The Irish standard., 1904-02-20
THE CLARE ELECTION.
How Catholic Emancipation Was
Fouu1t and Won,

IVu9ul duu UOus
Mr.. T. P. O'Connor, M. p, review
ing Mr.. McDonagh's recently publish
ed book on "Daniel O'Connell," gives
the following very interesting descrip-
tion of the famous Clare election,
which resulted in the freedom of the
people from serfdom, and the granting
of Catholic emancipation:
'The climax came in the famous
Clare election. Even i'll my boyhood,
more than quarter of century after
that election, I could feel around me
among my elders-the echoing thrill
of that mighty epoch in the life of Ire
land. A vacancy was created in coun-
ty Clare by the appointment of Mr..
Vesey Fitzgerald to the presidency Of
the board of trade. Mr.. Fitzgerald
had always been friend of the Cath
olic cause; he was popular landlord,
and was supposed to be one of those
men, powerful in high places, who
could do much to make or mar the
success of the movement. Moreover,
it was doubtful whether anybody could
stand against him who was not a
member of the Protestant creed; but
O'Connor was called upon to put the
question to the test, and to finally
convince the House of Commons of
the reality and universally, and even
passion, of the demand for Catholic
emancipation, by having one of the
prescribed creed returned to Parlia-
ment.
''The moment O'Connell had beer
persuaded to enter on the contest al
Catholic and Liberal Ireland was
thrilled to the core, and gave back a
mighty answer to the cali. Elections
we're expensive in those days; before g
week $4,000 had been already raised
to pay O'Connell's expenses. The
scenes which took place at the Clare
election are no longer possible; they
read to-day strangely and picturesque
ly old-world. O'Connell, for instance.
started out for the scene of the con
flict, not by railway train, as he woult
do to-day, but in coach and four
seated on the box seat, as he always
was during those popular progresses
A huge crowd had gathered round the
Four Courts, whence O'Connell start
ed; he was busy with his briefs up to
the final moment. The party travele
all through the night, everywhere met
by crowds, who cheered them on thei,
way; at Roscrea, the procession which
escorted them numbered nearly three
thousand horsemen. Bonfres were
lit on the hills; candles burned in the
small windows of thatched cottages
At two o'clock in the morning Ennis
the capital of Clare, was reached, and
even then the people, with banners
and bands, were in the streets, ready
to give the popular champion a well
come.
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huge and excited crowd in the court
house, and among them was that old
friend of mine, O'Gorman Mahon,
ready to hurl defiance at everybody,
and burning to go out and face per-
sonal or political enemy with his oft
used pistols. He was the hero of a
great historic alteration because he
wore a broad green ribbon, the badge
of the Catholic association, and there
was an exchange of speeches between
him and the high sheriff, which have
something of the heroic and something
of the mock-heroic, that recalls some
of the scenes in the French revolution.
The French revolution is also recalled
by some of the doings of the masses.
The forty-shilling freeholders - the