01 May-James Clarence Mangan

James Clarence Mangan was a poet who was a native of Dublin. He is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. He is best known for poems such as ‘My Dark Rosaleen’ and ‘Woman of Three Cows’. His gravestone in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin proclaims him to be ‘Ireland’s National Poet’.

James Clarence Mangan was born in Fishamble Street Dublin in 1803. He was educated locally and studied at least three foreign languages including, German, French and Spanish. During his lifetime he worked in various jobs including as a clerk in a law office, with Ordnance Survey of Ireland and in the Library of Trinity College Dublin. His first publications, which were translations from German appeared in 1830. Most of his later works were published in the ‘Nation’ newspaper. He died of cholera in Mercer’s Hospital Dublin in 1849.

James Clarence Mangan author of poems such as ‘Dark Rosaleen’ and ‘Woman of Three Cows’, was born in Dublin in the year 1803 On This Day.

JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN [BUST LOCATED IN SAINT STEPHEN’S GREEN]-

Image taken from page 9 of ‘James Clarence Mangan; his selected poems, with a study by the editor L. I. Guiney’

 

 

 

 

 

29 November-Christian Doppler

Christian Doppler was a mathematician and physicist who was a native of Austria. He is best known for his development of the principle known as the ‘Doppler Effect’. The Doppler Effect is the change in the frequency of light and soundwaves for an observer who is moving relative to the wave source.

Christian Doppler was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1803. He was educated locally and then attended what is now the Vienna University of Technology where he studied mathematics and physics. On May 25th 1842, while working as a professor at the Prague Polytechnic, Doppler presented a paper to the Royal Bohemian Society. In the paper he articulated what became known as the ‘Doppler Effect’

Christian Doppler, mathematician and physicist, who described the influential phenomenon known as the ‘Doppler Effect’ was born in the year 1803 On This Day.

Doppler Effect

Deutsches Museum

Christian Doppler’s tomb, Venice

 

 

13 September-Commodore John Barry, American Navy

Commodore John Barry, often referred to as the ‘Father of the American Navy’ was a native of Co Wexford, Ireland. In 1797 he was appointed the first Commodore of the US Navy by President George Washington. Barry played a leading role in the American Revolution and was the first to capture a British war vessel on the high seas. He went on to lead the American naval forces to success in the final naval battle of the Revolution in 1783.

John Barry was born in Tacumshane, Co Wexford on March 25th 1745. His father was a tenant farmer who was evicted from his farm when Barry was ten years old. The family moved to Rosslare where Barry’s uncle Nicholas was the captain of a fishing vessel. John Barry began to accompany his uncle on fishing trips off the Wexford coast. He rose through the ranks and ultimately achieved a Mate’s ranking.

In 1760 at the age of 16 John Barry moved to Philadelphia where he continued his seafaring career. In 1766 he was given command of a merchant ship, a schooner with a crew of five seaman, on which he made several voyages a year to the West Indies. He later went on to command larger ships including the 200 ton Black prince which he sailed to England in 1776. By the time he returned to Philadelphia, Britain and the American colonies were at war. He received his captain’s commission in charge of the warship ‘Lexington’, from John Hancock the President of the Continental Congress on March 14th 1776.

In his first sea battle Captain John Barry captured a British warship. He went on to fight several successful naval engagements during the American Revolution. His campaign culminated in victory in the final naval battle of the Revolution which took place off the coast of Cape Canaveral on March 10th 1783. During the war he was offered a bribe of 15,000 guineas in gold and a commission in the Royal Navy by the British in return for handing over his ship to the British.

After the war Barry became involved in the maritime trade, sailing regularly to the Orient between 1787 and 1789. In Philadelphia he was involved in organisations such as the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the Charitable Captains of Ships Club. In 1794 he was selected senior captain of the Navy and was awarded Commission Number One in the Navy by President George Washington on February 22nd 1797. He would serve as head of the Navy until his death in 1803.

Statues of John Barry can be seen in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, near the White House in Washington DC and on Crescent Quay in Wexford town. President John F Kennedy laid a wreath at the statue of Commodore Barry during his visit to Wexford in June 1963.

Commodore John Barry died at Strawberry Hill, Philadelphia in the year 1803 On This Day.

