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and was subsequently recommended to Philip V, of Spain, by whom he was put in command of a regiment of Irish dra- goons. He was subsequently appointed a Lieutenant-General and created Count of Castile, He died at Ocana in January 1 7 14. A contemporary French writer, quoted by O'Callaghan, says : " He has always been not only brave, but indefati- gable, and very pains-taking ; his life is, as it were, a continued chain of dangerous combats, of bold attacks, of honourable re- treats." His descendants rose to high rank in Spain. '^
O'Mahony, John, organizer of the Fenian movement, was born at Kilbe- heny, County of Cork , in 1 8 1 6. His father and uncle had been implicated in the in- surrection of 1 798. On the death of an elder brother, he came into the enjoyment of property worth £300 per annum. He entered at Trinity College, Dublin, but never proceeded to his degree. He studied Hebrew and Sanscrit, became an accom- plished Gaelic scholar, and was in after life able to teach Greek and Latin, and to contribute articles to French news- papers. In 1843 ^6 became interested in the Eepeal movement. He attached himself to the Young Ireland party, and was one of those who took the field with Smith O'Brien in 1848. After the failure at Ballingarry, he escaped to France, and lived in Paris for several years. In 1854 he joined Mitchel in New York, and took part in the Emigrant Aid Association, the Emmet Monument Association, and other Irish organizations. In 1857 he publish- ed the History of Ireland, hy Geoffrey Keating, D.D., translated from the original Gaelic, and copiously annotated. (New York, 1857). Dr. Todd, in his preface to the Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaell, says : " His translation of Keating is a great improvement upon the ignorant and dishonest ae published by Mr. Dermod O'Connor more than a century ago, . . but has been taken from a very imperfect text, and has evidently been executed, as he himself confesses, in great haste." [See Keating, Geoffrey.] O'Mahony's notes are copied from O'Donovan's Four Masters, It was on this ground that Hodges & Smith procured an injunction against the sale of the book in the United Kingdom. This work brought Mr. O'Mahony no pecuniary profit, and, partly owing to the mental strain thrown upon him in its composition, he had soon afterwards to be placed for a short period in an asylum. The extent to which the early portion of Keat- ing's History is occupied with the exploits of the ancient Fenians, probably led to 402
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the adoption of this name for a secret society inaugurated by O'Mahony about the year i860, to promote the object ever nearest his heart — the independence of Ireland. The Fenian Brotherhood, or Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.) was reorganized at conventions held in Chicago in 1864, and at Cincinnati the following January. At this time O'Mahony held the rank of Colonel of the 69th Regiment of New York State Militia, recruited mainly from the ranks of the Brotherhood, which had also furnished a large proportion of Meagher's Irish Brigade, the Corcoran Legion, and Irish regiments engaged in the civil war. But the rapid growth of the organization demanded the unceas- ing attention of its chief officer ; and, at the urgent request of the Central Council, O'Mahony resigned the colonelcy of his regiment, and devoted himself en- tirely to Fenianism, and though various differences arose from time to time with James Stephens and the Central Council relative to the policy to be pursued for the attainment of their object, he continued President for some years. The designs of the Brotherhood seemed to be favoured by the conclusion of the American civil war in the spring of 1865, which liberated a large number of Irish- Americans anxious to see service elsewhere. It would be impossible to particularize the events that followed, and the immense influence this society came •to exercise in Ireland. Perhaps £80,000 was contributed to its exchequer in the United States and Canada between i860 and 1 867. Although O'Mahony for many years assisted in its councils, he appears not to have taken part, personally, either in the raids upon Canada, or the abor- tive insui-rection in Ireland, which Lord Kimberley stated in Parliament to have been the most formidable effort, since 1 798. to sever the connexion between England and Ireland. The latter part of John O'Mahony's life was passed in literary pursuits, under the shadow of declining health and poverty, in New York. The man who had handled thousands of public money was utterly regardless of it for himself. A New York paper, de- scribing him, says : " John O'Mahony was a strange being. He was tall and well formed, and had shaggy, dark brown hair and handsomely chiselled features, but a haggard and care-worn expres- sion. . . He had friends who were willing to sacrifice anything for him : yet he was often sadly in need of a dollar, and when his poverty was discovered he de- clined to receive assistance in any shape or form. One way or another he always
