County of Cork.—Mr. O’Connell a Candidate. 12th July 1841

This has been buried in a mass of information about the election in 1841 for a couple of years whilst I worked out how to best deal with it. This specific post caught my eye whilst I was trying to deal with which Bartholomew Verling was which. What it really did spark was the whole series of posts on the 1841 election.

The important thing to know is the election was stretched over almost a fortnight. So when Daniel O’Connell wasn’t elected in Dublin City, he was still able to stand in Cork County. He was also on the ballot, and elected in Meath.

What is quite so surprising is how many of the family are in this one, all detailed at the end of the post.

COUNTY OF CORK.—MR. O’CONNELL A CANDIDATE;—THE NOMINATION.—CORK,

Monday Night, July 12th .—Mr. O’Connell, the victim of foul play and Orange chicanery in Dublin, is now the leading candidate for the representation in Parliament of the Yorkshire of Ireland,—of the county of Cork,—with its million of inhabitants. Authorized by the two gentlemen—Messrs. Roche and Barry, the former members—the committee in the direction of the Liberal electoral interests despatched on Saturday night a gentleman, Bartholomew Verling, Esq., of Cove, with full power to announce to Mr. O’Connell the retirement of one, or, if necessary, of both the gentlemen by whom the county had been represented, in order that the interests of the country might be promoted, and the successful machinations of the Tories in other places met and counterbalanced. Mr. Verling arrived at Carlow yesterday, where he met Mr. O’Connell, and at full work for the independence of that proverbially Tory-Orange county. The liberator of his country received the communication with delight. Mr. Verling posted to Cork, and arrived at seven this morning. The committee sat at eight. Mr. O’Connell’s letter was then read, and before nine o’clock the city was all commotion. Placards were posted in every direction. In the mean time, the Tory arrivals were incessant and numerous; and when, at twelve o’clock, the county court was thrown open, and-the usual frightful crush and crash of the populace took place, the appearance of things rightfully indicated how, as it is said here, “the cat hopped.’ Mr. G. Standish Barry presented himself. Greatly did he regret that circumstances had arisen that placed him in the position of retiring from the high and distinguished honour of being a.candidate for the fourth time, for the representation of the county. But the temporary defeat of Ireland’s liberator required that some one, should make the sacrifice ; and in his person that sacrifice was now made. He had pleasure in retiring for Mr. O’Connell (tremendous cheering), not simply of retiring, but he had the great gratification of proposing as the representative of the county of Cork in Parliament, Daniel O’Connell, Esq. (Awful cheering.) In an excellent speech, well delivered and well received, the nomination was seconded by Francis Bernard Beamish, Esq., our late representative for the city .of Cork. Nothing could exceed the wild enthusiasm of the people at having before them as a candidate Mr. O’Connell. The scene was at times terrific. Proposed by Daniel Clanchy, Esq. J.P. of Charleville, and seconded by Eugene M’Carthy, Esq., Of Ruthroe, Mr. Burke Roche was introduced to the constituency. The reception was enthusiastic. The Conservative candidates Messrs. Leader and Longfield, met with a sorry reception. The high sheriff (Mr. Barry) appealed in their behalf in vain. The Tories will persevere to the last. But such a defeat as awaits them

The above text was found on p.6, 17th July 1841 in “The Tablet: The International Catholic News Weekly.” Reproduced with kind permission of the Publisher. The Tablet can be found at http://www.thetablet.co.uk .

The text below is taken from the Spectator also on 17th July 1841. Both papers took a strongly anti-Tory stance

The Spectator 17 July 1841: CORK COUNTY has been a candidate for the honour of returning Mr. O’Connell. As soon as it was known that he was thrown out at Dublin, Mr. Standish Barry retired to make room for him. Mr. Burke Roche stood with him. The Tory candidates were Mr. Phillpotts Leader and Mr. Longfield.

In the letter accepting the invitation of the electors to stand, Mr. O’Connell says-

” We cannot disguise to ourselves the fact, that my defeat in Dublin will give an insolent confidence to our enemies—to the bigoted enemies of Ireland. They will gladly hail it as a proof of the declining strength of the popular power, a proof which would be annihilated by a victory in my name in such a county as Cork. It strikes me that we should thus counteract time Dublin loss. It is quite true that such loss was occasioned by means which betoken the depravity of our adversaries, and not any alteration in popular opinion or in popular determination. Still, it requires to be counteracted ; and such counteraction would be only the more powerful by my being unnecessarily returned for your county. But I do not think I could be personally present in Cork before Wednesday morning. Under these circumstances, I leave myself in sour hands. You command my services—you command my political action. If it is thought fit to elect me for Cork county, I will sit for that county, and none other, in this Parliament. The coming into operation of the Municipal Bill, however insufficient in other respects that bill may be, will enable me to regain Dublin.”

