During the time of the free quarters they were much harassed by the frequent raids of the English soldiers who plundered and burned at will. A party visited Daniel’s house while he was absent at Cork on business. They threatened his wife, (Breeda O’Mahony-Bawn), with dire vengeance unless she revealed where the money was hidden of which the Donovans were reported to be possessed. Finding their threats unavailing against the heroic woman, they set fire to the dwelling houses, loom houses, and barns, leaving ruin and desolation where industry and plenty reigned. When Daniel returned and heard the story from his wife he fell on his knees, and with uplifted hands, he cried, “I thank God, alanna, that you and the children are left to me.” This occurred in the summer of 1797. The state of terrorism increased to such an extent, and the plundering of the soldiery became so high-handed, that the brothers, who were marked as special prey by the marauders, to ensure the safety of their wives and children, removed to Ross. The money possessed in gold was sewed into the clothes of the women and children. After remaining a short time in Denis’s house, the brothers resumed the linen business in houses which they built for the purpose. They were the largest employers of labor in the town of Ross Carberry, where linen-weaving was in a flourishing condition. Your grandfather had between twenty and thirty looms at work for him; he had the reputation of being an upright and honest business man, and in disposition generous, but hot-tempered.

It was a noted coincidence that your great-grandmother, Jillen Island, had six sons, Denis, Jer., Dan, Flor., Patrick and Conn, and her brother, Dan Island, of Gurrane, had six sons Jer., Dan, Rick, Flor., Patrick and Conn. Dan, the father of Jer-Dan was a great genealogist, and knew the history of all the Donovans. His sister, Aunt Nell, (Mrs. Malony of Gurrane) whom I remember very well as a straight, pleasant featured woman, was similarly gifted. Donal was the name of the father of your great-grandfather Donacha More a Rossa. That Donal had a brother Donough who was an officer in King James’ Army; of him nothing was known after the Williamite wars. Yours truly,

James T. Donovan.

That ends my childhood story days. The next chapter will get me into the movement for the Repeal of the Union between England and Ireland.

CHAPTER IX.
“Repeal of the Union.”

I did not know what “Repeal of the Union” was when I heard all the grown-up people around me shouting out “Repeal! Repeal!” It is no harm now to let my young readers know what Repeal meant when I was a boy in Ireland.

Before I was a boy—before you or I were in the world at all—Ireland had a Parliament of her own. Ireland’s representatives met in the Parliament House in College Green, Dublin. Or, more correctly speaking, the English breed of people living in Ireland held Parliament in College Green. The real old Irish people, who remained true to the old cause and the old faith, had no voice in that Parliament; they had not even a voice in electing a member to it. Things were so arranged by the English that only an Englishman, or an Irishman who became a turn-coat, and changed his nature and his religion, could have anything to say or do with that Parliament. Yet, when the Englishmen, the Sassenachs and the Protestants, who came into possession of Ireland, came to find out that England would rob them of their rights, too, as well as she would rob the Catholics, they kicked against the robbery, and in the year 1782 they made a show of resistance, and got England to take her hands off them for awhile. But up to the year 1800 England had intrigued and bribed so much, that she bought over a majority of the members, and they voted that our Irish Parliament would be abolished; that they would not meet in Dublin any more, but that they would have a united parliament for Great Britain and Ireland in London. The act by which that was done was called the Act of Union, and it was to repeal that act that the movement for the “Repeal of the Union,” was started.

Daniel O’Connell, of Kerry, was the head man of that movement. He was a great man at moving the Irish people, and carrying them with him. Many of the people thought he meant to fight, too, in the long run, for at some of his monster meetings, speaking to tens of thousands of people, he’d cry out “Hereditary bondsmen! Know ye not! Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.” But he never seriously meant fight. If he did he would, in a quiet way, or in some way, have made some preparation for it. Those same remarks hold good as regards the later Irish movement of Charles S. Parnell. A great many people said he meant to fight when he’d cry out that he’d “never take off his coat to the work he was at, if there was not some other work behind it.” But he never seriously meant fight either. If he did, he would, in a quiet way, or in some way, have made some preparation for it.