Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1899-02-11
Both Were Irish-Americans,
Living in Washington and
Louisville.
story of a Visit to Wolfe Tones
Grave Made Thirty-Seven
Years Ago.
TERRENCE B. MACMANUS' FUNERAL


of Instantaneous journeyed from the
United States to Ireland there to lay al
rest the remains of a patriot, Terrence
Below MacManus. The funeral attracted
attention both OH the American and
European continents. The story of that
funeral is well-nigh forgotten by many
Instantaneous who were living at that
time, and has probably never been heard
of by many of the Irish Americans of the
present generation However, there is
living in Louisville all Irish-American
who accompanied the remains from Cali
fornia to its last resting place in Glas-
nevin. This fellow-citizen was Mr..
jeremiah Kavanagh, who has for more
than thirty years been a resident OF
Louisville, but who at the time of the
MacManus funeral was a resident OF
California. He was then, in 1861, en-
gagged in organizing the Fenian Brother
hood on the Pacific slope. Some day he
will probably tell the story of that funeral
and the attending incidents.
Recently Mr.. Kavanagh received a
letter from a friend and namesake,
though they do not spell their names
alike, Mr.. Michael Cavanagh, of Wash
ington, d. c. Messrs. Kavanagh and
Cayanagh both travelled across the ocean
with the MacManus remains. Neither
has seen the other for many years, and
doubtless each one had mourned the
other as dead until an accident revealed
to the Washington Irish-American that
his one-time California namesake was
living and well in Louisville.
Mr.. Cavanagh wrote to his old friend
Kavanagh. The letter was promptly an
swered. This happened late in the pass
month. Though the frost has touched
the heads of these two old friends they
are both still Irish patriots at heart.
Mr.. Michael Cavanagh is employed in
the War Department at Washington. In
fact he has been in the same department
more than thirty years. Besides this
regular employment he writes for maya
zines and papers, principally on Irish or
Irish-American affairs. He is something
of a poet, too and writes as huently in
the Irish language as most 1rish-Ameri-
cans are capable of writing in the Eng
lish language. His favorite pen name is
"Cloch-an- Cuinne," or in English "Cor-
ner Stone"
Well, among other things that Michael
Cayanagh has written is a series of
sketches about the trip through Ireland
on the occasion of MacManus' funeral.
Particularly interesting are the sketches
of this Washington Irish-American on
the trip to Bodenstown churchyard,
where the remains of that other Irish
patriot, Theobald Wolfe Tone, are
buried.
II is we'll for Irish-Americans, and par
ticularly young Irish-Americans, to know
something of Ireland, its history, its
poets, statesmen and soldiers. The best
way to gain this information is to read an
Irish-American paper that is interested
in giving its readers this kind of news,
and it was for just such paper that Mr..
Michael Cavanagh penned his Memoir
ials of the Green Isle" about nine years
ago. It is hardly possible that they have
ever seen the light of day in Louisville
up to the present time.
These sketches are bright, old yet ever
new, and they have favor of the Irish
soil.
The first of the series is more or less
Introductory. Here it is.
CHAPTER l.
| will 20 to the lonely graveyard near the
pleasant field of Kildare,
And pray for my chief and hero-young
Tone who is sleeping there.
Joseph Brennan.
November 8, 1861, shall ever regard
as one OF the most eventful days of my
life, for it witnessed the accomplishment
of long-cherished desire-that of look
ing upon the grave of Ireland's greatest
revolutionary organizer-Theobald Wolfe
Tone.
1t was the day preceding that on which
the mortal remains of a kindred hero,
Terrence Below MacManus, were to be
confined to their final resting place in
Ireland's national ACCOMPLISHMENTS
From his temporary grave by the
shores of the far Pacific he had been dis
inferred by loving compatriots, who had
faith in the cause for which he risked his
life and lost nearly all that could make
life dear. and who also believed in the
resurrection to national life Of the land
he loved so well.
To crafty the last heartfelt longing Of
their brother exile, as we'll as to aid in
awakening their native land from the
torpor which, to some of her less hope
full children, seemed political death,
those practical enthusiasts, the califor-
man Fenians, conceived and carried out
the sublime idea of magnetizing their
sleeping Queen by laying upon her bo-
som the true heart which throbbed so