12 November-Auguste Rodin

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Auguste Rodin was a French Sculptor who became world famous in his lifetime. Oscar Wilde held Rodin’s work in great esteem. A bust which he cast of his friend George Bernard Shaw can be seen in the Musée Rodin in Paris. After the World Fair in Paris in 1900 his work was in great demand by wealthy clients. His sculptures include such famous pieces as The Age of Bronze, The Kiss and The Thinker.

François-Auguste-René Rodin was born Paris in November 1840. He entered a drawing school at the age of 13 but four years later failed to gain entry to École des Beaux-Arts. He worked for a time in the decorative arts. By the mid 1860’s he had completed his first major work, ‘Mask of the Man With the Broken Nose’. During the following years Rodin became a world-renowned artist. He died in Meudon at the age of 77 on November 17^th 1917.

Auguste Rodin, French Sculptor who became world famous in his lifetime, was born in the year 1840 On This Day.

Photo by Arturo Espinosa

Auguste Rodin for PIFAL. by Arturo Espinosa on 2012-07-03 22:42:36

Photo by Japanexperterna.se

The Thinker by Japanexperterna.se on 2015-02-11 14:10:23

25 March-Captain Myles Keogh

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In Saint Joseph’s Church, Tinryland, Co Carlow, Ireland there is a stained glass window which commemorates Captain Myles Keogh of the US 7th Cavalry and other deceased members of the Keogh family. Myles Keogh served in the Papal Army before joining the Union Army in America. He died at the Battle of the Little Big Horn at the age of 36 in 1876.

Myles Walter Keogh was born in Orchard House near the village of Leighlinbridge County Carlow in 1840. His father John was a farmer. His uncle was one of those executed in Carlow town following the Rising of 1798. Myles was educated locally and in Carlow town.

In 1860 Catholic clergy in Ireland called for volunteers to join the Papal Army to stop the Papal States being absorbed into a united Italy by Garibaldi. Keogh then aged 20 volunteered, along with over a thousand of his countrymen. The Papal forces were defeated in September 1860 and Keogh was imprisoned at Genoa. Following his release Keogh went to Rome where he joined the Company of St. Patrick in the Vatican.

In 1862 Keogh was recruited with other experienced officers by John Hughes, Archbishop of New York to join the Union Army during the American Civil War. Captain Myles Keogh served with great distinction throughout the American Civil War in places such as the Shenandoah Valley and Gettysburg. He received many commendations for his bravery and by the end of the war he had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

After the war, Keogh obtained a commission as a Captain in the U.S. 7th Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer. He was given command of I Company during the Indian Wars. He was involved in several campaigns but matters came to a tragic end when Keogh was killed in action in what has become known as Custer’s last stand. Custer’s Battalion of 268 was wiped out by the Native American Indian Army lead by Chief Sitting Bull at the battle of the Little Bighorn near the modern day town of Billings Montana in June 1876.

Keogh’s horse, Commanche, survived the Battle. He lived a long and apparently enjoyable life often leading military parades. When he died on November 7th 1891 he was believed to be 29 years old. He was just one of only two horses in US history to be given a funeral with full military honours. Commanche was preserved and the taxidermy horse can be seen in the Natural History Museum of the University of Kansas.

Myles Keogh was born in the year 1840 On This Day.

Myles Keogh photo

Image from page 354 of “The blue and the gray, or, The Civil War as seen by a boy : a story of patriotism and adventure in our war for the Union” (1898) by Internet Archive Book Images

13 August-Bishop James Doyle (JKL), Carlow

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In the Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow, Ireland there is a monument to Bishop James Doyle (JKL, James Kildare and Leighlin). Dr Doyle served as bishop of Kildare and Leighlin from 1819 to 1834. He was a leading campaigner on issues such as Emancipation, Education Reform, the payment of Tithes and Poor-Relief. He was responsible for the building of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow.

James Warren Doyle was born close to the town of New Ross in County Wexford in 1786. He was educated locally and later at the Augustinian College in New Ross. In 1806 he moved to Portugal to study at the University of Coimbra. However his studies were interrupted by the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. Doyle joined the British army, served as a sentry at Coimbra and later accompanied the Duke of Wellington to Lisbon as an interpreter.

James Doyle returned to Ireland and was ordained at Enniscorthy on October 1st 1809. Four years later he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric at Carlow College and in 1814 he was appointed Professor of Theology. Following the death of Dr Michael Corcoran, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Dr Doyle, in 1819 at the age of 32, was chosen as his successor.

During his time as bishop Dr Doyle became known in Ireland and Britain for his efforts to promote equality for people of the Catholic faith. He supported Daniel O’Connell and the Catholic Association. Catholic Emancipation was passed by the Government led by the Duke of Wellington in 1928. He played an active role in the suppression of the hedge schools and helped establish the National School system in 1831. The school system was established ahead of what was then available in Britain. On three occasions, 1825, 1830 and 1832 he was invited to London to address parliamentary enquiries about Ireland.

Bishop Doyle laid the foundation stone for Carlow Cathedral in June 1828. The cathedral was completed and dedicated on December 1st 1833. He died on June 15th 1834 and was buried in the new cathedral.

The monument to Bishop Doyle by John Hogan was exhibited in Rome in 1839 and in Queen’s College Cork (UCC) in 1840. It shows Dr Doyle standing beside a kneeling allegorical figure of Ireland with her arm resting on a harp. One person at the time wrote: ‘Gold is made an ornamental use of on the drapery of Erin; and the Bishop’s cross, with its chain, are represented also as actually of gold. For this, Hogan has the undoubted classical authority of Greek Sculpture, in its best period’.

The report on the monument to Bishop James Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin, appeared in the Cork Constitution in the year 1840 On This Day.

Photo by brookscl

Carlow Cathedral by brookscl on 2015-10-04 12:17:55

29 February-John Phillip Holland

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John Phillip Holland, who is known as the father of the modern submarine, was a native of Co Clare Ireland. Holland’s submarine design was initially accepted by the US Navy and later by other navies around the world.

John Phillip Holland was born in Liscannor, County Clare in 1840. His father was a coastal patrolman with the British Coastguard Service. Holland grew up speaking Irish and only learned English at his local national school in Liscannor. Having completed primary education he attended the Christian Brothers School (CBS) in Ennistymon until his family moved to Limerick city where he attended Limerick CBS. He later joined the Christian Brothers. He was a teacher of mathematics in schools in Armagh, Portlaoise, Enniscorthy Drogheda, Cork and Dundalk until 1872.

Holland left the Christian Brothers and emigrated to the United States in 1873. He settled in Patterson, New Jersey where he became a teacher at St John’s School which was run by the CBS. In 1879 Holland, with financial support from the Fenian Society in America, built a small submarine. The submarine, which was called the Fenian Ram, had limited success at first. The Fenians had hoped to use the submarine against the British navy but the plans never materialised. The Fenian Ram is now in the museum in Patterson New Jersey.

Holland continued to develop his design and his submarine had a successful test off Staten Island in New York harbour on St Patrick’s day 1898. The submarine was purchased by the US navy and was named USS Holland. Six more submarines of a similar type were built for the US Navy. Holland later designed the first submarines for the British, Dutch and Japanese navies. He died at the age of 74 on August 12^th 1914 in Newark, New Jersey, USA.

John Phillip Holland, who built the first submarine was born in Liscannor Co Clare, Ireland, in the year 1840 On This Day.