Edmund Dwyer Gray, M.P., Mr. Justice O'Hagan, Alderman Dennehy.

Chapter XVII.

On 31st March, 1888, the remains of Edmund Dwyer Gray - one of the Members of Parliament for Dublin - were consigned to Glasnevin Cemetery. Clever as was his father, Sir John Gray, the son is said by men who well knew both, to have surpassed him in tact and *acumen. *Mr. MacWeeney, the *doyen *of the *Freeman’s Journal *staff, describes him as the “Napoleon of Irish Journalism.” As a financier, an orator, and a patriot, he held high rank. In accordance with his last wish, the funeral was private, and the arrangements of the simplest character. A fine bust of Dwyer Gray has been executed for his widow by Sir Thomas Farrell, President of the Royal Hibernian Academy.

Within a few weeks another journalist was borne to Glasnevin, William R. Dunbar, M.A., T.C.D., editor of the Irish *Sportsman. *“Nimrod,” as his friends called him, was very popular, and a public monument has been raised to his memory. This enthusiastic sportsman expired on May 25th, 1888.

Three years later his son, who succeeded him in the editorial chair, was buried. From a handsome monument we learn that it was “Erected by the Cyclists and Athletes of Ireland in memory of a sterling sportsman, athlete, and gentleman, John Leopold Dunbar, Official Handicapper, Irish Cyclists’ Association, and Editor of the *Irish Sportsman, *died 1st April, 1891, aet 34.”

“Hennessy is our best Irish scholar,” wrote Dr. Stokes, President of the Royal Irish Academy, addressing Mr. W. J. Fitzpatrick, and expressing the hope that Hennessy might be voted on the Council. He was, besides, an eminent archaeologist and archivist, and was promoted by Mr. Disraeli’s Government to a responsible position in the Irish Record office. Several important papers from his pen are found in the “The Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.” He edited, amongst other works, “The Chronicon Scotorum,” and “The Annals of Loch Key,” published in the “Rolls Series of National Chronicles.” He also made time to write a good deal for the *Academy, *a leading organ of art and letters. His writings in the *Revue Celtiqite, *Kuhn’s *Zeit Schrift, *and in the *Beitrage Zur Vergl, Sprachforschung *fostered a reputation which finally became European. Among his correspondents wwas Count Nigra, the great Italian diplomatist, and author of several books on the dialects and poetry of Italy. William Manusell Hennessy was buried in Glasnevin, on January 15th, 1889.

On October 16th, 1889, Lord FitzGerald, a legal light in the gilded Chamber, died of fever, and was consigned to a vault at Glasnevin. This eminent Judge had discharged the duties of Attorney-General at two distinct periods, and it is a remarkable fact, as recorded by Dr. Madden, that his father, David FitzGerald, had been associated with Emmet in his ill-fated enterprise of 1803.

Sir John Bradstreet, the fourth Baronet, became as strong a champion for Catholic interests as his grandfather had been on behalf of the opposing creed. For nearly 30 years he gave his toil and time to the management of Glasnevin Cemetery, and was an active member as well as being President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He died November 21st, 1889. His funeral, followed by the orphans he had sheltered, and the poor whom he had long visited and relieved was a touching spectacle. [Samuel Bradstreet, an ancestor of Sir John, was a member of the Irish Parliament, and finally a Justice of the King’s Bench.]

The Very Rev. Daniel Fog arty Superior of the Carmelites, was a man of rare simplicity of character He died November 30th, 1889; his grave is found near the mortuary chapel.

Sir Robert Kane, F. R.S., President of the Royal Irish Academy, is a name of mark in the burial record of February, 1890. Dr. Graves, who wished his own epitaph to be “He Fed Fevers,” gave Kane the prize which in 1830 he offered for the best essay on typhus fever. He discharged an important *role *at so early an age that men called him the Boy Professor.” Young Kane, full of characteristic energy founded the Dublin Journal of Medical Science, which still maintains a healthy vitality. For his chemical researches the Royal Society presented him with its gold medal and welcomed him to its ranks. His suggestion that a Museum of Irish Industry should be established, was duly adopted by the Government, who appointed him Director and created him a Knight. Kane acted as Irish Relief Commissioner during the famine, and afterwards became President of the Queen’s College, Cork. His most important works are “The Industrial Resources of Ireland,” and “Chemistry, Practical and Theoretical,”

On June 12th, 1890, a respected Police Magistrate and accomplished scholar, William Woodlock, died. His tomb appropriately records: He walked in the way of justice in the midst of the paths of judgement.” Prov. viii, 20.

