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Dion Boucicault might have scarpered from Ireland to the US having left his wife for a young actress....but he also kept the name of James Napper Tandy alive long after he was dead and buried.....with a mention in his version of the song "The Wearing of the Green" ....based on an old street ballad.....for his 1864 play Arragh na Pogue....sixty one years after Nappers death.
Napper Tandy was a rebel, and Secretary of the Society of United Irishmen in the years leading up to the 1798 rebellion.
Similar to Michael Collins who was born one hundred and fifty three years after him, Napper changed his address in Dublin frequently to avoid detection and capture.
Believed to have been born at No 6 Cornmarket, as per the plaque on the house below.
His final address in Dublin before he took off for the USA and later France, where he became a revered general in the French army, and an admired favourite of Napoleon Bonaparte.....was 67 Bride Street.....
Other addresses were 16 Dorset Street......21 Cornmarket.....180 Abbey Street....67 Bride Street and 97 Bride Street.....and finally back to 67 Bride Street (1789-1795).
He was quite a character, and even had a major barney with James gandon over the building of the present Custom House.
One month after the failure of General Humbert's expedition, Napper landed in Donegal in September 1798.
He was captured and sentenced to death by the English. Napoleon intervened on his behalf and it is even said to have made Tandy's release a condition of signing the Treaty of Amiens.
Tandy was allowed to escape to France, He died in Bordeaux in 1803, leaving an estranged wife in Ireland and a mistress in France.
The plaque from the house is now in the garden of St Audoen's where he was baptised.
Not bad for a good Protestant lad.........Talk about the luck of the Irish ?.
(PS: Dont ye just love the sun screen thrown up backwards lol).
I met with Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand
Saying how is old Ireland, and how does she stand ?
They are hanging men and women for the wearing of the green
She's the most distressful country that yet was ever seen;
Saying how is old Ireland, and how does she stand ?
They are hanging men and women for the wearing of the green
She's the most distressful country that yet was ever seen;
Napper Tandy was a rebel, and Secretary of the Society of United Irishmen in the years leading up to the 1798 rebellion.
Similar to Michael Collins who was born one hundred and fifty three years after him, Napper changed his address in Dublin frequently to avoid detection and capture.
Believed to have been born at No 6 Cornmarket, as per the plaque on the house below.
His final address in Dublin before he took off for the USA and later France, where he became a revered general in the French army, and an admired favourite of Napoleon Bonaparte.....was 67 Bride Street.....
Other addresses were 16 Dorset Street......21 Cornmarket.....180 Abbey Street....67 Bride Street and 97 Bride Street.....and finally back to 67 Bride Street (1789-1795).
One observer of a political meeting he addressed remembering:
He was the ugliest man I ever gazed on. He had a dark, yellow, truculent-looking countenance, a long drooping nose, rather sharpened at the point, and the muscles of his face formed two cords at each side of it.
He was the ugliest man I ever gazed on. He had a dark, yellow, truculent-looking countenance, a long drooping nose, rather sharpened at the point, and the muscles of his face formed two cords at each side of it.
One month after the failure of General Humbert's expedition, Napper landed in Donegal in September 1798.
He was captured and sentenced to death by the English. Napoleon intervened on his behalf and it is even said to have made Tandy's release a condition of signing the Treaty of Amiens.
Tandy was allowed to escape to France, He died in Bordeaux in 1803, leaving an estranged wife in Ireland and a mistress in France.
The plaque from the house is now in the garden of St Audoen's where he was baptised.
Not bad for a good Protestant lad.........Talk about the luck of the Irish ?.
(PS: Dont ye just love the sun screen thrown up backwards lol).
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