Joseph Brenan
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Joseph Brenan (also Brennan; 17 November 1828 – 27 May 1857) was a poet, journalist and author, and leading member of the
Young Ireland Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...
ers and
Irish Confederation The Irish Confederation was an Irish nationalist independence movement, established on 13 January 1847 by members of the Young Ireland movement who had seceded from Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association. Historian T. W. Moody described it as "th ...
.


Early life

Joseph Brenan, was born in
Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
on 17 November 1828. Brenan began to write verse at an early age, and was one of the genuine poets of the
Young Ireland Young Ireland ( ga, Éire Óg, ) was a political and cultural movement in the 1840s committed to an all-Ireland struggle for independence and democratic reform. Grouped around the Dublin weekly ''The Nation'', it took issue with the compromise ...
movement. His earlier poems were published under the initials "J. B., Cork," or "J. B—n," and some of his American verses under the pseudonym "Gondalez." He was also an able prose writer. Brenan was an active member of the ''Cork Historical Society'', and was one of the editors of the ''Cork Magazine'', which appeared in November 1847, and continued to appear until the end of 1848, when the journal then ceased publication. Some of its contributors, who included Frazer, Martin MacDermott, Fitzjames O'Brien, Mulchinock and Mary Savage, would later either end up in jail or in exile.


1848 Rising

In January 1848,
John Mitchel John Mitchel ( ga, Seán Mistéal; 3 November 1815 – 20 March 1875) was an Irish nationalist activist, author, and political journalist. In the Famine years of the 1840s he was a leading writer for ''The Nation'' newspaper produced by the ...
visited Cork and, according to Michael Cavanagh, who would publish a sketch of his Brenan's life in ''Young Ireland'', Dublin, in June and July 1885, Brenan for the first time "beheld the man he most admired on earth, and with whose future destiny, whether for weal or woe, he felt his own was bound up. Never had the arch-enemy of England a more faithful or earnest follower." Brenan contributed to the Mitchel's ''
United Irishman ''The United Irishman'' was an Irish nationalist newspaper co-founded by Arthur Griffith and William Rooney.Arthur Griffith ...
'' and, sold his rifle to obtain his train fare, to take up his residence in
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
, the headquarters of the revolutionary movement. He later published articles in John Martin's ''Irish Felon'' urging the Confederate Clubs members, many of whom had arms to be in readiness for action. "The sooner you realise the fact," he wrote in a ''Letter addressed to the Members of the Provincial Confederate Clubs'', "that the Confederation was got up for the purpose of doing something, the better for us all. Just think what it undertook to do. It undertook to defeat the strongest Government and to liberate the most degraded country that ever existed. It undertook to give – to a province—to strike the chains off millions of slaves and, if necessary, to wash out the, iron moulds in blood." In another Letter to "''the Young Men of Ireland''" on 22 July 1848, he wrote: "On you I principally rely. You realise that you are very 'rash,' rather inclined to be 'violent,' and have exceedingly little prudence to spare. Brothers, let your watchword be 'Now or never—now and for ever' rashly" Brenan was associated with John Savage and
John O'Mahony John Francis O'Mahony (1815 – 7 February 1877) was a Gaelic scholar and the founding member of the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States, sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Despite coming from a reasonably wealthy fa ...
while Savage was operating on the slopes of the
Comeragh Mountains The Comeragh Mountains () are a glaciated mountain range situated in southeast Ireland in County Waterford. They are located between the town of Dungarvan and stretch inland to the town of Clonmel on the County Tipperary border and the villag ...
. Brenan was arrested and kept in prison for seven months alternately in Newgate Prison, Carrickfergus and
Kilmainham Gaol Kilmainham Gaol ( ga, Príosún Chill Mhaighneann) is a former prison in Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland. It is now a museum run by the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Government of Ireland. Many Irish revolutionaries, including the lead ...
s. During his confinement he wrote some fine poems, according to T. F. O'Sullivan, one, entitled "''Yearnings''," evidently addressed to Mary Savage, sister of John. After his release without trial in March 1849, Brenan became editor of the ''Irishman'' which had been started in Dublin by Bernard Fulham, and for six months attempted to rekindle the insurrectionary flame in the country. He was implicated in the attack on the
Cappoquin Cappoquin, also spelt Cappaquin or Capaquin (), is a town in west County Waterford, Ireland. It is on the Blackwater river at the junction of the N72 national secondary road and the R669 regional road. It is positioned on a sharp 90-degree b ...
police barracks on 16 September 1848 and in October escaped to America.


Escape to America

In America he became associated with a number of journals, including Horace Greeley's ''Tribune'', Devin Reilly's ''People'', ''The Enquirer'' of Newark, Jersey, and the ''New Orleans Delta'' in which he wrote a series of papers under the pen-name Ben Fox. On 27 August 1851, Brenan married Mary Savage, in her parents house, on Thirteenth Street, New York. Brenan wrote some articles and poems for John Mitchel's ''Citizen'' in 1854. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Southern cause, and had founded the ''New Orleans Times''.


Death

Joseph Brenan died on 27 May 1857, at the early age of twenty nine and was buried in the old French cemetery of
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
. During the last year of his life he was almost totally blind. He was attended in his last illness by Dr. Dalton Williams. There were seven children of the marriage, only one of whom, Florence, survived their parents. She possessed her father's literary ability, but devoted her life to religion as a member of the Mercy Order.


Conclusion

His best known poem, "Come to Me, Dearest," was addressed to Mary Savage before their marriage. The love story of Joseph Brenan and "Mary" has been told in the sketch by
Ellen Mary Patrick Downing, afterwards Sister Mary Alphonsus.


References


Citations


Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brenan, Joseph 1828 births 1857 deaths Irish nationalists Irish rebels Irish revolutionaries Writers from Cork (city) Young Irelanders