James Fintan Lalor
In view of the English government's refusal to positively respond to peaceful, legal reform attempts like those supported by Patt, James's work had an increasing focus on the need for violent revolt, emphasising the need for extensive preparation and planning.
In this cause James showed himself to be an extremely skilled writer - in fact, he has been described as "one of the most powerful writers of his day". Mind you this was written by John Mitchel, another leader of the Young Ireland movement, who, like James, moved beyond even Young Ireland. James was much more extreme than Patt, which resulted in James being chucked out of the house. Then, in Dublin and Belfast, he came into contact with like-minded believers, such as John Mitchel. James and John believed in openly boycotting the payment of taxes and the flow of food to England, which they reckoned would lead to some violence in the English cities, enabling the Irish to seize the moment while the authorities were more focussed on their homeland. Mitchel was tried and convicted to 14 years' transportation in May, 1848, missing out on James's shenanigans of the same year. He travelled to Tasmania via the hulks in Bermuda, and the Cape of Good Hope, where the colonists refused to allow the ship to berth. Mitchel's ship, having lain at anchor for five months, then sailed him directly to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), where he arrived in 1850. He was joined by his family, and stayed for three years, before escaping to the US in 1853, the ungrateful wretch (!). |
Apart from Patt's input, there was much more to the Lalor dinner table conversations. Peter apparently had ten brothers and two sisters. No wonder his mother died when he was only 17. His father remarried, but fortunately for all concerned there weren't any more children.
Several of Peter's brothers headed off to America, ultimately to fight on opposite sides in that country's ghastly and brutal civil war. Their father, if he had been alive (he died in 1859), would have been saddened about those who fought for the South as he was strongly anti-slavery. But Patt was not the only political character at the table. Peter's oldest brother, James Fintan Lalor (in Irish, Séamas Fionntán Ó Leathlobhair), who was 20 years older than Peter, had a badly misshapen spine. The story goes that he was dropped on his head by a nurse when he was a baby, but we think this needs to be taken with a grain of salt. You may have noticed he had the same middle name as Peter. We don't know why, although having noted that it's a saint's name, in many societies this is not greatly unusual. James was very limited in his working ability because of his back, and lived most of his life at home. He was a great supporter of Irish rights, becoming a leader and written voice of the Irish Confederation and Young Ireland. Having lost his friend John, for reasons only known, apparently, to himself James launched into something all his writings had condemned - a half-arsed, useless, stupid, pissant, poorly planned revolt. In fact, a couple of them.
Having numerous times clearly stated his views on the importance of properly planned revolt, this seems almost unbelievable. All the more so as he led the poor benighted buggers who believed in him into disaster in a project that never had the slighterst chance of success. In fact, the English couldn't have hoped for him to undertake a more stupid action. We don't know if Peter was involved, although we do know James sent for another brother (Richard), asking him to bring Peter and pikes, the latter being the most useless weapon imaginable in the circumstances James faced. We also don't know whether Richard made it, although later writings referred to him being there with his useless bloody pikes. Mind you, "bloody" is a silly adjective to use as we suspect blood was one of the least likely things to have ended up on any pikes used by James's rebels - using pikes against troops armed with guns is like trying to stop a tank with a dish cloth. Subsequently, James was arrested and imprisoned. After a few months he became so ill even the inhumane British decided to release him. Living in Belfast, his illness, probably tuberculosis, quite common at the time, especially in the poverty-stricken areas James tended to inhabit, continued its downward spiral. His father, hearing of his illness, contacted James and said he was welcome back at Tenahill. Upon which James died. Although his name disappeared from history for several decades, an edition of some of James's articles was released around 1918, and he was subsequently given the status of a hero of the struggle for freedom. Laois council organises a two day annual event they call the "James Fintan Lalor School", which is described as follows "This event brings together anyone with an interest in Irish history, heritage, politics and current affairs, and welcomes home members of our diaspora to debate the future of Ireland. A fitting tribute to a significant national figure who engaged directly with the political climate of his time, fighting for land rights on behalf of the oppressed Irish farming community and the working classes." |