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Yelverton, Barry, Viscount Avonmore, a distinguished lawyer, was born at Newmarket, County of Cork, 28th May 1736. He studied at Trinity College, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1757; LL.B., 1761; and LL.D., 1774. A contemporary writer says: "He was called to the Bar in 1764; but many years passed away before he was at all distinguished, so as to attract the notice of the public; but he at length found his way into Parliament, where he joined the patriots of the day in procuring an enlargement of commercial privileges, and the establishment of legislative independence. Mr. Yelverton soon afterwards embraced the opposite side, and lent his aid to the Court, by resisting reform in the representation;.. hence his professional advancement." He was made Attorney-General in 1782, Baron of the Exchequer in 1784, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Avonmore in 1795. He supported the Union Bill in the House of Lords in more than one masterly speech, and was created Viscount Avonmore in 1800. Lord Cornwallis's promise of this advance in the peerage in return for his vote was one of those to which the Duke of Portland most strongly objected. Lord Avonmore died 19th August 1805, aged 69. Barrington says: "A vigorous, commanding, undaunted eloquence burst from his lips - not a word was lost. In the common transactions of the world he was an infant; in the varieties of right and wrong, of propriety and error, a frail mortal; in the senate and at the Bar a mighty giant. It was on the bench that, unconscious of his errors, and in his home, unconscious of his virtues, both were most conspicuous... A patriot by nature, yet susceptible of seduction - a partisan by temper, yet capable of instability - the commencement and the conclusion of his political career were as distinct as the poles, and as dissimilar as the elements. .. As a judge he had certainly some of those marked imperfections too frequently observable in judicial officers... A scholar, a poet, a statesman, a lawyer - in elevated society he was a brilliant wit, at lower tables, a vulgar humorist... He was a friend, ardent, but indiscriminate even to blindness... On the question of the Union, the radiance of his public character was obscured for ever - the laurels of his early achievements fell withered from his brow; and after having with zeal and sincerity laboured to attain independence for his country in 1782, he became one of its salesmasters in 1800. .. In the midst of his greatest errors and most reprehensible moments, it was difficult not to respect, and impossible not to regard him."

York, Richard, Duke of, son of the Earl of Cambridge, a scion of the Plantagenet royal family of England, was born about the year 1411. Through his mother, daughter of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, he inherited extensive estates in England and Ireland, and pretensions to the Crown, as being descended from Lionel, third son of Edward III., the reigning family being descended from John of Gaunt, the fourth. In 1449 the Duke of York was sent into virtual exile in Ireland as Lord-Lieutenant, but stipulated for complete freedom of action in the government, and for the entire revenue of the country, besides a substantial yearly allowance. On the 6th of July he landed at Howth with much pomp, accompanied by his duchess, and was well received by the people of the Pale, with whom his ancestors had been popular. At the head of a large force he advanced into the country of the O'Byrnes and brought them to terms, and acted with such tact and discretion that before Michaelmas about a score of the Irish "kings, dukes, earls, and barons came to the Viceroy, swore to be true liegemen to Henry VI., and to the Duke and his heirs, gave hostages, and entered into indentures." The English reports of these affairs added that so great was his influence that "the wildest Irishman in Ireland would before twelve months be sworn English." On 21st October 1449, the Duke's son George, afterwards Duke of Clarence, was born in Dublin Castle, and the Earls of Kildare and Ormond stood his sponsors. At a Parliament convened the same month, Acts were passed against coigne, livery, and other exactions. The English of Cork memorialized the Duke to restrain the contentions of the English lords of that county:- "We, the King's poor subjects of this city of Cork, Kinsale, and Youghal, desire your lordships to send hither two good justices to see this matter ordered and amended, and some captain with twenty Englishmen, that may be captains over us all; and we will rise with him, when need is, to redress these enormities, all at our cost; and if yon do not, then we are all cast away; and then, farewell Minister for ever." The English of Waterford and Wexford were in no better plight. MacGeoghegan, lord of Kinelea, in Westmeath, had been amongst those who submitted, and even presented the Duke with 380 kine, but he shortly afterwards ravaged the ducal domains in Meath. The Viceroy marched against him, but MacGeoghegan had such a force of well-appointed cavalry that he was fain to make terms and forego all claims for the damage committed. The Duke was soon in want of funds (the Irish revenues being very uncertain, and the allowances from England not forthcoming), and was compelled to pledge his jewels and plate, and borrow from his friends. In September 1450 he suddenly returned to England, leaving the eldest son of the Earl of Ormond as Deputy. In the ensuing wars of the Roses, Irish contingents fought on both sides, particularly on that of the Yorkists. In 1459 the Duke revisited Ireland, where he was enthusiastically received. Stimulated by the presence of the Duke, and in answer to the decrees of the Lancastrian Parliament at Coventry, the Irish Parliament at Trim asserted the independence of the legislature of Ireland, and affirmed the right to separate laws and statutes, and a distinct coinage, and that the King's subjects in Ireland were not bound to answer any writs except those under the Great Seal of Ireland. A messenger who arrived with English writs for the apprehension of the Duke was tried for treason against the Irish Parliament, and hanged, drawn, and quartered. The King's friends then made an unsuccessful effort to stir up the Irish septs to revolt. Subsequently, the Yorkists gaining some important successes in England, the Duke committed the government to the Earl of Kildare, crossed to Chester, and made his way by rapid stages to London, which he entered in triumph. His brief subsequent career, and his defeat and death (31st December 1460) at the battle of Wakefield, are matters of English history.

