The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-05-18
JOIN KELLS INGRAM
Author Of "Wh0 Fears to Speak
Of 98?" is Dead.
At One Time President Of the
Royal Irish Academy.

of John Kells Ingram the political
i economist and follower of Auguste
Comte, and author of the ballad, who
I Fears to Speak of 1882" or The Mem
ory of the Dead He was one of the
i dons of Trinity College, and was for
mdrly president of the Royal Irish
Academy.
"The Memory Of the Dead" until
T. D. Sullivan wrote God Save Ire
/ land" in 1867, was the "Marseillaise"
( OF ireland.
In the Boston Pilot Of May IL, 1906
appeared a letter from John O'Calla-
CHAN, secretary of the United Irish
League of America and a reporter on
The Boston Globe. which said:
1 was much interested in note in
the last issue of The Pilot, copied from
The Westminster Gazette, of London,
intimating that DR.. John Kells Ingram,
formerly vice provost of Trinity Col
lege, Dublin, the author of the famous
ballad of '9S, has regretted the writing
of the immortal lines.
1 happen to be in a position to give
an emphatic contradiction to the sug-
sestion of The Westminster Gazette,
because it was my good fortune to have
a. prolonged talk with Dr. Ingram in
July, 1900.
The following references to the mat
ter in a. letter written by me from Dub
lin, on July Is. 1900. the day after
had been speaking to DR.. Ingram. and
published in The Boston Globe, may
be interesting as bearing on this point
After describing my call on DR.. In
gram, the letter went on to say:
DR.. Ingram felt great deal of diff
dence about saying anything in the ma
ture of formal interview for publica-
ton.
! I suggested that it would be inter-
esting to his countrynlen in America
the authorship of the ballad. some
doubt having been cast upon the point
7 whether he had really written it,
He replied. Yes. l am aware that
there has been some doubt cast on
the authorship of The Memory of
= the Dead although why there should
have been, l do not understand, as
have always avowed myself the author
of it.
TT has also been stated that there
were two or three other men with me
when I wrote it, and that also is in
] correct. I have stated in a genera
+; way in the preface to a book of my
poems, just published. the circum-
stances attending the writing of the
! ballad.
"The fact was that nobody but my
A self saw or heard a. word of the poem
4 until it was published in The Natior
newspaper in April, 1913, except the
: editor in the newspaper office who
y handled the manuscript l went my.
self and dropped the manuscript o.
4 the poem into the receiving box fo1
mail at the office of The Nation, anc
nobody else saw it.
"Duffy. now Sir Charles Caviar
Duffy, was, think. the editor of thu
II paper, and it was he probably pub
lished it. He was certainly connected
with the paper at the time. bu
"a whether he edited the poem for pub
K aication, am unable now to say.
II was then in my twentieth yea
z and a resident student in Trinity Col
lege. am native of County Done
!. gal, where was born in 1923"
n "was your name signed to the poem
when you sent it to The Nation office
B Dr. Ingram?" I asked.
y NO" he promptly replied. II sen
& It anonymously, but its authorship he
~ came known very soon throughout tn
III country. I never had any objection t
be known as the author of it. and a
"A my immediate acquaintance an
II friends knew of it from the time of it
publication.''
IA HAD you known Duffy. or Thoma
~1JHVlS. VI DlllOIls VI ally olIieI VI III
L Young Ireland leaders who We're the
connected with The Nation, before tha
Il time?"
II Eyes, I knew Duffy and Davis. to-
IA hut not very we'll. Dillon l ha
II known in Trinity College. He was
president in the college while l WE
al there. John OHagan knew Yer
a iwell.''
It may not be entirely fair ques
ton to put to you, DR.. Ingram. b,
! the suggestion has been made. publicl
that your views as expressed in tt
poem have since changed. and thu
hi you have regretted writing it?" Yer
tured.
DR.. Ingram spoke with more anime
III ton than he had hitherto displayed {
He replied, almost every mans view