Irish Jacobitism

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLVIII, Issue 46, 22 November 1923, Page 17

Irish Jacobitism

Some few months ago Geo. A. Birmingham (Canon Hannay) said that people failed to realise the greatness of Irish . Jacobitism. But the blame for this ignorance must be placed largely on the shoulders of the Irish literary world, who have apparently neglected, or at any rate, failed to emphasise, this all important phase of their history. Considering the vast amount of Scottish and English Jacobite literature, ' Irish.. Jacollite literature is not large. But as against this, it must be remembered that almost any Jacobite history is also a history of Irish loyalty. Did not two Irishmen, Antoine Walsh and Walter Rutledge, furnish Prince Charlie with his little fleet, The Doutelle and the Elizabeth, and were not four out of the seven men of Moidart of Irish birth ? The Irish Brigade, numbering 300 or 400, ■ fought throughout the '45; it was intended to employ a much larger Irish force (some 1200 in all and sufficient it was said to have turned the tide of. battle at Culloden), but the transports were intercepted by the fleet of the Usurping Government. This serves to emphasise the fact that it was lack of opportunity, and not lack of zeal, which prevented the Irish from playing a larger part in the various Jacobite attempts. But no record of Irish Jacobitism, however brief, would be complete without some little account of the Wogari family, whose services to the House of Stuart constitute one of the brightest, pages in the history of Royalism. The name of Wogan figures during the great civil war, as well as in the Parliament of James 11. in the Irish Jacobite wars. Against the Cromwellians the name of Wogan was distinguished in the annals of cavalier gallantry by the defence of Duncannon in 1649, and in 1650 that name was still, more distinguished by the courage and devotedness of the hero who marched through England wtih a party of royalist cavalry to join a body of King Charles 11. adherents, and who at the battle of Worcester by the desperate stand he made at the head of 300 horse, against Cromwell's army, enabled Charles 11. to escape. With such glorious family records before him, Charles Wogan did not hesitate to join the Jacobite rising of 1715, and he, together with his brother Nicholas Wogan, Col. Hy. Oxburgh, and James Talbot, were the Irish agents delegated to Northumberland, to arrange for the rising there. Under the pretence of being tourists, they dispersed themselves in every direction, riding from place to place, visiting the various Jacobite centres; and stimulating a general rising. Taken prisoner at Preston in 1715, Charles Wogan was brought pinioned on. horseback to London, lodged in Newgate, but managed to escape. Nicholas Wogan (1700-1770), we learn from Professor Terry's Jacobites and the Union, was found guilty of high treason for his share in the 'ls, but was parr doned, /and was with Prince Charlie during the -< immortal '45. The••\V i lioie-story of Charles -WogSn's romantic rescue'

of the Princess Clementina „ Sobeski, King James 111. future Tbride, from her virtual imprisonment at "Innsbruck, is told in A. E. W. Mason's Clementina. This expedition, by the way, was wholly Irish, and 'entirely successful. Surely there is room for a :history of the Wogan family covering their services to the House of Stuart, and let lis hope this will catch the eye of someone anxious to establish a literary reputation, and to earn the gratitude of his or her contemporaries. As in Scotland, so in Ireland, the Stuarts figure to this day in some of the popular ballads of the people. When the Irish Gaelic League set itself to collect songs which were well known to the people, but which had never been printed, one of the members discovered a long Jacobite poem containing one exquisite line —"My heart leaps up with my bright Stuart." • Mary of Modena, King James 11. Consort, was indefatigable in her efforts .to alleviate distress among the Jacobite following, and in the Stuart papers now preserved at Windsor Castle, there are numberless references to Irish loyalists. The following letter is typical of many: Queen Mary to the Archbishop of Vienna, May 15, 1697, "The regard and consideration I am informed you have for the subjects of the King (James II.), on all; occasions that you can oblige them, causes me to beg you partly to assist my inability to put several young Irish ladies into convents to be educated. If you could find me a place for one or two, till God puts me in a position to provide for their maintenance myself, I shall be under a particular obligation to you."— The Jacobite. ; ..