71. A sketch of his life will be found in the University Magazine. Most of his works are widely known through engravings in the pages of the Art Journal. 14 116(38)
MacFirbis, Duald, the last of a long line of historians and chroniclers of the name, was born in Lecan, County of Sligo, in the latter part of the 16th century. He was sent at an early age into Munster to the school of law and history then kept by the MacEgans, and studied also at Barren in Clare, about 1595, under Donnell O'Davoren. In 1650, in the College of St. Nicholas in Galway, he completed a volume of pedigrees. The autograph copy of this great compilation (known as the Book of MacFirbis) is in the Earl of Roden's library, and a transcript by Professor O'Curry is in the Royal Irish Academy. After the loss of his family property in the War of 1641-'52, he entered Sir James Ware's service, and gave him invaluable assistance in his works on Ireland. We find the following note in one of Sir James Ware's Irish MSS.: " This translation beginned was by Dudley Firbisse in the house of Sir James Ware, in Castle-street, Dublin, 6th of November 1666." He compiled a glossary of the Brehon laws, a fragment of which is in the Library of Trinity College, and a biographical dictionary of Irish writers, of which no traces have been found. Altogether there are five copies of ancient glossaries in his handwriting in Trinity College. This eminent scribe died in 1670, at an advanced age, from wounds received in protecting a young woman from insult, in a small inn at Dunflin, County of Sligo. 195 260
McGee, Thomas D'Arcy, statesman, was born at Carlingford, 13th April 1825. His mother was the daughter of a Dublin bookseller (Mr. Morgan) who participated in the Insurrection of 1798; and all the men both of his father's and his mother's families were United Irishmen, except his father, who was in the coast guard service. When eight years of age his parents removed to Wexford, and there he lost his mother. She had specially stimulated his young mind to a love of Ireland — her poetry, her traditions, her history. At seventeen he had read all that had come within his reach, and seeing little prospect of advancement at home, he emigrated to America. At that period the Irish population in the States were eager in the Repeal movement; and on the 4th July 1842, he made his debut as an orator at a gathering of his countrymen. He obtained an engagement on the Boston Pilot, and two years later became chief editor of that paperc— a position of great responsibility for a youth of nineteen. The fame of his speeches at Repeal meetings crossed the Atlantic, and O'Connell referred to them as "the inspired utterances of a young exiled Irish boy in America." He now accepted an invitation to return to Ireland and assume the editorship of the Freeman; but the Freeman proved too moderate in its tone — too cautious, as it were — and finding that he was not at liberty to change its character and its course, he accepted the offer of his friend, Charles Gavan Duffy, to assist him in editing the Nation in conjunction with Davis, Mitchel, Reilly, and their friends. In such hands the paper became the exponent of the advanced ideas that ultimately led to the separation of the Young Ireland from the O'Connell party. As secretary to the committee of the Confederation, he was one of those deputed to rouse the people to action. For a stirring address at Roundwood, County of Wicklow, he was imprisoned, but soon after succeeded in obtaining his release. In the summer of 1848 he was in Scotland on a mission to his fellow-countrymen, when the abortive rising took place in Ireland. At imminent risk of arrest, he crossed to Belfast, was concealed by Dr. Magran, Bishop of Derry, had an interview with the young wife to whom he had been married but a few months, and, disguised as a priest, escaped to America, landing in Philadelphia the 10th of October. He immediately started the New York Nation, devoted to the interests of his country. In its columns he openly threw the blame of failure in Ireland on the Catholic priesthood and hierarchy, thereby involving himself in a controversy with Archbishop Hughes. Having abandoned the Nation, in 1850 he commenced in Boston the American Celt. But a change soon came over his mind, and he threw himself unreservedly into the cause of Catholicism, apart from any nationality, believing, as he expressed himself in a letter to his friend Meagher, "that it is the highest duty of a Catholic man to go over cheerfully, heartily, and at once, to the side of Christendom — to the Catholic side — and to resist, with all his might, the conspirators who, under the stolen name of liberty, make war upon all Christian institutions." He continued to edit the Celt in various parts of the States as the exponent of these principles, and to lecture on various questions connected with Ireland and Catholicism. About 1858 he removed to Montreal, and was returned to the Canadian Parliament, in which he soon took a prominent part. In 1862 he accepted the post of President of the Executive Council; yet found time to write his His-
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