CORK CITY. The Liberals, Daniel Callaghan and Francis Murphy, triumphed here, over Colonel Chatterton and Mr. Morris. The Tories complain of intimidation and obstruction. On the 8th, an elector was killed. The Cork Constitution says-

” The organization was complete. Every ‘enemy ‘ was known and marked; and, as he quitted the booth, a chalk on his back commended him to ‘ justice.’ If the military were outside, execution was deferred ; but they ‘ dogged ‘ him till the danger was past, and then a shout or a wink pointed him for vengeance. The women were usually the first ; the courageous men came after, and the unfortunate fellow was beat, and cut, and trampled. Then is the triumph of diabolical enmity. A demoniac shout is raised, and even a woman dances in the blood! We write a literal fact : when Mr. Norwood’s skull was broken in the manner described on Thursday, one of the female followers of Murphy and Callaghan actually danced in the blood that lay red upon the ground.”

The family bits.

Just to recap, Bartholomew Verling of Cove has two grandsons also called Bartholomew Verling who are first cousins. The elder Bartholomew Verling (1786 – 1855) of Cove is John Roche of Aghada’s nephew twice over. His mother is John Roche’s sister, Ellen, and his father is Mary Roche’s (nee Verling) brother, John Verling. His brother is Dr James Roche Verling (1787 – 1858) was one of Napoléon’s doctors on St. Helena [making both of them 1st cousins 5x removed].

Roche and Barry” are Edmond Burke Roche, and Garrett Standish Barry. Barry was the first Catholic MP elected to represent Cork County after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, and was elected in 1832. Roche was elected in 1837.  

Garrett Standish Barry (1788-1864) is the 1st cousin 1x removed of 5x great aunt Mary Grehan, and his great-nephew Henry Standish Barry was at Downside with 2x great uncle Frank Purssell, and a guest at his wedding.

Edmond Burke Roche is slightly more complicated. He is the 1st cousin 1x removed of General Edmund Roche whose wife Anna Austin was Charles Cooper Penrose-Fitzgerald’s aunt. Charles C P-F’s wife was Henrietta Hewson which made her a 2nd cousin of 3x great aunt Mary O’Bryen. 

Edmond Burke Roche also has the distinction of being Prince Harry’s great, great, great grandfather. 

Dan Callaghan was the M.P for Cork City for nineteen years from 1830 until his death in 1849 aged 63. His sister Catherine was married to James Joseph Roche another 1st cousin 5x removed, and a 1st cousin of the Verling boys.

And finally, Dan the man himself is the father-in-law of a 1st cousin 1x removed of 5x great aunt Mary Grehan.

Daniel O’Connell to the Electors of the County of Cork 6th July 1841

This is part of a series of posts about the 1841 election rather specifically from an Irish perspective. At the time the letter was written Daniel O’Connell was standing for election as an M.P. in Dublin City. Things changed six days later. Roche and Barry” are Edmond Burke Roche, and Garrett Standish Barry. Barry was the first Catholic MP elected to represent Cork County after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, and was elected in 1832. Roche was elected in 1837.  Edmond Burke Roche also has the distinction of being Prince Harry’s great, great, great grandfather.

TO THE ELECTORS OF THE COUNTY OF CORK.

Dublin, 6th July, 1841.

” Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow ?”

Fellow-Countrymen,

We have arrived at the most important crisis in the affairs of Ireland. The liberty and the religion of the Irish people are at stake. The question is, whether the Orange miscreants, who have so long plundered our country, and persecuted our people, are to trample upon us again—to outrage our venerated clergy, and to inflict the virulent hostility of their blasphemous scurrility upon the most sacred rites of the Catholic religion.

I am convinced that not one liberal Protestant in the county of Cork will refuse to vote for Roche and Barry. I am convinced that not one Catholic will vote against Roche and Barry. In fact, the Catholic who does not vote for Roche and Barry is a traitor to his country, and a renegade to his religion. 

Remember, my friends, that the exterminators have openly avowed themselves. And, although, as in this city, they have felt it prudent to qualify the bitterness of their hostility to the Catholics, yet their designs of destruction are sufficiently manifest, even from the equivocal language which they now choose to employ, instead of an open declaration of vengeance.

