troops. In 1647 he returned to Ireland, and was, by the Supreme Council of the Confederates appointed Lieutenant-General of Munster, under Lord Taaffe. He was killed in an engagement with Lord Inchiquin, at Knocknanuss, between Mallow and Kanturk, 13th November 1647, and was buried in the tomb of the Callaghans, in Clonmeen churchyard, Kanturk. He is described as of gigantic stature and powerful frame. Milton, in one of his sonnets, writes of "Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp." The appellation of "Colkitto," Coll Ciotog, or "Left-handed Coll," often applied to this chieftain, properly belongs to his father. See Hill's MacDonnells, p. 83. 224 233
MacDonnell, Sir Alexander, Bart., was born in Belfast in 1794, being the seventh in descent from the preceding. He was educated at Westminster and Oxford, where he displayed the most brilliant abilities (gaining four prizes but once before carried off by one and the same person), and was called to the English Bar at the age of thirty. Of an exceedingly sensitive temperament, he broke down in pleading a case before a committee of the House of Lords, and, mortified beyond expression, renounced the Bar, returned to Ireland, and accepted the position of Chief Clerk in the Chief Secretary's office, under Mr. Drummond. In 1839 he was appointed Resident Commissioner of the Board of Education, of which he became the presiding and animating genius. A zealous Protestant, he uniformly sustained the principle that the faith of the children of his poorer fellow-countrymen should be protected in the spirit as well as in the letter. He was made a Privy-Councillor in 1846. He resigned the commissionership in 1871, at the age of 77, and was created a baronet early the following year. The Spectator thus speaks of him: "On attaining his leisure he turned anew with the avidity of one-and-twenty to history and the classics. . . Those who have enjoyed his conversation must despair of expressing its charm. Frank, enthusiastic with the enthusiasm of a boy, full of recollections of the men he had known, and of the statesmanship of fifty years, yet happiest and most winning in the region of pure literature, and above all, of poetry. He loved Ireland dearly, but all his hopes for her had as their rooted basis the desire to see her won over to England by persistent fairness of treatment. . . Individually, he was characterized by a noble diffidence of nature and an utter superiority to the vulgar passions. Thus he had the happiness during his long life of eluding notoriety. . . He was in his daily life and amongst his friends an example of how high a creature the Celt may become under the fairest influences of culture. For he was a Celt of the Celts, if an ancestry of a thousand years could make him so." He died 21st January 1875, aged 80, and was interred at Kilsharvan, near Drogheda. Arrangements are being made by his numerous friends and admirers to erect a statue to his memory in Dublin. 54 233
MacDonnell, Francis, Major, a distinguished Irish officer in the Austrian service, was born in Connaught in 1656. At the surprise of Cremona (1st February 1702) he particularly signalized himself. On that occasion he took Marshal Villeroy prisoner, and refused brilliant offers of rank and money to connive at his escape. On the other hand, he did not scruple to endeavour by bribes to bring over the Irish regiments serving with the enemy. He fell at the battle of Luzzara, the following August (1702). 34 88
MacDowell, Patrick, R.A., was born in Belfast, 12th August 1799. His father dying early, the family moved to London, and although Patrick showed a decided taste for art, and desired to follow it, he was apprenticed to a coachmaker. When he had served about four years, his master became bankrupt, and the lad, sixteen years of age, was thrown on his own resources. Accident brought him to lodge in the house of a French sculptor, M. Chenu. He indulged once more in his old tastes, copied from his landlord's models, and soon delighted him with a "Venus" for which he obtained eight guineas. He was now fairly started in the career of an art student; his progress was rapid; he soon received several commissions; and through the kindness of Mr. Beaumont, M.P., he was enabled to spend eight months in Rome. The work that first brought him prominently before the public, was his beautiful statue of "The Girl Reading." After its exhibition he was elected an associate (1841), and in 1846 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy. He soon attained the highest eminence in his art. Among his works may be mentioned the group of "Virginius and his daughter," a statue of Lord Exmouth in Greenwich Hospital, his "Eve," and "Psyche," according to some critics, his masterpiece. The statues of the Earl of Belfast in Belfast, and of Viscount FitzGibbon in Limerick, are from his studio. His last great work was the group typical of Europe in the Albert Memorial, Hyde Park. Mr. MacDowell died in London, 9th December 1870, aged
