The Young Irelanders. Tralee: the Kerryman, 1944. Pp xvi, 686, illustrated with plates. Quarter cloth boards, title lettered in silver to spine, spine & boards lightly faded, contents in good condition.

The Young Ireland movement was an attempt by both the Irish Catholics and the Irish Protestants to bring about equality for all Irish peoples regardless of religion or political persuasion or class structure.

The movement formed after a split with Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal Association in 1845. Through “The Nation” and “The United Irishman” newspapers, the Young Irelanders wrote one article after another arguing that the Irish people could, through an Irish Parliament, better handle the famine rather than the British Parliament sitting in London who didn’t have a daily view of the Irish subsistence farmers dying by the hundreds of thousands. Some Young Irelanders then tried to begin a violent insurrection in Co. Tipperary at Ballingary to overthrow the British Government rule in Ireland. It failed miserably–partially because the peasants were so malnourished and partially because the Catholic Priests refused to give their support to such actions they felt would result in many deaths and imminent failure. These Young Irelanders, including Smith O’Brien, were eventually caught and sentenced to death (later commuted to transportation). Seven Young Irelanders were eventually transported to Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania). Four of them escaped to America with the aid of Irish-Americans (Mitchel, Meagher, McMahon, O’Donaghue). The remaining three, ‘Honest’ John Martin, William Smith O’Brien, and Kevin Izod O’Dogherty were granted conditional pardons in 1854 and unconditional pardons in 1856 and allowed to return to Ireland.