Clare Past Forum

Hi

I ask this without much hope of an answer as I have never as yet got one to a topic I raised on this forum, only to answers I gave to others. My research interests seem to be obscure.

Does anyone know anything about the early 1800s poet and writer of temperance songs William MacNamara Downes who wrote a poem in which he used Dean John Kenny (my first cousin many times removed) as his model for the priest, "The birthplace" . His birthplace was Kilrush and he writes of the school he went to there(run by Allen) and the general environs as he does on the local minster and priest.
He also has poems on a pig herder in Kilrush and on Allan a rebel Allan from Malbay who had to emigrate.
His book subscribers are all from Clare and Limerick except Thomas Moore who he asked to subscribe.
He says he spent a few years in the West Indies

I can find nothing on him online though the NLI has several of his pamphlets and books

Margaret

Peter Beirne's typically thorough reply to another version of this query is hidden away under 15 Apr 2013 at http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/guests.htm

Hi Margaret,

Looks like he died in New York. Here is his obituary in the Irish American Weekly of October 1, 1853 (source: genealogybank.com):

OBITUARY

We seldom discharged a more painful or melancholy duty than that of recording the demise of our friend and former associate, Wm. Macnamara Downes, Esq., who arrived from Ireland at Quarantine ground (Staten Island) on Monday,the 12th inst., and died on Thursday, the 15th.

Mr. Downes was, for some years, connected with the Irish Press, and was much admired for his skill as a stenographic reporter, and his ability as a fluent and eloquent writer. He was popularly known and appreciated, as a graceful and gifted poet, by a large number of his fellow-countrymen. He had long expressed a desire to come to the great Republic - (it was but a few weeks since we had a letter from Carrigaholt, Clare, Ireland, enclosing a poem we then published in the Irish-American) - but an ALL WISE PROVIDENCE so ordained it that, having attained his object, he was taken away before he could enjoy the sweets of that freedom which his warm and patriotic soul so long and so ardently coveted.

His brothers (Capt. Downes, of the O'Brien Guard, and Mr. Downes, of Brooklyn) paid our dear friend every affectionate and consoling attention in his last moments. On Saturday his remains were removed to Greenwood Cemetery.

Poor William Downes, who was in his 40th year, was nearly connected with some of the first families of his native county (Clare) who, with a large circle of acquaintances, there and here, will deeply regret and deplore his loss.

May God grant his soul eternal rest !

I have relatives buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn and know it has an excellent website. Found him listed as "William M. Downs".
http://www.green-wood.com/burial_results/index.php

POET'S CORNER

The Forsaken

Original Stanzas written for The Irish-American

BY WILLIAM M. DOWNES, AUTHOR OF POETIC SKETCHES

In the land of my birth, I am left all alone.
My kindred are gone o'er Atlantic's wild wave,
Oh, shall I again hear your voices, my own --
Or meet you once more on this side of the grave?

The fate that divides us, alas, is the same,
Which thousands compell'd from their country to go.
The curse, and the blight of misfortune that came,
Left many sad hearts in this island of woe.

And wide is the gulf that is rolling between
The friends of my childhood, these lov'd ones, and me
Of life's early joys I remember each scene,
As, sadly, I gaze on the foam of the sea.

Yet, oh, ye belov'd, who are far, far way,
In bonds of affection long may ye entwine!
Perchance, should you meet with this sorrowful lay,
Your souls may then know the dark anguish of mine.

Farewell! though unseen, you shall ne'er be forgot,
And if on this earth, I should meet you no more,
The lone and forsaken must bear with his lot,
In hope that we'll meet on Eternity's shore!

Carrigaholt, Co. Clare, Ireland
May 18, 1853

Source: Irish American Weekly, Saturday, June 11, 1853 (genealogybank.com newspaper archive)

Thanks that is interesting. There is a book of his poems in the NLI.

One on Kilrush including mention of the school he went to there. He seems to have travelled a fair bit he is coming home from the Carribean (I think)

LIMERICK AND CLARE MONTHLY JOURNAL.

The articles in the last number of the Periodical, both prose and poetry, are of more than average merit. “The Fairy Circle, an Irish Tale,” is a most interesting piece, and what is better, it combines with what is agreeable, a useful and instructive moral.—There are several other prose articles, original and selected, that are exceedingly interesting. As of the poetry of the number, the best of it is by Mr. Downes himself; we mean the original portion of it. His lines “Written before the removal of Bonaparte’s remains,” have much of spirit and fire. The following will be read with pleasure:—

EPITAPH FOR THE LATE THOMAS DAVIS, ESQ.

Mourn the patriot—mourn the bard;
Freedom’s shade his ashes guard!
Broken in his martial lyre,
Fled—his soul of song and fire!
Pity shed they sacred tear—
Strew thy gems of crystal here:
For in manhood’s op’ning bloom
DAVIS found an early tomb!
Yes—in that all glorious hour
When his genius—bardic power—
Rose at once—sublimely grand—
Flash’d electric through the land!
Then—so gifted and so young,
Thou with Cato’s burning tongue,
With the Spartan’s fearless soul—
Spurning bonds, the slave’s control:
Who like Tell, thy land would free—
Soon—too soon we mourn for thee!
Erin—weep thy darling son,
He, whose race had but begun,
All untimely though he fell,
Still he lov’d, and serv’d thee well!
Oh, for thee with heroic pride,
He would pour the crimson tide,
Through his noble heart that ran,
To the battle’s deadly van!
Coldly though he sleeps on earth,
__Ev’n when ceases sorrow’s tear,
To the land that gave him birth
__Long his memory shall be dear!

W.M.D.

