MY LIFE IN TWO HEMISPHERES
BOOK I
CHAPTER I
BOYHOOD AND YOUTH, MONAGHAN
My object in writing this narrative—Family pedigree—Boyish memories—My first school—Condition of Catholic schools in Ulster—Second school—Reception among Protestant schoolfellows—Earliest books and periodicals—Rupture with Mr. Bleckley—Companions: Terence MacManus, Henry MacManus, Mat Trumble—First political ideas—"The naked truth"—Charles Hamilton Teeling First visit to Dublin T. M. Hughes—Lord Mulgrave in Ulster—Departure from home, never to return.
I propose to write my memoirs, not because I assume that the world is impatient to become acquainted with my adventures and misadventures, but because I have seen life under strange and varied conditions in two hemispheres, have encountered many notable men, and have something to tell of those protracted experiences which may prove worth hearing. In the language of Browning—
"I have trod many lands, known many men,
Probed many hearts, beginning with my own."
And why should I omit another and stronger motive? For a generation I was a factor in whatever was done or projected in the public affairs of Ireland, and if my countrymen in after times come to regard that era as the well-head
