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."