Young, Arthur, a distinguished agriculturist, was born at Bradfield, Yorkshire, 7th September 1741. He wrote accounts of several tours of observation in different parts of Europe, and is regarded as one of the highest authorities upon the social and agricultural condition of Ireland in the latter half of the 18th century. Between the years 1776 and 1779 he travelled in a chaise 2,300 miles through the country, and from 1777 to 1779 managed the estates of Viscount Kingsborough in the County of Cork. He held the clearest and soundest opinions upon political science. His Tour in Ireland, with General Observations on the present state of that Kingdom, made in the Years 1776,1777, and 1778, and brought down to the end of 1779, was first published, in one volume, in 1780. It is more generally to be met with in two volumes. The first is occupied with his tour through Ireland in the autumn of 1776. A few pages of the second volume are devoted to tours in 1777 and 1778, the remainder being devoted to "Observations on the preceding intelligence." There are several interesting plates of scenery, and one giving a shocking picture of "an Irish cabbin." He accurately describes the system of farming in different parts of the country, and specifies the rents and wages; states the condition of roads and public works, and makes judicious comments upon all matters within the scope of his observation. He was not indifferent to natural scenery, and was specially delighted with Lough Erne and Killarney. Two countries could hardly be more unlike than the Ireland he describes and that of to-day. He is indignant at the oppression to which the mass of the people were subjected:- "The abominable distinctions of religion, united with the oppressive conduct of the little country gentlemen, or rather vermin of the kingdom, who never were out of it, altogether bear still very heavy on the poor people, and subject them to situations more mortifying than we ever behold in England. The landlord of an Irish estate inhabited by Roman Catholics is a sort of despot who yields obedience in whatever concerns the poor to no law but that of his will... Speaking a language that is despised, professing a religion that is abhorred, and being disarmed, the poor find themselves in many cases slaves even in the bosom of written liberty... A landlord in Ireland can scarcely invent an order which a servant, labourer, or cottar dares to refuse to execute. Nothing satisfies him but an unlimited submission: disrespect or anything tending towards sauciness he may punish with his cane or his horsewhip with the most perfect security; a poor man would have his bones broke if he offered to lift up his hand in his own defence. Knocking down is spoken of in the country in a manner that makes an Englishman stare. It must strike the most careless traveller to see whole strings of cars whipt into a ditch by a gentleman's footman to make way for his carriage; if they are overturned or broken in pieces, it is taken in patience; were they to complain, they would perhaps be horsewhipped. The execution of the laws lies very much in the hands of justices of the peace, many of whom are drawn from the most illiberal class in the kingdom... A poor man having a contest with a gentleman must - but I am talking nonsense; they know their situation too well to think of it; they can have no defence but by means of protection from one gentleman against another, who probably protects his vassal as he would the sheep he intends to eat." Young's personal experiences are often interesting. The miseries of a two days' voyage from Passage to Milford are descanted on, and the delay of twenty-four days before sailing upon another occasion.- "The expenses of this passage are higher than those from Dublin to Holyhead" - he paid £15 5s. for himself, two servants, three horses, and a chaise. The most important part of the work is that in which he reviews the general condition of Ireland - the destruction of her trade by Great Britain, the iniquity of the penal laws, the necessity of a fixed composition for tithe, the impolicy of the bounty on inland carriage, and his belief in the desirability of a union with Great Britain. McCulloch says: "The works of Arthur Young did incomparably more than those of any other individual to introduce a taste for agriculture and to diffuse a knowledge of the art in this and other countries. They are written in an animated, forcible, pure English style, and are at once highly entertaining and instructive... Though sometimes rash and prejudiced, his statements and inferences may in general be depended upon. His activity, perseverance, and devotedness to agriculture were unequalled... His Tours, especially those in Ireland and in France, which are both excellent, are his most valuable publications." Arthur Young died 12th April 1820, aged 78, and was buried at Bradfield, of which parish his father had been rector.

