February Lecture 2019: Ireland's Napoleon - John O'Connor Power
The Old Tuam Society's lecture series for the
2018-19 season resumes this February 21st and we are delighted to welcome
author Jane Stanford
who will be speaking about her ancestor John
O’Connor Power. Jane's lecture entitled "Ireland's
Napoleon" will detail Power's life as a Home Ruler, a
Member for Mayo (1874-1885), a journalist and a Fenian through his prominent
role in the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was
considered a formidable political strategist and made himself welcome in
Westminster’s corridors of power and London society. Indeed, his cunning and
intellect were such that he was an inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle in creating Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty; a seditious
Irishman with ‘hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind'.
As the Supreme Council’s ‘accredited agent’, he advised successive
British governments on land legislation, local government reform and electoral
policy. He harnessed the influence of the diaspora, the Irish in England and
the Empire and its ex-colonies and demanded justice for Ireland. Considered one
of the outstanding orators of the time, he was ranked with Gladstone and John
Bright.
Aged 25, he furthered his education at St. Jarlath's College,
Tuam, with his fees and expenses paid by a combination of teaching and lectures
in Britain and America. In his final year he was Professor of Humanities at St.
Jarlaths.
Our speaker, Jane Stanford, is author of ‘Moriarty
Unmasked: Conan Doyle and an Anglo-Irish Quarrel’, (Carrowmore, 2017) and ‘That
Irishman: the life and times of John O’Connor Power’, (History
Press Ireland, 2011).
Tuam Library
8 pm, Thursday, 21 February
All Welcome
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