Image from page 5 of “Commodore John Barry, the father of the American navy;” (1911) by Internet Archive Book Images on 1911-01-01 00:00:00

by timomcd on 2012-06-10 14:31:24

Commodore Berry Bridge Between Chester, Pennsylvania and Bridgeport, New Jersey by Ken Lund on 2008-08-01 13:40:54

 

24 August-Napper Tandy

On Main Street Stradbally County Laois there is a Pub called ‘Napper Tandy’. It is one of several public houses in Ireland and abroad named after the Irish revolutionary James Napper Tandy. He is memorialized in the Irish ballad ‘The Wearing of the Green’:

I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand,

And he said “How’s poor old Ireland, and how does she stand?

James Napper Tandy was born in Dublin in 1740. He attended school in Ballitore County Kildare and became an ironmonger by trade. He was involved in several popular movements and led opposition to the building of the present Custom House in Dublin. He was elected as a member of Dublin Corporation and helped found a branch of the Society of the United Irishmen in Dublin in 1791.

As a result of his activities Napper Tandy was forced to leave Ireland. He lived for a time in Wilmington Delaware and moved to Paris in 1798. He was appointed Brigadier General by the French. He set sail for Ireland on board the Anacreon with soldiers and ammunition to take part in the rising of 1798. He landed on Rutland Island off Donegal on September 16th 1798, where he issued proclamations urging uprising and hoisted an Irish Flag.

When he heard of the defeat of Humbert at Ballinamuck, Tandy decided to abandon the venture. On the return voyage to France he was captured at Hamburg and brought back to Ireland. Following his trial at Lifford in County Donegal he was sentenced to death but was surrendered to the French on the demand of Napoleon Bonaparte. He lived in France until his death in 1803.

Napper Tandy died in Bordeaux, France in the year 1803 On This Day.

Napper Tandy by magerleagues on 2007-11-18 10:57:58

Flag outside Napper Tandy by magerleagues on 2007-10-14 04:01:15

29 April-Cardinal Paul Cullen

Paul Cullen, who was a student at Carlow College Ireland from 1816 to 1820, was Ireland’s first Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of Co Kildare he had a major influence on the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland during the nineteenth century. He lived in Rome for thirty years. Cardinal Cullen is said to have drafted dogma on papal infallibility during the first Vatican Council

Paul Cullen was born at Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare in 1803. He grew up on his parents’ 700 acre farm and attended the Shackleton Quaker School in Ballitore close to his home. At the age of 17, having completed his studies at Carlow College, he moved to Rome to study at the Pontifical Urban College. He was an excellent student, graduated with a Doctor of Divinity in 1828 and was ordained in 1829.

Bishop James Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin (JKL) wanted him to return to Ireland. However Cullen was appointed to teach Sacred Scripture and Hebrew at the Pontifical Urban College in Rome. Three years later in 1832 he was appointed Rector of the Irish College in Rome. In 1850 Cullen returned to Ireland having been appointed Archbishop of Armagh. He remained in Armagh until he was appointed to the Dublin Diocese just over two years later.

There was division among the Catholic bishops of Ireland over the National School system but Cullen was a supporter of the system and used his influence to implement reforms for the education of Catholic children. He was however opposed to the Queens Colleges which had been established at Belfast, Galway and Cork. He set about establishing a Catholic University the corner stone for which was laid in Dublin in 1862.

Cullen convened the Synod of Thurles for the purpose of unifying the Hierarchy in Ireland and bringing the church into line with Rome. The ‘Romanisation’ of the church, as it was called, included rules relating all aspects of church life, from the administration of the sacraments to the maintenance of church archives. He also began the practice of priests being called ‘Father’ instead of ‘Mister’ and the wearing of Roman Collars by priests. Cullen was responsible for the introduction of denominational training for teachers. In 1854 he founded Holy Cross College at Clonliffe, the Dublin diocesan seminary.

Cullen raised large sums of money to support the temporal power of the Pope and helped raise the Irish Brigade to defend the Papal States against Garibaldi. This was the Brigade that Myles Keogh from Carlow joined. Cullen was appointed a Cardinal of the church in 1866. He was opposed to secret societies such as the Young Irelanders and the Fenians. He believed in constitutional means and saw the secret societies as enemies of Ireland. He strongly defended the rights of tenants and was an advocate for the relief of the poor. With the Lord Mayor of Dublin he established the Mansion House Relief Committee in 1862. Cardinal Cullen died in Dublin at the age of 75 on October 24th 1878.

Paul Cullen, the first Irish born Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, was born in the year 1803 On This Day.

HOLY CROSS COLLEGE – ALSO KNOWN AS CLONLIFFE COLLEGE Ref-204 by infomatique on 2014-09-02 14:35:59