Thomas Clarke Luby (1821-1901)
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Life
| [usu. T. C. Luby]; b. Dublin; ed. TCD, theology; Repeal Association, joined Young Ireland; contrib. the Nation; attempted to revive the rebellion through formation a secret society; worked with James Fintan Lalor on the Tribune; with John O’Leary and Lalor, organised the Young Ireland Rising at Cappoquin, Co. Waterford; arrested at Cashel, 1849; escaped from gaol in Dublin and emigrated to Australia; moved to Paris, and afterwards settled in New York, organising Fenian cells in Union Army; launched Fenian movement in Ireland with James Stephens, with whom he travelled through Ireland on a ‘walking tour’, 1858; |
| spoke oration at graveside of Terence Bellew MacManus, claiming that his example gave ‘us faith and stern resolve to do the work for which McManus died’; visited Ireland in 1863; arrested on charge of Treason-Felony, 1865; arrested, 1865, and held in Kilmainham; sentenced to 20 years for ‘treasonable felony’ on the strength of a demented revolutionary letter by Christopher O’Keeffe among his papers; tried before William Keogh and sentenced to 20 years; held in Richmond Prison; released for reasons of health [amnesty], 1871 [after six years]; |
| returned to America and settled in New York where he worked for Clann na nGael and the Irish Federation; collected funds in USA in 1873; distrusted Parnell’s Home Rule movement; Life of Daniel O’Connell (1872); Lives and Times of Illustrious and Representative Irishmen (1878). ODNB DIW DIB DIH |
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Works
Life and Times of Daniel O’Connell (Glasgow 1872); Life and Times of Illustrious and Representative Irishmen (NY: Kelly 1878), 6, 614pp., ill. [ports.]; also, with F. Walsh & Jeremiah C. Curtin, The Story of Ireland’s Struggles for Self-Government (1893).
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Criticism
See under James Stephens (b.1825).
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References
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2, associate of James Fintan Lalor in 1849 [207]; John O’Leary compares himself with Luby and Kickham (Recollections, 1896) [259]; John Devoy speaks of Luby and other Fenians in Richmond Prison at the time of James Stephens’ escape of 1865 (Recollections, 1929) [269].
Library Catalogues: HYLAND BOOKS (Oct. 1995) lists T. C. Luby, Life and Times of O’Connell (Glasgow n.d.), ix+538pp. BELFAST LINEHALL LIBRARY holds Lives and Times of Illustrious and Representative Irishmen (1878); with others, Report on the [Dublin County Commission] (1866). BELFAST CENTRAL LIBRARY holds Lives (NY 1878), which includes Gaelic and Anglo-Irish figures from Brian Boru and Art MacMurrough to Sir James Ware.
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