ch alone I have had
access.

It would have given me the sincerest pleasure to add to the collection
of heads, which I have been able to procure, those of others who took an
honourable part in the Irish struggle. Foremost among them are John
Martin and Kevin Izod O'Doherty, who followed in the footsteps and
shared the fate of John Mitchel. But I am not aware that there are any
likenesses of them in existence; at all events they are not to be
obtained in this country.[1]

There are others, too, mentioned in my narrative, whose likenesses I
would feel delighted to present to my readers, and some, who although
cursorily or not at all mentioned, acted a noble and devoted part. Of
the first, are the companions of my wanderings, James Stephens and John
O'Mahony; and of the second, Doctor Antisel, Richard Dalton Williams,
James Cantwell, Richard Hartnet, Patrick O'Dea, and indeed many others,
of whose efforts and sacrifices it would be a source of pride to me to
make honourable mention.[2]

I may be permitted to take this opportunity to assure them and others of
whom I have not spoken that no name has been omitted by me from any
feelings of dislike or any desire to depreciate the services and
sacrifices of a single man among the hundreds, whose exile or ruin
attests the sincerity of their convictions and the purity of their
patriotism. Even with men who do not take the same view of last year's
history as I do, their names and characters will go far to redeem its
darkest traces from shame and obloquy. They are now scattered over the
wide earth, and there is not one among them from the highest to the
humblest, whom I do not hold in the utmost honour and esteem.

_New York, September 21, 1849._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: I am glad it has been found easy to supply these in this
edition of the work.--Ed.]

[Footnote 2: Some of these will also be found in the present
gallery--Ed.]

[Illustration: William Smith O'Brien]

CHAPTER I

RETROSPECT--COMMENCEMENT OF THE REPEAL STRUGGLE.--EARLY DAYS OF THE
ASSOCIATION.

The appearance of this narrative will surprise no one. For apology, if
any be needed, the writer may trust to his own share in the transactions
with which it deals; and still more so perhaps to the misrepresentation
to which, during their progress, he had been personally subjected. But
personal vindication imparts neither interest nor importance to history,
while it necessarily detracts from its dignity