need not make any allusion to this in your notes, because my young friend is an aristocrat, though he hates the Saxons more than I do.