James Fintan Lalor
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The real Revolutionary of '48, was born March 8th, 1807, at Tenaill, Abbeyleix. Sent to Carlow Lay College, 1825. On leaving College he was apprenticed to Dr. Jacob of Maryborough. He only remained eighteen months here, when he left suddenly and embarked for France. On his return from France he looked around and beheld the deplorable plight of the peasants, serfs chafing under the foreign system of Land Tenure, brought to the lowest depths of degradation and despair, and straightaway his soul took fire with zeal for the regeneration of his down-trodden fellow-countrymen. On January 11th, 1847, he wrote his first letter to Gavan Duffy, the editor of the "Nation." The fiery eloquence, the ring of sincerity and confidencedeeply impressed the Confederates, and Lalor was asked to state his views in the "Nation." After Mitchel's arrest he joined Martin in the publication of "The Felon," in May, 1848. |
Tradition hath it that Lalor made a second journey to France, and was in Paris for the Revolution of '48.
To Lalor belongs the honour of being the first Irish man who wrote on political economy from a national standpoint. His teaching was eagerly adopted by John Mitchel. He was the inspiration of Henry George, and his principles found expression in modern times inMichael Davitt and the Land League.
Though there were always politicians to mouth the name of Tone and Emmet, Lalor was boycotted for a generation, nay, his very resting place was obliterated, and unknown for sixty years. Lalor died in Parnell Street, in obscure lodgings, in 1849. Of him, James Connolly, our great socialist teacher, wrote:— "He died as he had lived, a revolutionist, and a rebel against all forms of political and social injustices. In his writings, as we study them to-day, we find principles of action and society which have within them, not only the best plan of campaign for a country seeking its freedom through insurrection against a dominant nation, but also the seeds of the more perfect social peace of the future." |
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