September
1845
On the
9th of September 1845, Davis sent a note to Duffy
"Tuesday Morning
My dear D. - I have had an attack of some sort of cholera and perhaps
have slight scarlatina. I cannot see anyone, and am in bed. Don't be
alarmed about me; but don't rely on my being able to write.
Ever yours,
T.D."
It seems
he did recover somewhat but then had a relapse and on Tuesday morning
September 15th 1845, Gavan Duffy was called to Mrs. Davis's house to
see his dead friend and he says "Never before in along life has
a stroke so wholly unexpected fallen on me. There lay a man whom I loved
beyond any on the earth, a pallid corpse. His face still wore the character
of sweet silent strength which marked it when he lived…"
When John
Blake Dillon heard the news he wrote to Duffy "Your letter was
like a thrust from a dagger…."
A few days later he wrote" I feel so lonely and bereaved, the soul
has gone out of all my hopes for the future…."
Maddyn
wrote "I need not say how your letter stunned me….. I never
loved any man so much….The man Thomas Davis ought to be exhibited
in strong colours as consist with truth, not only to his countrymen
but to the citizens of the empire. The world must be told what his nature
was, how large and patriotic were his designs, and how truly were his
purposes. For he was one of those spirits who quicken others by communication
with them…"
Editorial
Tributes to Thomas Davis appeared on the pages of the Nation, an unsigned
one notes: "of his own people - of their annals, their statistics,
their topography, their literature -his knowledge was especially remarkable.
No man of his years - we believe, no man of his generation - had achieved
so full an insight into these things. He toiled to gain it with the
most strenuous industry and most unflinching resolution……His
spirit lent its fire to the spirits of other men……In such
a community as ours, miserably broken into sections by political and
religious feuds, it is difficult to draw together true men who exist
in every party and combine them for the good of all. Rare qualities
are needed in him who would attempt to harmonise the struggling elements
of such a community……Rare qualities must be his who, without
compromise of his own opinions, nay, whilst he asserts them with peculiar
strength and boldness - can fulfil a mission such as this, and whilst
he softens bitter asperities and conquers ancient prejudices, can command
th elove and confidence of his political foes. And such were the qualities
of Thomas Davis. Taking his stand in front of his party, and proclaiming
its doctrines fearlessly and defyingly, he went amongst the men whose
intellects and attainments adorn our metropolis, and won from those
of them, to whom his political sentiments were most distasteful, cordial
attachment and generous admiration…………..He was a
man of large sympathies. He had a forebearing and tolerant nature. The
transparent sincerity of his soul no one could question and the simplicity
of his heart made him trusted as soon as he was known."
Daniel
O'Connell wrote: "I solemnly declare that I never knew any man
who could be so useful to Ireland in the present stage of her struggles.
His loss is irreparable."
The memorial
Number of The Nation carried a description of the funeral:
"In the eyes of the many who thronged Baggot Street upon Thursday
morning last, the sun shone not as he is wont to shine; the summer air
seemed laiden with death. And as those who compose the circle of friends
of which he was the ornament and priced met and exchanged a few whispered
words, their looks told each other more powerfully than spoken language
could what a crushing blow had fallen amongst them, and struck down
the highest head of all their band……
The cortege
approached in magnitude some of the great triumphal processions that
the streets of Dublin have sometimes seen. At half past nine, the crowds
that thronged the pathway were parted and the coffin was borne to the
hearse: a plain black coffin bearing upon it's breastplate the inscription:
'Thomas Osborne Davis, Esq.; died September 16, 1845, aged 30 years'…..
No man
of this generation has received so high a tribute of respect and affection
as that paid by his countrymen to the worth and genius of Thomas Davis.
The Repealer and the Protestant commingled their tears in mutual sympathy
for their common bereavement. That he was Irish, and gifted, was only
remembered'
The article
continued to describe the scenes as the procession went through streets
where every window was shuttered and every sidewalk filled to overflowing
with silent, reverent sympathisers - through Merion Square, College
green, Sackville St., (O'Connell Street to be), Grafton Street, Harolds
Cross and into Mount St. Jerome Cemetery. Around the graveside were
gathered men whose name's are part of Ireland's history (and that of
other countries): Charles Gavan Duffy, John Mitchel, Dr. Drennan, Thomas
Devin Reilly, P.J. Smyth, Michael Doheny, Denis Florence McCarthy, Samuel
Ferguson, George Petrie, John O'Donovan, William Carleton, Whitley Stokes,
Daniel O'Connell, Lord Cloncurry, Sir William Wilde, John O'Hagan and
and many others. It has been said that 'no more distinguished company
has ever gathered around a graveside in Ireland'.
Written
in Young Ireland, book III: "Though it was the season when Dublin
was emptiest of the cultivated class, a public funeral was immediately
decided upon by a few leading men, and the assent of his family obtained…..In
all the years of my life I have not seen so many grown men weep bitter
tears as on that September day. The members of the Eighty Two Club,
the Corporation of Dublin and the Committee of the Repeal Association
took their place in the procession as a matter of course; but it would
have soothed the spirit of Davis to see mixed with the green uniforms
and the scarlet gowns, men of culture and intellect without disctinction
of party and outside of all political parties. The antiquaries and scholars
f the Royal Irish Academy, the Councils of the Archaeological and Celtic
Societies, the artists of the Royal Hibernian Academy, the committee
of the Dublin Library, sent deputations, and the names of the best known
in Irish lierature and art might be read the next day in the long list
of mourners……..The Whig and the Conservative Press did him
a generous justice. They recognised in him a man unbiased by personal
ambition and untainted by rancour of faction, who loved but never flattered
his countrymen; and who still in the very prime of manhood, was regarded
not only with affection and confidence, but with veneration by his associates.
The first proposal for a monument came from a Tory; and Whigs and Tories
rivalled his political friends in carrying the project to completion………The
bulk of the people throughout the island little knew the calamity that
had befallen them. A writer of the period compared them to children
who had lost a father, and were unconscious of all the danger and trouble
that such a fact implied."
One synopsis
has been written on Davis which is very memorable
T.W.Rolleston wrote:
"His songs were things which he paused to do - often hastily, and
by the way - as he was pressing forward to his aim. Yet his poetry,
written as it was straight from the heart and on the themes that vitally
interested and moved him, was not only an auxiliary to his work as a
political guide and teacher, but has high and enduring attractions of
hits own, and has added peculiar fragrance to a memory worth on so many
grounds of being cherished by his countrymen. And though Thomas Davis
was extraordinarily fertile in ideas, and indefatigable in methodic
industry, the best thing that he gave to the Irish people was not an
idea or an achievement of any sort, but simply the gift of himself.
He was the ideal Irishman. North and south, east and west, 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. The nation saw itself transfigured in him, and saw
the dreams nourished by it's long memories and ancestral pride coming
true. Hence, the intense personal devotion felt towards Davis by the
ardent and thoughtful young men who were associated with him, and the
sense of irreparable loss caused by his early death. He stood for Ireland
- for all Ireland - as no other man did, and it was hardly possible
to distinguish the cause from his personality. Yet perhaps the best
evidence of the potency and nobility of his influence was the fact that
the sense of loss was overcome by the recollections of the ideals he
had held up, and that his memory was honoured by the undaunted pursuance
of his work, and the maintenance of the pure and lofty with which he
wrought"
