The keynote of Father McManus’ character was a rugged honesty buttressed by a courage that brooked no opposition. His convictions were clear cut and what he thought, that he said, and that he fought for, even though his words occasionally gave some offense and his intensity provoked his opponents.
But it happened with him as it always happens with an honest man—it became apparent that he meant not to offend but to convince. With Father McManus the smile always beamed after a remark, before the frown had scarcely time to gather. He was never bitter though always earnest and sincere. With such a man there is always satisfaction in dealing, one knows where he stands and what to expect; the entanglements of deceit are absent. Father McManus was well-read and his scholarship won for him the degree of Doctor of Laws, from his Alma Mater. His administrative ability was great, as the numerous works and foundation of his parish attest.
He was a pious priest, but his piety was of the manly kind that rejects show or sentimentality. His faith was deep and earnest. He had a wholesome contempt for the modern juggling with fundamental tenets of Christianity.
He was an ardent American, and believed in accepting all the duties and burdens, as well as the privileges of citizenship.
PHILIP C. WALSH.
BY PHILIP C. WALSH, JR.
Philip C. Walsh, a member of the American Irish Historical Society since 1897, died at his residence, 22 Grant Street, Newark, N. J., May 19, 1909, in the seventy-fifth year of his life. He was born in the City of Kilkenny, in 1834, was educated at St. Keren’s in that city, and emigrated to America in 1854, being associated with his uncle, Mathew Nolan, a retired seaman of the United States navy, at New Brunswick, N. J., where he married Annie Walsh of Gowran, Ireland, in 1858, removing to Newark, N. J., in 1865; while there he was engaged in the cattle business until 1880, when he began the iron and steel business of Walsh & Sons, of which he was the head, until his death.
From his youthful associations in Ireland, he imbibed a characteristic Irish antipathy to the government which had wrought such a malign influence upon his native land, and in America he promptly became a member of the Irish organizations that were laboring for Ireland’s cause, offering his time and his services as occasion demanded, to the Hibernian, Clan-na-Gael, Irish Volunteers and the American Irish Historical Society, the success of which he was very proud, as well of the Society as an organization tending to the uplift of the Irish, as he was of the distinguished eminence so many of its individual members had achieved.
During his long life, Mr. Walsh steadily acquired every conceivable kind of book relating to Ireland, the Irish people, and their just cause, for which they had struggled so valiantly, gradually obtaining a very large library of Irish works, some of them exceedingly rare and venerable, and by constant reading, study, and discussion with those well qualified, became a veritable encyclopedia upon Ireland and Irish history, being known as one of New Jersey’s great Irishmen, a position which he proudly enjoyed as one of the best distinctions he had.
Although not in good health, for the last two years, Mr. Walsh was about during the pleasant weather, meeting old friends, discussing with them Irish affairs, showing as devoted an interest as ever, and at the mention of any proposition that would benefit Ireland his eye would brighten and he would eagerly discuss every phase, from a position of genuine interest actuated by a sincere, pure, high-minded desire, for the progress and advancement of his native land which he always claimed would equal any nation in the world if but given a fair opportunity, and whose people, upon their native soil, would exhibit the same intelligence, ability and capacity, that they have exhibited in every walk of life elsewhere throughout the world.