There is no scheme too vile — no misrepresentation too atrocious — no cunning trick too dirty or too false — for the Orange Tories of your county to make use of, in order to delude or deceive the people to their own destruction.

Amongst other dirty tricks, the Orange faction in your county have asserted that the ministerial plan on the subject of the cornlaws would be injurious to the farmers. I wish you to understand this subject as well as I do. The ministerial plan which Mr. Roche supports, and which I support, is a fixed duty of eight shillings per quarter upon wheat ; and so in proportion upon other grain.

Now, attend to me, I beg of you, my fellow-countrymen. You know me I never deceived you nor any of you : and I tell you distinctly and emphatically, that of all the plans respecting the cornlaws, the ministerial plan of a fixed duty, which both Roche and Barry will support, is the very best for the farmer ! It is so for this reason ; that at present, rents are charged upon the farmers according to the highest prices that corn can bring ; and a speculation takes place respecting rents, in which, as you well know, the landlords have always the best of it.

The fixed duty gives, on the contrary, a fixed and steady rule of price for corn, and therefore a fixed criterion for rent ; thus giving to the farmer the surplus profits when the corn produces a price higher than in ordinary years..

I am bound to add, that after having investigated this subject with all the care and attention due to it from me, whose great object is the good of all the people—the good of the farmers when it varies from that of the aristocracy or landlords, I am thoroughly and conscientiously convinced that the best plan for all the farmers would be the total abolition of the corn-laws.

But that is not the question at present. The present question lies altogether between the plan of a sliding scale of corn duties and the plan of a fixed duty. This latter is the plan which Lord John Russell and his friends—including Messrs. Barry and Roche—will support.

Remember, my dear friends, that I, who, by counselling the people right, extorted emancipation, and put down Protestant ascendancy, in despite of the Orange aristocrats and landlords, who would now deceive and delude you on the subject of the corn-laws—remember, I say, that I, whom you have honoured with the name of the Liberator,—remember, that I tell you that the plan of a fixed duty, which both Roche and Barry support, is infinitely preferable for the farmers, than the sliding and slippery scale with which Leader and the Orange landlords endeavour to gull and deceive you.

As to Leader [Nicholas Leader, one of the Tory candidates.] himself, he is by birth and fortune a gentleman. If he remained quiet, nobody would refuse to admit him to be such. But in politics he is a shabby and despicable fellow. I knew him when he commenced his political career, and he came out not only a Liberal but really as a Radical ; and he is now endeavouring to represent the county of Cork at the head of all the Orange enemies of the people. Say to him, honest men of the county of Cork, “Shame upon thee, Leader! Shame, where is thy blush?”

Whoever votes for Leader, or for any man of his principles, votes for the extermination of Catholicity ; for the Orange Tories—for the haters of Ireland and the Irish—for the revilers of our clergy—for the blasphemers of our religion Those who refuse to vote for Barry and Roche are equally despicable traitors. They are to be loathed and shunned by every honest man.

Those who vote for Barry and Roche vote for the Queen and her ministers ;—for old Ireland and freedom;—for religion and liberty.

Recollect that the faction to which Leader has now attached himself is that which, by the most atrocious treachery, enacted the penal laws against the Catholics ; which set the same price—that is, £5.—upon the head of a wolf and the head of a priest ; which proscribed Catholic education ; which would still employ education for the purposes of trickery and exclusive proselytism.

Leader’s faction is the faction that has proclaimed in the city of Dublin the uprooting of Catholicity ; which seeks the restoration of Protestant ascendancy and Orange domination.

Leader’s faction call your priests ” surpliced ruffians “ and ” anointed vagabonds.”

Leader’s faction call the holy sacrifice of the mass ” mummery.” They call the Catholic religion an “abject superstition” and a “vile idolatry.”

Liberal Protestants of the county of Cork—and you especially, Catholic electors—shall there be found amongst you any man so thoroughly a traitor and a renegade as to give a single vote to Leader, or to the faction to which he belongs ?

Will any of you refuse to vote against the Orange faction, and in favour of my excellent and beloved friend, Edmund Roche, and of his esteemed colleague, Standish Barry ?

Let every man, then, who confides in me, who is ready to take my honest advice—let every liberal Protestant, and let every conscientious Catholic, vote for the religious liberty of Old Ireland.

That is let him record his vote for Roche and Barry.

I am, beloved countrymen, your faithful and devoted servant,

DANIEL O’CONNELL