Photo of Charles Joseph Kickham with his nieces Annie and Josie Cleary, c.1869.
Image courtesy of Cork Multitext Project, UCC (see here). Used with permission.
Originally from Tipperary Annual 1912.
Family tree - Kickham - Charles Joseph Kickham, the Fenian |
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Charles Joseph Kickham, bapt 5th May 1828,
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joined the Fenians
(the IRB) end 1860 - start 1861
[Comerford, 1979],
though he would not take the secret oath, believing it should be a public movement, Fenian paper the Irish People launched Nov 1863, Kickham moved to Dublin to become co-editor, the Fenians were denounced by much of mainstream Ireland, including the Catholic hierarchy, Kickham himself, though a strong Catholic, defended the Fenians against clerical attacks, asserting that the Irish people need not accept clerical dictation on purely political issues, his first novel Sally Cavanagh, or, The untenanted graves: a tale of Tipperary was pub in serial form 1864, as book 1869, tale of love among the small farmer class, describing the results of landlordism and emigration, after Fenian plans for a rising in Ireland were discovered, the Irish People offices, 12 Parliament St, Dublin, were raided late evening Fri 15th Sept 1865, Kickham went into hiding, he was captured with the leader James Stephens at Fairfield House, Sandymount, Co.Dublin, early morning 11th Nov 1865, Stephens escaped spectacularly from Richmond Jail, night 24th-25th Nov 1865, from the cell next to Kickham, Kickham was put on trial for treason, he dismissed his counsel (Isaac Butt) and argued his own defence at the trial Jan 1866, the prisoners’ defiance in the dock earned them the nickname of "the bold Fenian men", see his speech from the dock, Jan 1866: "I have endeavoured to serve Ireland, and now I am prepared to suffer for Ireland.", Kickham exposed the crown's informer as being unable to identify his handwriting on incriminating documents, but the prosecution got a neighbour of his from Mullinahone, Catherine Mulcahy (called on his behalf) to innocently identify his handwriting as they presented the same documents to her, and by her naivety send her friend to prison, he was convicted of treason-felony, sentenced to 14 years, served 3 years in prison, imprisoned Pentonville prison, nr London, Feb 1866; Portland, May 1866; Woking, Surrey, July 1866, see his poem St. John's Eve, the Fenian Rising took place Mar 1867 while he was in prison, after a campaign for amnesty, Kickham was released Mar 1869 along with some other Fenian prisoners, greeted by huge crowds at Dublin, arrived at Mullinahone late at night but the townspeople still all came out to meet him, |
he lived Mullinahone,
the still-imprisoned O'Donovan Rossa
was elected MP for Co.Tipperary in a by-election 27 Nov 1869,
but disqualified as he was a convicted felon,
another by-election called for 28 Feb 1870, Kickham was nominated,
he was a reluctant candidate, refused to campaign,
but still he was very nearly elected,
he got within 4 votes of being MP for Co.Tipperary,
got more votes than O'Donovan Rossa had, but so did the opponent,
Catholics could vote, but only wealthy ones;
not a single voter from Mullinahone joined Kickham's opposition's escort to the polling station in
Cashel,
his great novel
Knocknagow, or the homes of Tipperary
was
pub (partially) in serial form 1870, as book 1873,
drama about the land question,
love story set
against backdrop of evictions, absentee landlords
and their vicious land-agents;
set in the fictional place of Knocknagow, Co.Tipperary;
the hero is his most famous character Mat "the Thrasher" O'Donovan;
it was perhaps the most popular Irish novel of the 19th - 20th cent,
he became member of the new supreme council of IRB by 1874,
President of IRB at least 1874 until his death 1882,
but their base of support was lost to Parnell's home rulers
and the Land League,
he led the IRB largely into irrelevance in these years,
final novel
For the old land: a tale of twenty years ago written mid-1870s, finished 1878, not pub until 1886,
story of small farmers under the old land system,
did not marry,
after his nieces left Mullinahone Sept 1876 he could not bear to stay alone in Mullinahone,
went to live with his brother Alexander in Dublin early 1877,
in Nov 1879 he
went to live as a lodger at 2 St.John's Terrace, Blackrock, Co.Dublin
(now Montpelier Place, Dun Laoghaire),
also in lodgings there was the young writer Rose Kavanagh
(1859-1891), age 20 and full of intellectual admiration for the Fenian veteran, now age 51,
she nursed him in his illness,
he became attracted to her,
but she did not feel the same,
still, she wrote a poem to him after his death,
which is now on his grave:
"nought could thrust aside;
His lifelong love - the land whose sacred name;
Throbbed to the last through his life's ebbing tide",
he dedicated his last poem to her:
"Then blessed for aye be that autumn noon; In the lonely heather glen; When my heart awoke from its death-like swoon; And I felt that I lived again",
died 11.25pm, Tue 22nd Aug 1882, St.John's Terrace, age 54 yrs,
huge funeral, attended by many of his opponents
(the mainstream nationalists),
bur in Catholic church yard, Mullinahone, Mon 28th Aug 1882,
see grave.
Photo of Charles Joseph Kickham with his nieces Annie and Josie Cleary, c.1869.
Image courtesy of
Cork Multitext Project, UCC
(see here).
Used with permission.
Originally from Tipperary Annual 1912.
Sketch of Kickham's funeral cortège at Kingsbridge station, Dublin.
Image courtesy of
Cork Multitext Project, UCC
(see here).
Used with permission.
Originally from United Ireland, August 1882.
Kickham's grave, Catholic church yard, Mullinahone.
Photo 2008.
See larger
and full size.
See other shot
and side shot.
Statue of Kickham, opposite Allied Irish Bank, Tipperary town (unveiled 1898).
Image courtesy of
Cork Multitext Project, UCC
(see here).
Used with permission.
Originally from [Comerford, 1979].
Alone, all alone, by the wave-washed strand
All alone in the crowded hall
The hall it is gay, and the waves they are grand
But my heart is not here at all.
It flies far away, by night and by day
To the times and the joys that are gone.
But I never will forget the sweet maiden I met
In the valley of Slievenamon.It was not the grace of her queenly air
Nor her cheek of the rose's glow
Nor her soft black eyes, not her flowing hair
Nor was it her lily-white brow,
'Twas the soul of truth, and of melting ruth
And the smile like a summer dawn
That sold my heart away on a soft summer day
In the valley of Slievenamon.In the festival hall, by the star-washed shore,
Ever my restless spirit cries.
"My love, oh, my love, shall I ne'er see you more.
And my land, will you never uprise?"
By night and by day, I ever, ever pray
While lonely my life flows on
To see our flag unfurled and my true love to enfold
In the valley of Slievenamon.
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