Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/340

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marched northwards and crossed the Foyle near Lifford, but was too late to prevent the junction of their troops. Against the advice of his officers, he attacked the united forces at Scarriffhollis, two miles from Letterkenny, on 21st 339* June 1650. In the early part of the engagement his troops carried all before them, but they were afterwards defeated, and almost annihilated. Major-General O'Cahan, many principal officers, and 1,500 soldiers were killed on the spot; and Carte states that Colonels Henry Roe and Felim O'Neill, Hugh Maguire, Hugh MacMahon, and many more, were slain after quarter given. The Bishop quitted the field with a small party of horse. His fate is thus related by Clarendon: "Next day, in his flight, he had the misfortune, near Enniskilling, to meet with the governor of that town, in the head of a party too strong for him, against which, however, the Bishop defended himself with notable courage; and after he had received many wounds, he was forced to become a prisoner, upon promise, first, that he should have fair quarter; contrary to which, Sir Charles Coote, as soon as he knew he was a prisoner, caused him to be hanged, with all the circumstances of contumely, reproach, and cruelty which he could devise." 80 " Nor is it amiss to observe," says Cox, in his History of Ireland, "the variety and vicissitude of the Irish affairs; for this very Bishop, and those officers whose heads were now placed on the walls of Derry, were within less than a year before confederate with Sir Charles Coote, and raised the siege of that city, and were jovially merry at his table, in the quality of friends." 80 128† 170 254 271 339*

MacMahon, John B., Marquis d'Eguilly, was born at Limerick in 1715. He entered the French service at an early age, and in 1750 having proved royal descent from Brian Borumha, was admitted to the estates of Burgundy, and created Marquis d'Eguilly. His younger brother Maurice, Lord of Moguien in Burgundy, was in 1746 made Captain in the Pretender's Scotch army. Marshal MacMahon, President of the French Republic, is grandson of the first above-named. An interesting note on the MacMahon famOy, based on the Annals of the Four Masters, will be found in Notes and Queries, 4th Series. 227* 254

MacManus, Terence Bellew, a distinguished Young Irelander, was born in Ireland probably about 1823. At the time of the Young Ireland agitation in 1848 he was in business as a shipping agent in Liverpool. In the summer of that year he threw up everything, managed to give the detectives the slip in Dublin, joined Smith O'Brien at Killenaule, and shared the fortunes of the small band of insurgents until their dispersion at Ballingarry. The following is Smith O'Brien's experience of him: " My acquaintance with him commenced at the time of the Repeal agitation, and was developed by the events of 1848. When he learned that I had called upon the people of Ireland to take up arms in resistance to the manifold oppressions which the people of Ireland at that time endured, he hastened to the scene of action, and assuredly the result of our efforts would have been very different from that which we experienced if an Irish army could have been formed consisting of such men as Terence Bellew MacManus. Intrepidity which knew no fear — resolution of purpose, directed by intelligence, and accompanied by promptitude of action and by personal prowess — these were the qualities which he displayed during the few days which we spent in Tipperary — qualities which, if our struggle had been sustained even for a few months, would have placed the name of MacManus in the catalogue of those warriors whose deeds have given to our country the fame of heroism." 233 When all hope was over, he was for a time concealed by the peasantry, and then managed to make his way to Cork, and was on board a vessel in the harbour about to sail, when he was arrested. On 9th October 1848 he was brought to trial for high treason at Clonmel, found guilty, and condemned to death. His sentence was ultimately commuted to transportation for life. He was sent to Tasmania, whence he escaped to California, 5th June 1851. His friend Meagher wrote of his Californian life: " Arriving in San Francisco, MacManus resumed his old business. But in a new country it had to be conducted in a new way — more boldly, perhaps, and less scrupulously, but with results less positive and legitimate — and this his sterling mind would not bend to, trained as it had been to the more prudent, correct, and certain mercantile system which prevails in Europe. It was all strange to him, he said to me, all wrong, wild, hazardous, false, and desperate; and he would have nothing to do with it. Hence his days in California were days of poverty, and his proud face that once was full of light, and light alone, now had heavy shadows crossing it at times." 233 He died about nine years after his arrival in California; and his remains were conveyed to Ireland, and buried in Glasnevin, 10th November 1861. His funeral was made the occasion of a great nationalist demonstration. 233 308

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