THE PROTOTYPE OF "THE EXILE OF ERIN."

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2660, 19 May 1908, Page 7

THE PROTOTYPE OF "THE EXILE OF ERIN."

NAPPER TANDY.

| am * , i gi S r*t ft It may fiot be generally known that the prototype of the "Exile of Erin"- was a'patfiotic young' Irish rebel named Anthony M'Cann, ;by some writers erroneously described as "a somewhat obscure Dublin man." - ' £ . !

j M'Cann, as a matter of fact,wwass s a native,, of Duudalk, where he* settled. in business in 1793. in the same year he became implicated with the celebrated Irish leader, .Tames Napper Tandy, in certain political offences, and both fled for safety to Hamburg. ! M'Cann subsequently returned in disguise to Ireland, where he remained until 3 707, when, failing to influence his compatriots "in favour of | an immediate commencement of the insurrection,", he again left the couni try, in company with Samuel Tur--1 ner and several others. Among the , ' names of tvventy-ono fugitives proclaimed by special Act of Parliament in.Qctpber, 1798, as "persons viho wouM' be guilty of treason nnI less they appeared before a stated ' time to' abide their trial," occur ...those of Anthony M'Cann, Harvey ; Morris, and Samuel Turner, etc. j M'Cann's friend, Napper Tandy—- | whose name is imperisbably associa- | tod with such famous songs as "(1 reen upon the Cape" and " The i Wearin>' of the Green" —appears about' j this time to have caused considerable uneasiness in diplomatic circles, both jat home and abroad. J* In a letter fronuthe Emperor Paul i of Russia to Count Mburavieft', Eus'si an Minister at Hamburg, dated j April 26, 1799, we read —"For these ' reasons our good uij'l and our 'proi tection cannot be restored to the i town of Hamburg until it destroys , the club called the Philanthropic So- j ; ciety, and delivers to the British

Minister, or still hotter, to Ms Government, the Irish rebels who have been arrested there, and among whom Napper Tandy is also to be found." —From "New Light on ' The Exile of Erin,' " in "T.P.'s Weekly-" . ' . 'I I