The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-04-15
First War Correspondent in the
Modern Meaning of the Term
Was an Irishman.
Sir w. Russell Famous for the
Brilliant Description of His
Adventures.
Other Men of the Race Who Have
Won Fame for Their Excellent
Press Service

Ireland has produced many famous
war correspondents. In fact, the first
war correspondent, as the term is un-
derstood today, was an Irishman, and
he was in many senses the greatest
OF all the men who ever Joined that
profession. Sir William Russell act
ed as the representative Of the Lon
don Times during the Crimean cam
paign, and it was he who made the
British people realize the shocking
conditions under which their army
was fighting. His name and fame are
to the present day. Like all his Irish
successors, he was ever daring and
cool in the field, and brilliant in the
description of his adventures, say the
Sidney Catholic Press.
Amongst the successors were two
men who passed through extraordin-
arily adventurous and romantic ca
reers. One of them was Edmond
O'Donovan, the son of the great John
O,Donovan, the Irish scholar, who, in
an age of comparative Indifference,
did much for the Irish language and
for Irish studies, and the other was
j. A. MacGahan. O'Donovan was
born in Dublin, MacGahan in America;
but their marvellous careers were ex-
traordinary similar. O'Donovan was
horn in Dublin on Sept. 49, 1874; Mac
Gahan was born near New Lexington,
They both dropped into journalism
more or less by accident, and they
both died in foreign lands, MacGahan
in Constantinople from fever, after he
had gone through the Russo-Turkish
war of 1876, and just while the treaty
of San Stefano was being discussed; !;
El Obeid with Hicks Pasha's army in
1SS3 Strange to say, too, the East
seemed always to call them, as in
the case of Kipling's soldier. Mac
Gahan, notwithstanding the fact that
he was forbidden to do so by the
Russian government, went to Khiva
with that brilliant soldier, Skobeleff,
and they became close friends. That
was in 1873. Six years later O'Don-
ovan, with his mind centered on the
mystery of Central Asia, was the hero
of a still more remarkable perform.
ance. "In 1879," says writer in the
Dictionary of National Biography,
"O'Donovan, still in search of adven-
ture, undertook, as representative of
the Daily News, his celebrated jour-
ney to Merv-a most daring, difficult
and hazardous feat with which his
name will always be associated.
Spending some little time on the
q southeastern shores of the Caspian
Sea with the Russian advanced posts,
he travelled through Khohassan"-
readers of Moore will remember "The
Yelled Prophet eventually,
with great difficulty and risk, accom-
panied only by two native servants,
he penetrated to Merv.
ALTHOUGH attired in English cos
tune, he was at first suspected by the
Turcomans of being an emissary Of
the Russians, who were then threat
ening an advance on Merv. For sew
eral months he consequently remain
ed in Merv in sort of honorable cap
tivity, in danger of death any day,
with no prospect Of release" AS a
matter of fact, he became kind Of
chief or khan in the town, and taught
the Turcomans how to erect mud wall
Notifications against the Russians,
who were coming on Cock Tepe, which
they had captured, and he finally got
safely away, with not bone broken,
and was received in London-the first
white man, as was said at the time,
who had over heen in MThe Queen CITY