Young, Matthew, Bishop of Clonfert, an eminent mathematician and natural philosopher, was born in the County of Roscommon in 1750. He entered Trinity College in 1766, and was elected Fellow and took orders in 1775. In 1798 the bishopric of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh was most unexpectedly conferred upon him by Lord Cornwallis. He wrote several scientific works, including: Inquiry into the Phenomena of Sound, 1784; The Force of Testimony; Primitive Colours in Solar Light; Analysis of the Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1803. He was also a musician, an enthusiastic botanist, and somewhat of an artist. The Gentleman's Magazine says: "The versatility of his talents, the acuteness of his intellect, and his intense application to study were happily blended with a native unassuming modesty, a simplicity of manners, unaffected, and infinitely engaging; a cheerfulness and vivacity;.. afirm and inflexible spirit of honour and integrity." One of the pleasures he hoped to derive from a country residence, on his appointment to the bishopric, was the opportunity of pursuing his botanical studies; but shortly after his elevation, symptoms of cancer developed themselves. Slowly dying from that dreadful disease, and shut out from social intercourse, he continued his studies with great activity - revising his works for the press, and even studying Syriac for the purpose of editing a new version of the Psalms, He died at Whitworth, in Lancashire, 28th November 1800, aged 50. Bishop Young contributed largely to the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, of which he was one of the earliest members, and left some mathematical treatises in manuscript.

Zeuss, Johann Kaspar, author of Grammatica Celtica, was born at Vogtendorf, in Bavaria, 22nd July 1806. In 1826 he went to Munich to prepare himself for an office in higher education. Languages were his passion from early years. He became a college tutor, and in 1837, whilst still a young man, wrote "The Germans and their Neighbours," which marks an epoch in the study of European ethnography. In 1840 he was appointed Professor of History in the College of Spires, where he seems to have commenced his great work on the Celtic dialects, a task to which he unceasingly devoted himself for the next thirteen years. The publication of his Grammatica Celtica, at Leipsic, in 1853, was entirely unexpected. No one knew of Zeuss's plan, nor had anyone, even when the title of the work was advertised, the slightest idea of its importance. John O'Donovan contributed an analysis of the book to the Ulster Journal of Archaeology for 1859. He says: "The Grammatica Celtica has the name of being exceedingly hard to be understood. And so it is without a doubt... We must recognize in the Grammatica Celtica purely a triumph of comparative philology... He has succeeded in giving for the first time a wonderful analysis of the Celtic-.. of that original form of the language where all the modern dialects of it find their point of coincidence." O'Donovan also says: "It contains proofs of the purely Japetic origin of the Celts. It demonstrates the following facts: (1) That the Irish and Welsh languages are one in their origin; that their divergence, so far from being primeval, began only a few centuries before the Roman period; that the difference between them was very small when Caesar landed in Britain - so small, that an old Hibernian most likely was still understood there; and that both nations, Irish and British, were identical with the Celtae of the Continent - namely, those of Gaul, Spain, Lombardy, and the Alpine countries. This is, in fact, asserting the internal unity of the Celtic family. (2) That this Celtic tongue is, in the full and complete sense of the term, one of the great Indo-European branches of human speech... There must now be an end to all attempts at assimilating either Hebrew, Phenician, Egyptian, Basque, or any other language which is not Indo-European, with any dialect of the Celtic. The consequence further is, that, as far as language gives evidence, we must consider the inhabitants of these islands strictly as brethren of those other five European families constituting that vast and ancient pastoral race who spread themselves in their nomadic migrations, till in the west they occupied Gaul, and crossed over to Britain, and to Ireland, the last boundary of the old world... The Irish nation has had no nobler gift bestowed upon them by any Continental author for centuries back than the work which he has written on their language." Dr. Reeves adds: "Zeuss was the greatest benefactor that Irish literature can record in its list." Some years after the publication of this work, Zeuss is said to have expressed some disappointment at the apparent indifference with which it was received. But he was little aware what a revolution was being effected in opinion, and what deep root it was taking in the minds of all Celtic philologists who were susceptible of good impressions. Zeuss was a tall, well-made, rather spare man, with black hair and moustache, giving one more the impression of a Slavonian or a Greek than of a German. He died 10th November 1856, aged 50, at Vorstendorf, near Kronach, in Bavaria. The Grammatica Celtica is written in Latin. The last edition, published at Berlin in 1871, was edited by Ebel.

Intro A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M(1) | M(2) | M(3) | N | O(1) | O(2) | O(3) | P | Q | R | S(1) | S(2) | T | U | V | W(1) | W(2) | X | Y | Z | Addenda