Gateway to Ireland's rich historical past

Thomas DavisSeptember of course is the month in which Thomas Davis died in 1845. Leader of the Young Irelanders and a journalist with the Nation, Davis represented a new generation. His death of course coincided with the first signs of potato blight in Ireland that month which would spell disaster for millions. This insightful piece from September 1968 in the Irish Examiner provides a good account of Davis: SAMUEL FERGUSON'S well remembered poem "Lament for Thomas Davis" with its lovely-clean-cut opening, "I walked through Ballinderry in the springtime," is as near as we can now come to understanding the mood of Ireland when the news of Davis's death spread throughout the land. The sense of loss was hardly to be borne and men turned almost immediately to count, not the loss of Davis but his achievement in healing the differences between Irishmen, and in giving hope of an united Irish nation, "self-respecting, self-relying, self advancing." The foundation of the "nation" newspaper in 1842 was modern Irish history. It created the most significant event in a new kind of Irishman, and it set new aims for him, and it forged a new kind of literature for him and a- new culture. Davis was a man of the most Intense sincerity and his efforts to promote political and social prosperity in Ireland were fired by a singleness of purpose that gave to his readers all that he possessed and perhaps all that he was. In fact, the model that Davis put before his countrymen and the aims that he set for them were nothing other than the vision of himself that he had created and the ideals that he had set for himself. We can see how Davis and the other poets of the "Nation" were able, even within one year, to make a national literature, stamped with the popular idiom, inspired by patriotism, breathing of the climate and scenery, and informed of the history and manners of the people.Of Davis himself, however, who died unexpectedly, at the age of 31 on September 16, 1845, we get to know very little. His influence on all that has happened since then, surely calls for a critical biography of him. For more information search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )