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Charles O’Conor of Belanagare and Thomas Leland’s ‘philosophical’ history of Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Walter D. Love
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Extract

‘But the Irish have no philosophical historian’ was the taunt of David Hume, and so of course enlightened Irishmen of the eighteenth century were determined to have one. A great European audience awaited any thoughtful, elegant and dignified history like Hume’s of England andRobertson’s of Scotland. An indispensable mark of the ‘philosophical historian’ was that he could rise above religious partisanship, as Hume, Voltaire, and Robertson seemed to do; but for eighteenth-century Irishmen this required an enormous effort of mind and feeling—Irish society was still drastically rent by its religious antagonisms. Protestants wrote histories that were alive with catholic rebellions and massacres; they justified the penal laws as necessary protection against an unforgivably and ineradicably rebellious people. Catholics wrote histories to protest against the penal laws; they laboured to show that the rebellions and massacres were really provoked by protestants and that most past troubles were caused either by the protestants themselves or by the unfortunate division of the country, by law, into two hostile bodies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 49 , March 1962 , pp. 1 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1962

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References

1 See Campbell, Thomas, Strictures on the ecclesiastical and literary history of Ireland (Dublin, 1789), p. 27 Google Scholar.

2 Trinity College record volume (Dublin, 1951), pp. 38 Google Scholar, 74. Leland was professor of oratory and history in 1761-2 and professor of oratory from 1762 to 1781, when he resigned his fellowship.

3 The correspondence of Edmund Burke (Cambridge and Chicago,1958- ), hereinafter cited as Burke.

4 19 May 1770 (Fitzwilliam MSS, Central Library, Sheffield, England). I wish to thank the Earl Fitzwilliam and the trustees of the Fitzwilliam Settled Estates for permission to use the Burke papers.

5 See three articles on Faulkner by Rev. Charles O’Conor Don, S.J., in Studies xxiv. 473-86 (1935); xxv. 292-304 (1936); xxviii. 485-500 (1939). I wish to thank Fr O’Conor and Miss Josephine O’Conor for permission to examine the O’Conor Don MSS at Clonalis, Castlereagh, co. Roscommon. Fr O’Conor also graciously allowed me to read his unpublished biography of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare. These sources, along with O’Conor correspondence scattered in the public repositories cited below, are the basis for my sketches of Charles O’Conor and his friends.

6 O’Conor to Faulkner, 13 June 1767, 15 Sept. 1767, 25 Sept. 1767 (B.M., Eg.) MS 201, ff. 47, 53, 55).

7 1 Sept. 1767 (B.M., Add. MS 21121, f. 1). This letter was alsoprinted in H.M.C. rep. 8, app. i, p. 491.

8 For O’Gorman, see Hayes, Richard, ‘ A forgotten Irish antiquary ’, in Studies, xxx. 587-96 (1941)Google Scholar. When Charles O’Conor wrote to Dr John Curry, 12 Feb. 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS), about his discussions, Burke had not been to Ireland since the late summer of 1766. See O’Brien, William, Edmund Burke as an Irishman (Dublin, 1924)Google Scholar, for Burke’s visits.

9 R.I.A., MS B.1.2.

10 See Leland to Burke, 22 Mar. 1770, in The works and correspondence of the Rt Hon. Burke, Edmund (London, 1852), i. 111-2Google Scholar, hereafter cited as Burke’s works.

11 Leland to O’Conor, 9 Dec. 1769 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2) announced the arrival of the volumes; Leland to Burke, 22 Mar. 1770, in Burke’s works, i. 111-2, thanked him for them; Vallancey to O’Conor, 1 Aug. 1772 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2.), announced that they had been passed to him. See Leland, , History of Ireland, i, pp. xxvi–xxviii Google Scholar, for Vallancey’s ‘discovery’. The facsimile Yellow Book of Lecan (Dublin, 1896), p. 170 Google Scholar, shows the notes written by O’Conor, and others by Burke and Vallancey; this must have been one of the volumes sent in 1769 (Trinity College, MS H.2.16).

12 D.N.B.

13 Abbot, T.K. and Gwynn, E.S., Catalogue of the Irish manuscripts in the library of Trinity College, Dublin (Dublin, 1921), p. xiv Google Scholar: ‘the importance of our Irish collection depends above all on the manuscripts presented to the library by Sir John Sebright ’. See Love, Walter D., ‘ Edmund Burke, Charles Vallancey, and the Sebright manuscripts ’, in Hermathena, xcv. 21–35 (1961)Google Scholar.

14 O’Conor to Faulkner, 28 Oct. 1766 (B.M. Eg. MS 201, f. 45): ‘ through Dr Leland’s friendship I can now have access to the college manuscripts, notwithstanding the strictness of the university statutes ’. In R.I.A., MS B.1.2, are two copies of a letter from Leland to O’Conor announcing that he is librarian and inviting O’Conor to study there. One copy is dated 26 Jan. 1769, but not in Leland’s hand, and it is clear from the text that it was written before Christmas 1768. There are frequent references to his working at the library in the next few years’ correspondence.

15 Warner, Ferdinando, The history of Ireland (London, 1763), p. xix Google Scholar; Lyttelton, Lord George, The history of the life of Henry II (Dublin, 1767-71), iii. 272Google Scholar.

10 H.M.C. rep. 8, app. i, p. 450. The Historical memoirs was published in 1758, 1765, and 1767, with London given as place of publication; but the 1758 edition was certainly published in Dublin. The ‘Fourth edition’ (Dublin, 1770)Google ScholarPubMed is the only revised one.

17 Wyse, Thomas, Historical sketch of the late catholic associationof Ireland (London, 1829)Google Scholar; O’Conor, Matthew, The history of the Irish catholics (Dublin, 1813)Google Scholar.

18 14 Jan. 1769, in H.M.C. rep. 8, app. i, p. 491.

19 The history of the rebellion and civil war in Ireland (London,1767)Google Scholar; published as vol. ii of The history of Ireland (2 vols, Dublin,1770)Google ScholarPubMed.

20 Curry to O’Conor, 24 Nov. 1770 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2); O’Conorto Curry, 27 Nov. 1770 (O’Conor Don MSS).

21 The letters that describe this episode in 1771 are O’Conor to Curry, 2 Aug., 13 Sept., 8 Oct., 12 Oct., 16 Oct., 22 Oct., 12 Nov., 4 Dec, and 21 Dec. (O’Conor Don MSS); O’Conor to Carpenter, 13 Dec. (O’Conor Don MSS); Curry to O’Conor, 16 Aug., 19 Oct., and 19 Nov. (R.I.A., MS B.1.2); Vallancey to O’Conor, 6 Nov. (R.I.A., MS B.1.2). The letter that caused all the trouble is missing. Morris may be the catholic printer of a few years later in Wall, Thomas, The sign of Doctor Hay’s Head (Dublin, 1958), p. 39 Google Scholar.

22 Curry to O’Conor, 23 Dec. 1771 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2).

23 O’Conor to Curry, 12 Feb. 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS).

24 O’Conor to Curry [quoting Dr Leland], 25 Mar. 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS).

25 Curry to Burke, 15 Dec. 1764 (Fitzwilliam MSS, Sheffield).

26 Curry to O’Gonor, 2 May 1772; Leland to O’Conor, 9 May 1772(R.I.A., MS B.1.2); Curry to O’Conor, 17 May 1772 (R.I.A., MSB.1.2); O’Conor to Curry, 26 May 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS).

27 Curry to O’Conor, 2, 17 May 1772 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2); O’Conor to Curry, 21 Aug. 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS). The letter to which the last was a reply is missing.

28 Curry to O’Conor, 20 Sept. 1772 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2).

29 Curry to O’Conor, 12 Oct. 1772 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2). The pages from Leland are 126-9, in volume iii. Leland’s dating of the massacre has been confirmed by later scholarship ( Bagwell, , Stuarts, i. 335 Google Scholar).

30 O’Conor to Curry, 21 Oct. 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS).

31 Leland, , History of Ireland, i. p.v Google Scholar.

32 O’Conor to Curry, 21 Aug. 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS), and 10 Jan.1773 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2).

33 Vallancey to O’Conor, 14 May 1772; Leland to O’Conor, 24 May 1772; O’Brien to O’Conor, 26 May 1772 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2). See Don, Charles O’Conor, S., J., ‘ Origins of the Royal Irish Academy ’, Studies, xxxviii. 325-36 (1949)Google Scholar. The minutes of the committee are in R.I.A., MS 24.E.7.

34 O’Conor to Curry, 25 Mar. 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS) announced that he had procured the MS For the committee’s decision, see ‘ Origins of the Royal Irish Academy ’, cited in note 33.

35 Vallancey to O’Conor, 23 Jan. 1773 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2); O’Conor to Carpenter, 9 Feb. 1773 (O’Conor Don MSS).

36 O’Conor to Denis O’Conor, 9, 16 Mar. 1773 (O’Conor Don MSS).

37 Edwards, R.Dudley, ‘ The minute book of the catholic committee 1773-92 ’, in Arch. Hib., ix (1942), 1–172 Google Scholar. The first recorded meeting is 1 Apr. 1773.

38 Relevant letters are: Vallancey to O’Conor, 25 Apr. 1772, 23 Jan.1773 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2); O’Conor to Vallancey, 7 June 1772 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2); O’Conor to Curry, 21 Dec. 1771, 7, 26 May, 21 Aug.,31 Oct., 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS); and O’Conor to Carpenter, no date, but between 20 Sept. and 31 Oct. 1772 from internal evidence (O’Conor Don MSS). The Remarks were reprinted in Vallancey, Collectanea derebus hibernicis (Dublin, 1770-1804), ii (no. 8), pp. 337-48Google Scholar.

39 See notes for Curry to Burke, 8 June 1765, in Burke, i. 201-3.

40 O’Conor to Curry, 8 Aug. 1768, in H.M.C. rep. 8, app. i, p. 489.Curry’s letters to Burke, 15 Dec. 1764, 24 Feb. 1765, and 8 June 1765(Fitzwilliam MSS, Sheffield) dealt with the proposed edition, but according to Curry to O’Conor, 14 Sept. 1765 (R.I.A., MS B.1.1), Burke began to be ‘ afraid to correspond ’ with them, having been’publickly mal-treated in the English newspapers for favouring us[catholics], & our affairs ’. He must have renewed his obligation when he saw Curry and O’Conor in 1766.

41 Curry to O’Conor, 2 May 1772 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2); O’Conor to Curry, 7, 26 May, 12 June, 21 Aug., 1772 (O’Conor Don MSS).

42 31 Aug. 1772 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2).

43 According to his grandson, O’Conor judged Campbell a ‘ better friend in society than as author’, in Rev. O’Conor, Charles, Memoirs of the life and writings of the late Charles O’Conor, Esq. (Dublin, 1796), p. 432 Google Scholar. Marks of friendly attitudes towards Campbell, , Ledwich, Edward, and Beauford, William, are in O’Conor to J.G. Walker, 24 Oct. 1787 (Dublin Corporation Libraries, Pearse St., Dublin, Gilbert MS 203, f. 22 Google Scholar); O’Conor to Denis O’Conor, 26 Nov. 1782 (O’Conor Don MSS); O’Conor to O’;Gorman, 16 July 1786 (B.M., Add. MS 21121, f. 66). MacCartney, Donald, ‘The writing of history in Ireland, 1800-50’, in I.H.S., x. 347-62 (1957)Google Scholar, shows how the controversy continued into the nineteenth century, with Ledwich at the centre.

44 Curry to O’Conor, 27 July, 17 Sept., 1774 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2.).

45 O’Conor to Curry, 6 Aug. 1773 (O’Conor Don MSS), which includes what Leland had written to O’Conor.

46 O’Conor to Curry, no date (O’Conor Don MSS).

47 Edmund Burke to Richard Burke Jr, 20 Mar. 1792, in Burke, ii. 89-90.

48 0’Conor to Curry, 6 Aug. 1773 (O’Conor Don MSS).

49 A postliminous preface to the Historical review of the state of Ireland (Dublin, 1804), pp. 13-4Google Scholar, note.

50 O’Conor to Curry, 6 Aug. 1773 (O’Conor Don MSS).

51 I am indebted to Rev. Charles O’Conor Don, S.J., for his explanation of the differences between O’Conor and Curry over the oath question, in his unpublished biography of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare.

52 O’Conor to Curry, 8 July, 2, 27 Aug., 1774 (O’Conor Don MSS);Curry to O’Conor, 27 July 1774 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2); O’Conor to Curry, no date (Gilbert MS 203, where this letter is not numbered with the rest of the folios, but is appended at the back of the volume).

53 O’Conor to Denis O’Conor, 11 Apr. 1775 (R.I.A., MS B.1.2).