Lord Talbot de Malahide, and other peers took part, and half a dozen baronets, including Sir Harcourt Lees, their representative Orange and No Popery orator in Ireland. The Federalists, under Sharman Crawford and Thomas Hutton, made a slight move, enough to show they were alive. These were the tirailleurs manoeuvring and skirmishing in front of the silent multitude of Nationalists.
I re-established the weekly suppers which had been a rare enjoyment to the Young Irelanders. Some new recruits joined, among them Dr. William Sullivan, director of the Museum of Irish Industry; Dr. Lyons, afterwards member for Dublin, and a physician in good practice; and George Waters, now a County Court judge, all of them experts on practical subjects. John O'Hagan, by this time a successful barrister, only joined us occasionally.
In later articles I specified some of the work that might and ought to be done. We might make a new plantation in Ireland, not for strangers this time, but for the natives, under the Encumbered Estates Act. We might unite with the Ulster tenantry in obtaining a reform of the Land Code, which they desired as much as we did. We might encourage industrial experiments, primarily work done under the domestic roof, not needing coal or expensive machinery. There were one hundred thousand children who might be trained in reproductive employment, an experiment which was being tried at the moment in Belgium, in the Atelier d'apprentissage. We might encourage the people to create local Tenant Societies for their own protection and the prompt exposure of oppressive landlords. We might feed the national spirit with national books. The counsel of the Nation did not fall upon heedless ears. Two priests of the County Kilkenny, who became popularly known from the name of their parish as the Callan Curates, set the example of establishing a local Tenant Society, to awaken public opinion in the interest of the farmers. Their example was followed in various places, and a Tenant Right Movement was begun which had large practical results. The founders of the parent societies were, to use the popular parlance, expressive of affection and confidence, Father Tom O'Shea and Father Mat Keefe. The other projects were undertaken and carried out to the limit
