I had the pleasure of welcoming in the columns of the “Catholic Times,” which was then under my direction, the first number of the “Irish World.”  I could feel at once that the paper and the man who edited it had for me a congenial ring about them.  I am deeply indebted for the kindly and generous interest which Patrick Ford has so long personally and in the columns of the “Irish World” shewn in the success of my Irish publications, and I am delighted to have the opportunity of joining in the tribute paid to him by Michael Davitt.

CHAPTER XVI.

MICHAEL DAVITT’S RETURN FROM PENAL SERVITUDE—­PARNELL AND THE “ADVANCED” ORGANISATION.

In the year following the Liverpool Home Rule Convention of 1877, I had the pleasure of welcoming back to freedom my old friend, Michael Davitt, after he had been in penal servitude close upon eight years.  He had been released, along with other Fenian prisoners, and, with Corporal Chambers, came on April 28th, 1878, to a gathering we organised and held in the Adelphi Theatre, Liverpool, for the benefit of the liberated men, John O’Connor Power being the lecturer for the occasion, and Dr. Commins our chairman.

Michael Davitt, on rising to speak, was received with a terrific outburst of cheering, again and again repeated.

I was sitting immediately behind him on the platform, and I noticed, while he was speaking, a constant nervous twitching of his hand, which he held behind his back, and he was evidently in a state of highly-strung excitement.  I was not surprised when we had that day a painful proof of how the prison treatment had undermined his constitution.  After the gathering we brought the released prisoners and the principal speakers to be entertained at the house of Patrick Byrne, a warm-hearted, patriotic Irishman, and were much alarmed when Davitt fell into a deep faint, from which he only recovered through the ministrations of one of our most respected Liverpool Nationalists, Dr. Bligh, who fortunately was present.  For a few moments it seemed as if he never would revive.

There is no doubt but that their treatment during their long term of penal servitude seriously affected the health of several of the Irish political prisoners.  It was only three months previous to his visit to us in Liverpool that Davitt reached Dublin, with three others of the released prisoners—­Sergeant McCarthy, Corporal Chambers, and John O’Brien.  To the consternation of his friends, McCarthy died suddenly at Morrison’s Hotel, on January 15th, the cause, it was believed, being heart disease.  This caused such a shock to Chambers that his life, too, was put in danger.  I was pleased to see him restored to health after this when he called on me in Liverpool with his brother, with whom I was well acquainted.  The shock of the sudden death of his friend McCarthy must have affected Michael Davitt too, as we found from the report of our friend, Dr. Bligh, in what a precarious state of health he must have been at the time.  It will be remembered that Rickard Burke became insane, it was thought, and stated in Parliament, owing to his treatment while in Chatham Prison.