The Irish standard., 1898-11-19
Jntin Mccarthy, Noted Writer. in
This Country.
HE is A C0RK0NIAN BY BIRTH
Brief Sketch of His Literary and
Political Career.
A MAN OF AMIABLE CHARACTER
Best Known as a Novelist to the
General Public.


Sixty-eight years ago this very month
Justin Mccarthy was born at Cork, his
father being one of the best classical
scholars of Ireland in his day, and
that is tantamount to saying that he
had few equals in any part of the world,
says a writer in the Boston Republic.
Cork in the thirties enjoyed a famous
reputation for it's learned coteries and its
accomplished schoolmasters, and to one
of the very best of those pedagogues, Mr..
Goulding, young Mccarthy was sent to be
taught the intricacies and the beauties of
the classics. He profited we'll by his op-
portunities, and by the time he passed
from Master Goulding's academy the
longest Greek passage was easy reading
for the young Corkonian, and he could
write Latin like Roman doctor of the
ology. Like many another young Irish
man, Mccarthy found the fields of jour-
nalism inviting pastimes, and into them
ed his school books. Possessed of good
knowledge of shorthand-which accom-
plishment he had acquired by his own
study Of it-he had little difficulty in get
ting reporters place on the Cork Ex-
aminer; and one of his first assignments
was to get for his paper an account of
the famous trial at Clonmel of Smith
O'Brien and his colleagues. Mr.. McCar-
thy attended many stirring meeting in
the days when he piled the reporters
pencil, and it has often been noted of
him in later years that, whenever he de-
sired to preserve the exact words of any
parliamentary debate or other important
matter, he jotted them down in short
hand with the old facility he so often dis
played at the beginning Of his newspaper
career.
In 1S47, when he was only II, McCar-
thy became member of the Cork His
torical society, whose object was not so
much to acquaint people with the past
history of Ireland as to make glorious
record for her. This society was the re-
cruiting ground for those patriotic bodies
which took part in the '4S movement.
Justin Mccarthy was one of the first to
enter into that movement, and of that
period of his life T. P. O'Connor
has written that Mccarthy, in his
maturity of philosophic calm, can
look back to the time when he
dreamed of rifles and bayonet charges,
and death in the midst of fierce
fight for the cause of Ireland. To
those who know him there is no differ
ence in the man Of today and the man Of
'4S. He has still the same unfiinching
courage as then. In this respect Justin
Mccarthy is, indeed, singular mixture
of apparent incompatibilities. There is
no man who enjoys the hour more keen
ly. He has the capacity of Renan for
finding the life around him amusing; en-
joys society and solitude, work and play,
choice dinner or an all-night sitting.
But he has eminently "a 2 o'clock in the
morning courage-a readiness to face
the worst without notice. With his IS
years (this was written in 1850. he is
still a man of sanguine temperament;
but in '48 he was only 18. He naturally,
therefore, belonged to the section which
had Mitchell for its apostle and open and
immediate Instruction for it's gospel.
Mitchell was arrested, and no attempt was
made to rescue him; and there were
many among the companions of Nc
Carthy who saw in this failure the death
of their hopes, the end of their efforts for
the Irish cause. Justin Mccarthy was
not one of those"
But the failure of the '4S movement
apparently convinced Mccarthy that
whatever work was in future attempted
for Ireland must proceed upon different
lines in order to prove effective and ben
eficial to the Irish people. While waiting
for an opportunity of doing such work to
present itself, the young Irishman la
bored away at his professional calling.
Some splendid reporting that he did for
a royal commission secured him an in
vitation to go to London, and thther he
WSAL CAu llACu, N1IuOuL SuCCeSS IIOuSI.
for position on the Times and other
dailies. Fortunately, however, he man
aged to get an appointment on the staff
Of the Liverpool Northern Times, then
starting on it's career, and for the ensu-
ing eight years he remained with that
paper, rising from reporter to the rank
of editorial writer. In 1860 the Times
failed, and although he could without
any difficulty have gotten place on
some of the other Liverpool papers, Nc
Carthy determined to try his luck again
in London. He had married while in
Liverpool, his wife being Miss Charlotte
Altman before her marriage, and to her
It was largely due that he refused all