When he would have a vacation day, he’d come into my house in town. One day I told him what John O’Donovan wanted me to get from him. He did not like to give it; he was afraid it would injure him. Henry O’Donovan brother to “The O’Donovan” was an ex-officio poor law guardian; Powell, the Welshman, who inherited the lands of General O’Donovan was an ex-officio P. L. G., and if he, James, got anything published about who and what he was, they may think he had some design upon ownership of the lands of the O’Donovan clan, which they held because their fathers and their kin turned Protestant, while James’ fathers remained Catholics, and so lost their patrimony; so James did not like to give me the information John O’Donovan wanted, for fear it would—to the loss of his situation—prejudice the landlord guardians against him, most of whom were the possessors of the plundered property of the people.
I told that to John O’Donovan, telling him I did not like to press James to give me his story.
The next of his letters is this:
Dublin, March 24, 1860.
My dear Friend—I have received your letter, and was exceedingly sorry to hear you had lost your wife—a great loss in case of ardent affection on both sides; but you are young and vigorous; and time, the dulce molimen—the soft soother—will finally reduce your grief to “a softer sadness.” Your imprisonment must have weighed heavily upon her spirits.
My nephew-in-law seems to be a sensible man of the world. He seems to be a great Catholic. Of his politics I know nothing, but calculate that they are ultramontane; and I think Finghin Ceannmor and he would agree very well. I have no faith in politics of any kind, nor have I any trust in Whig or Tory. I was glad to learn that poor James was in good health, and not utterly destitute. I hope you will be able to get out of him all the Shanachus that he has in his head about the Clann-Donnabhain. I am sure it would offend him to hear that Donell-na-g Croicean, who died in 1584, was unquestionably a bastard—Teige, his father, was never married. Donell-na-g Croicean “kept” Eileen ni Laoghaire—Ellen O’Leary, but afterward married her. Domhnall, their son, married Juana, daughter of Sir Owen McCarthy.
Daniel, their first son, is the ancestor of General O’Donovan, of Bawnlahan, who died in 1829. Teige, their second son, is the ancestor of Morgan, now O’Donovan. Donogh, the fourth son is the ancestor of James of Cooldurragha.
It is useless to tell him this, because he would not believe it, though it was sworn to by “Sir Finghin O’Driscoll, and divers other good and trustworthy witnesses”; but he heard from the Clan-Loughlin and other septs of the O’Donovans, that such was the tradition.
This illegitimacy of the senior branch is, in my opinion, another result of the curse of the good Coarb of St. Barry.
I have given in the Appendix to the Annals, all that I could find about James’ pedigree; but what I want from him now is his story of how the property gradually passed from him and his ancestors, giving dates as often as possible, and also the cause of the loss of the lands. It is very curious how the descendants of the youngest son, Kedagh, succeeded better than any of the rest, except the Protestants.