SHIELDS, JAMES, GENERAL (1807-1879).—Born near Dungannon, Shields emigrated in early life to the United States, where he attained distinction in journalism and subsequently celebrity as a lawyer. On the outbreak of war with Mexico, he forsook the Bar for arms, and as a soldier acquired even higher renown. In 1848 he was chosen as governor of Oregon, and was considered one of the ablest of the United States Generals. His political views being in sympathy with the Young Irelanders, several of them looked towards Shields as another Eoghan Ruadh, who would accept the call of his country and return to lead the Irish once they had taken the field. Subsequently Shields engaged in the Civil War on the Northern side, and, although a comparatively old man, distinguished himself by defeating General Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Winchester, although his army was inferior in numbers and he had been wounded at the opening of the fight.
SMYTH, P.J. (1826-1885).—One of the youngest of the Young Ireland leaders. He escaped from Ireland to the United States after the collapse of the insurrection, and carried out the rescue of Mitchel from Van Diemen's Land. On his return to Ireland he re-entered politics, and sat in the British Parliament successively for Westmeath and Tipperary.
STANLEY, LORD (1802-1869).—Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the British Liberal Government, 1846-52.
STAUNTON, MICHAEL.—Proprietor of the Morning Register newspaper and an alderman of the Dublin Corporation. His memory survives as the involuntary agent of bringing Duffy and Davis together—and thus leading to the foundation of The Nation.
STEPHENS, JAMES (1825-1901).—A Kilkenny railway employe. Afterwards chief organiser of the Fenian movement, of which, with O'Mahony and Doheny, he was one of the founders.
TORRENS, JUDGE.—Called to the Bar, 1798, raised to the Bench, 1823, where he sat for thirty-three years.
WILDE, SIR THOMAS (1782-1855).—Lord Truro, Attorney-General to the British Liberal Government in England, 1846; afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Lord Chancellor of England, 1850-2.
WILLIAMS, RICHARD DALTON (1822-1862).—One of the most popular of the poets of the Nation. The Government prosecution failed in his case, and he emigrated to the United States where he became Professor of Belles Lettres in the University of Mobile.
WYSE, SIR THOMAS (1791-1862).—One of O'Connell's lieutenants in the Catholic Association, of which he wrote a history. He declined to support Repeal, but favoured what is now known as Federal Home Rule, served as a Lord of the Treasury in Melbourne's administration, and afterwards for many years as British minister at Athens. He was a man of superior character to the ordinary type of place-seekers, and his writings won him a temporary European reputation.