The Hon. Judge O’Hagan, M.A., Hudge of the Supreme Court of Judicature, a man of rare genius an sterling worth was laid to rest on November 15th, 1890. Born in 1822, he joined the Bar in 1845; he had previously attached himself to the party of Young Ireland, and had written several stirring pieces signed “Sliabh Cuilinn,” called from the high mountain which towers above his native Newry. He was just the being that would have charmed Scott, who asked:

“Breathes there a man with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said -

‘This is my own - my native land?’

The inscription on O’Hagan’ s tomb accurately describes him “Faithful till Death to God and Ireland.” The tone his muse took is traceable in “Dear Land,” and the” song of Roland.”

“When comes the day all hearts to weigh,

If staunch they be, or vile,

Shall we forget the sacred debt

We owe our mother isle?

My native heath is brown beneath,

My native waters blue;

But crimson red o’er both shall spread,

Ere I am false to you,

Dear land!

Ere I am false to you.

When I behold your mountains bold -

Your noble lakes and streams -

A mingled tide of grief and pride

Within my bosom teems.

I think of all your long, dark thrall -

Your martyrs brave and true;

And dash apart the tears that start -

We must not *weep *for you,

Dear land!

We must not *weep *for you.”

O’Hagan ended his days as Judge of the Land Court, where it became his duty to reduce the excessive rents which too long oppressed the people, *apopos *to which he was playfully reminded by D. F. MacCarthy of his early aspiration - “Dear Land.” He married the Hon. Frances O’Hagan, daughter of Thomas, Lord O’Hagan.

On Sunday, November 16th 1890, a great shock was caused in Dublin by Mr. Thomas Ryan: a man of wealth and personal popularity, falling dead in Nassau Street. On opening his will it was found to contain a number of generous benefactions to charities and friends, with not a few strange covenants, requiring that his name should be adopted in the event of certain bequests being accepted.

Stephen Myles MacSwiney, M.D., Fellow of the College of Physicians, was buried on August 2nd, 1890. Contemporaneously with another medical student, Richard Dalton Williams, he wrote, under the *nom de plume *of “Lancet,” some songs of “Young Ireland.” He preserved among his papers the original agreement, to which he was a party, in founding the *Tribune *newspaper. His first professional appointment was Resident Medical Officer at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin; he was afterwards physician to Jervis Street Hospital. He filled with marked ability a chair of Medical jurisprudence, and contributed papers to the Dublin *Journal of Medical Science, *the *Irish Hospital Gazette, *and the Medical Press.

Father Meehan was an octogenarian when he died in 1890. The books associated with his name are the “Fate and Fortunes of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell,” “The Confederation of Kilkenny” (both abounding in episodes highly dramatic); “History of the O’Tooles of Wicklow,” “The Rise and Ruin of the Geraldines, Earls of Desmond,” “Life of Francis Kirwan, Bishop of Killala” “The Cottage Library,” “Father Charles’s Flowers from Foreign Fields,” “Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors; and Architects of the Order of St. Dominick, from the Italian,” “The Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries,”’ and “Memoirs of the Irish Hierarchy in the 17th Century.” Father Meehan made his studies in Rome. He was buried at Glasnevin 16th March, 1890.

The Very Rev. Thomas Canon Pope - a man of great holiness and culture - passed away on Sunday, 12th October, 1890, aged 81. He claimed descent from a collateral branch of the family of Alexander Pope, the illustrious author of the “Essay on Man.” Among his literary works may be mentioned “St. Peter’s Day in the Vatican,” which appeared in 1868, and was followed by other books remarkable in the publishing annals of Dublin. In 1874 he brought out “The Council of the Vatican, and the Events of the Time,” and later on his equally interesting “Holy Week at St. Peter’s in Rome,” and an “Illustrated Litany of Loreto.” After a lengthened illness he put himself under the care of the Sisters of Mercy in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, where the good priest closed his eyes in the last sleep, and was laid to rest in Glasnevin, 15th October, 1890.

Sir William Carroll, M.D., an old and esteemed member of the Cemeteries Committee, died in November, 1890, aged 71. He twice served the office of Lord Mayor, and had the honour of receiving knighthood at the hands of the Queen at Windsor.

About the same time another prominent public man passed away in the person of Alderman Cornelius Dennehy. J.P.

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