What
they said when he died
T.W. Rolleston
said: "the finest qualities of the population that inhabit this
island seemed to be combined in him, developed to their highest power,
and coloured deeply with whatever it is in character and temperament
that makes the Irish one of the most separate of races"
Thomas
Francis Meagher said, in an oration at Conciliation Hall, Burgh Quay,
Dublin: "In the day of victory, to which he had so often looked
with a panting heart and a glowing soul, they will beckon us to the
grave, bid us pluck a laurel from the nation's brow, and place it on
his tomb."
Sir
Charles Gavan Duffy, described Thomas Osborne Davis as "the
most notable Irishman of the generation to which he belonged"
In the
report on his funeral the 'Nation' wrote: "Irish soil holds no
more precious dust than his. …………….Souls like
his never die, but make a part of the history and the heart of their
country forever."
Seventy
years after his death, Arthur Griffiths said "The prophet I followed
throughout my life, the man whose words and teachings I tried to translate
into practise in politics, the man whom I revered above all Irish patriots
was Thomas Davis."
How many
know the name 'Thomas Osborne Davis' - this man, on whose 'tomb we should
place a laurel from the nation's brow,' this man who was the 'most notable
of his generation' and whose dust 'is more precious' than any other
to Irish soil?
Changed?
It is
said of Thomas Davis that he 'changed', it has been wondered what caused
him to change character so much that he could rise from obscurity to
one for whom 'repealer and protestant came together,' at his funeral
and 'led their tears in mutual sympathy for their common bereavement,
that he was Irish and gifted was only remembered'.
Thomas
Davis did not change, he simply matured, developed, and began to do
what he had set out to do. We find this knowledge in words used by others
referring to Davis and in his own words - when we listen. He said "most
writers underrate the power of improving or forming faculties. When
I see a man who knows or foreknows his powers, and plans his own faculty
formation, I think of Napoleon, who when someone said it was impossible
to do a certain thing, replied, 'Do not let me hear that foolish word
again'. This is the creed of a man of action, rather than a speculator"
Davis was a man of action, a very intelligent individual, passionate,
sensitive, 'one who was what he seemed to be' and extremely disciplined,
he knew he could do anything he set out to do, a very rare individual
indeed. He spent his youth and early adulthood learning, he learned
about life in a way that very few do. Normally we as people learn about
life as we go along, parents always advise their children on the basis
of their own experiences and yet they know that their children won't
'really' listen, that they have to learn for themselves. Thomas Davis
it would seem 'listened' to all, experienced, and advised based on his
experiences, but more importantly he practised what he preached!
People
have told us that Thomas Osborne Davis was sensitive, that he was intelligent.
He has told us, that he trained himself and did not accept that a thing
could not be done by a man who was willing to do it, who had decided
to do it. He has told us that he trained or disciplined himself and
that he set out to rouse pride in a people who were in abject misery.
He said these things indirectly, through his various writings and speeches.
He set out to give the people back what they so needed, in order to
be able to achieve what they had to for themselves. He believed
He is
the man who said "If you suppose it possible to be great orators,
great statesmen, greatly known, without having expanded hearts and mighty
imaginations, without being great men, you sadly deceive yourselves"
Thomas Osborne Davis was a great man, a man who was sincerely loved
by all who knew him personally, and so many who only knew the words
he wrote in the Nation, we know all that because so many mourned his
passing, because so much was written about him on his death, because
his loss was felt by so many.
Even
Today
Many of
his words of one hundred and fifty years ago are as pertinent today
as they were then and as they were ninety years ago - his words on education,
reading, speech-making, writing - they are relevant the world over.
Those words on nationality and language which influenced people in the
1840's and early 1900's are relevant to Ireland now, read his piece
on National Monuments,
which could as easily be printed in any Irish newspaper of today. For
todays genealogists his words should even be of interest, here as an
example is his note on the Griffiths
Valuation which is of such importance to those who search their
Irish Ancestry, in this he gives us simple explanations of the Valuation
and the various terms used.
Early
Life, Character
There
is little material available on the early life of Thomas Osborne Davis
but even what is there, can give us some kind of an idea as to the man
who was to be.
Thomas
Osborne Davis, a Protestant, was born after his father's death in Mallow,
Co. Cork on October 14th, 1814. (Irish
superstitions would have us believe that a child born after the
death of a father is destined to have special powers!) There were three
boys in the family, John Atkins, the oldest son followed his fathers
profession, James Robert became a lawyer and Thomas Osborne was called
to the Bar but did not practise (or so we are told, Gavan Duffy met
himself and Blake Dillon in the Four Courts in 1842).
The family
moved to Dublin when he was four years of age and Thomas was educated
at Mr. Mongan's mixed seminary in Lower Mount Street, of which he stated
years afterwards during a debate with Daniel O'Connell "I learned
to know, and knowing, loved my countrymen"
A woman
relation has described him as being a quiet child, she said "He
could scarcely be taught his letters", and she often heard 'the
school-boy stuttering through 'My name is Norval', in a way that was
pitiable to see." We would gather from that remark that he was
not an intelligent person, definitely not university material. The same
woman also said "When he had grown up, if you asked him the day
of the month, the odds were he could not tell you. He never was any
good at handball or hurling, and knew no more than a fool how to take
care of the little money his father had left him." She saw him
"more than once, in tears listening to a common country fellow,
playing old airs on a fiddle, or sinning in a drawing room as if he
were dazed, when other young people about him were enjoying themselves."
Thomas
possibly tells us of his childhood in poetry:
'What
thoughts were mine in early youth! like some
old Irish song,
Brimful of love and life and truth, my spirit gushed
Along,
I hope to right my native isle, to win a soldier's fame,
I hoped to rest in woman's smile, and win a minstrel's
Name.'
Charles
Gavan Duffy interpreted him in a different way: "He lived a life
of day-dreams for the most part, the first and most subtle discipline
of a man of genius."
