National Education. In consequence, per- haps, of his support of these measures, he was appointed Rector of the Government College at Malta. This position he occu- pied for some time, but he ultimately left it, in consequence of differences regarding the management of the institution, and returned to Ireland. He subsequently carried on a long and somewhat warm correspondence with the London officials on the matter. He differed from O'Con- nell as to the comparative merits of Repeal and Federalism, being a strong advocate of the latter, and they had a lively and pas- sionate public debate upon the question. For a short period, in the advocacy of his opinions, he edited the Federalist news- paper. After remaining more than twenty years in comparative retirement, he again came prominently before the public, after the inauguration of the Home Rule move- ment by Mr. Butt in 1 870, being almost the only Catholic clergyman of the diocese of Dublin who appeared publicly in its favour. He was constant in his support of the new movement in speech and print, and delighted in being recognized as the early advocate of opinions become at length apparently so popular. He came under much censure among his co-religion- ists as the supposed author of a certain work, Harmony in Religion, advocating the marriage of the priesthood and other changes in the Catholic Church. His little book, Home Rule on the Basis of Federal- ism, went through more than one edition. An honest man, a gentleman, and a scholar, he was greatly beloved by a large circle of friends. He died at his humble lodgings in Henrietta-street, Dublin, 2nd January 1877, aged 81, and was buried in Glasuevin Cemetery. ^^3
O'Meara, Barry Edward, Dr., sur- geon to Napoleon Bonaparte at St. Helena, was born in Ireland in 1770, educated at Trinity C ilege, and at an early age ap- pointed Assistant-Surgeon to the 62nd Regiment. He served for some years in Sicily, Egypt, and Calabria. In conse- quence of a duel, he was obliged to quit the army, but soon received an appoint- ment in the navy. He was serving in the Bellerophon, when, on the 14th July 181 5, Napoleon surrendered himself on board of her. His professional skill and know- ledge of Italian gained the favour of the ex-Emperor, at whose request he was sent with him to St. Helena, as his medical attendant. O'Meara appears to have agreed tolerably well with Sir George Cockburn and Sir Pulteney Malcolm, Governors of St. Helena ; but soon after the arrival of Sir Hudson Lowe misunderstandings arose, and he returned to Eng- land in 1818. O'Meara was at first well received by the Admiralty, but having pre- ferred accusations against Sir Hudson for tyrannical and oppressive treatment of Napoleon, his name was erased from the list of naval surgeons. In 1822 he pub- lished Letters from St. Helena., in which he feelingly depicted the petty annoyances and degrading restrictions to which, ac- cording to him. Napoleon was subjected. He became exceedingly popular, his view of the case being supported by current public opinion. He died in London, 3rd June 1836, aged 66, of erysipelas, the result of a cold caught while attending one of O'Connell's meetings. The publi- cation, in 1853, of Mr. Forsyth's History of the Captivity of Napoleon in St. Helena, an exhaustive work, compiled from origi- nal documents, has considerably modified the public estimate of the value of Dr. O'Meara's disclosures. « '^ "^ '^^ ^si
O'Meara, Denuot, a learned physi- cian, was born in the barony of Ormond, County of Tipperary, and lived at Bally- ragget, in the County of Kilkenny, early in the 17th century. According to his own account (questioned by Anthony Wood), he was educated at Oxford, and there took a medical degree. Besides a Latin poem in praise of the Butlers, He- roico Carmine Conscripta (London, 161 5), he wrote some treatises on medicine, only one of which was published — Pathologia Hcereditaria Generalis (Dublin, 161 9). It was afterwards republished with the works of his son Edmund. ^39
O'Meara, Edmund, a leading physi- cian in the 1 7th century, son of preceding, was also born in the County of Tipperary. He studied at Oxford, practised both in England and Ireland, was a member of the College of Physicians in London, and lived for some time in Bristol. He was the author of Examen Diatribce Thomce Wil- lisii, . . cui aecesserunt Historice aliquot Medicoe Rariores (London, 1665, and Am- sterdam, 1667), dedicated to Sir Kenelm Digby, with some Latin verses prefixed, from the pen of his sou William O'Meara, also a physician. Edmund O'Meara died about the year 1680. Besides William, he had two other sons — one a Jesuit ; the other a major, who fell in James II.'s service in the War of i689-'9i. ^39
O'Molloy, Albin, Bishop of Ferns. First a monk and then Abbot of the Cis- tercians at Baltinglass: in 11 85 he gave much offence to Giraldus Carabreusis and the English clergy in Ireland by making disparaging remarks regarding them in a sermon preached in Christ Church, in
404