Limerick Reporter, Tuesday, 20 January 1846

In researching the song “The West’s Asleep” by Thomas Davis published in July 1843, I stumbled upon the “eptitaph” written by William McNamara Downes for Davis who died on 16 September 1845. Some 65 years later, “The West’s Asleep” was sung by the Rev. James Clune (1861-1945) of Whitegate on New Year’s Eve of 1910 at a concert to support the church repair fund.

Ten years have passed since our prior discussion on the County Clare poet William MacNamara Downes who died soon after arriving in New York on 12 September 1853. I thought it might be productive to take another look as new records might have become available over the past decade that might provide more information on his life. Or perhaps we missed a few clues that were always there.

I had previously discovered his obituary printed in the Irish American Weekly newspaper of 1 October 1853 (genealogybank archive) which was transcribed ten years ago. I’ve now searched the British Newspaper Archive, which includes a larger selection of Irish newspapers, in the hope that an obituary might provide more detailed biographical information.

Unfortunately, the Limerick and Clare Examiner of 15 October 1853 as well as several other Irish newspapers directly quoted the Irish American obituary. The only difference is that they deleted the below sentences regarding his brothers in the USA and his burial at Greenwood cemetery (both very important clues as to his further identity):

His brothers (Capt. Downes, of the O'Brien Guard, and Mr. Downes, of Brooklyn) paid our dear friend every affectionate and consoling attention in his last moments. On Saturday his remains were removed to Greenwood Cemetery.

The Weekly Freeman’s Journal only had a brief note reporting his death:

DEATHS.

At New York, immediately after his arrival from Limerick, Mr. William M. Downes, the poet, author of several lyrical and national works.

Weekly Freeman’s Journal, Saturday, 5 October 1853

The introduction to the above Epitaph for the Late Thomas Davis stated “Mr. Downes himself” as Downes was the publisher of The Limerick and Clare Monthly Journal which he started in July 1845:

Mr. W.M. Downes has just published his first number of the Limerick and Clare Monthly Journal, from the press of Mr. Talbot, Ennis, to whose establishment, as a specimen of typography, it is creditable. The contents of this Periodical are full of entertainment and instruction.

Limerick Chronicle, Wednesday, 2 July 1845

The Limerick and Clare Monthly Journal appears to have been rather short lived as Downes was the editor of a new periodical in June 1847:

THE KILRUSH MAGAZINE AND MONTHLY JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND USEFUL INFORMATION.

We have before use the first number of a literary periodical emanating from the press of Kilrush. As has been observed in the introduction, it marks a new era in the West of Clare, for nothing of the kind was ever before attempted in that locality. What is to be the destiny of the present attempt depends partly upon Mr. Downes, the editor, and partly upon the amount of public spirit and literary taste to be found in the Counties of Limerick and Clare. It certainly must be admitted that “The Kilrush Magazine” sounds strangely enough, when it is recollected that neither the capital of Clare, nor Limerick itself, are able to produce a periodical, at least they have not done so. However, we trust “The Kilrush Magazine” will be judged rather by its own intrinsic merits than by the accident of its birth-place. The contents of this number are sufficiently varied to please the most opposite tastes. There is poetry and prose, legends and other “light reading,” with useful information about the turnip crop and agriculture in general. It will while away a tedious hour as well as conveys instructive hints; and we therefore recommend it to the attention of our readers. We should mention it is announced that “this publication cannot be delivered on any particular day in each month, but that in a short time this difficulty will be overcome.”

Limerick Reporter, Tuesday, 22 June 1847

The second number of the “Kilrush Magazine” by Mr. W.M. Downes, the well-known and popular Bard of the West, has just made its appearance. The author has a strong claim upon the patriots and teetotalers, of Limerick, Clare, and Cork, to which a sense of merit and national gratitude will give the desired response.

Limerick Chronicle, Wednesday, 14 July 1847

William MacNamara Downes had unfortunate timing in creating both publications. Not too surprisingly, it appears that the July 1847 issue was its second and last (there is no other mention of it in a search of the newspaper archives).

When I googled “Capt. Downes of the O’Brien Guard”, the result was an article on John O’Donoghue of Carrigeen, Killarney (Co. Kerry) : https://castleislanddistrictheritage.co ... tterateur/ . McNamara Downes is referred to as having written a poem to O’Donoghue. The endnote (No. 9) gives some information on McNamara Downes but very little more than has already been mentioned in this thread:

" [9] William MacNamara Downes or Downs (c1813-1853) native of Co Clare, poet, author, journalist.  Published a number of collections of poetry, including Poetic Sketches, Rural, Pathetic and Descriptive (1836) which includes ‘The Magic Well: A Legend of Killarney’ and Poems, Epistles Etc (1839) dedicated to the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Morpeth. 

Downes was a contemporary of John Jackson (1812-1857) (see Kilrush Petty Sessions (2015) A Selection of the Nineteenth Century Sketches of John Jackson Esq of Kilrush).  His address in 1842 was Moher, Lahinch, Ennistymon and in 1853, Carrigaholt, Co Clare.  It is worth noting that in 1840, John MacNamara Esq, brother of William Nugent MacNamara MP (the member for Clare) was of ‘Moher.’

In 1853, Downes travelled to New York where he died on 15 September 1853 (shortly after his arrival).  He was in his fortieth year, and comforted in his final moments by his brothers, Captain Downes of the O’Brien Guard and Mr Downes of Brooklyn.  He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, New York.  An obituary was published in the Irish American Weekly, 1 October 1853 which stated he was ‘nearly connected with some of the first families of his native county (Clare).’   Short biography in The Poets of Ireland; a Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of Irish Writers of English Verse (1912) by David James O’Donoghue".

It's not clear to me whether the Moher address is that of McNamara Downes, or of John Jackson.

Sheila

Hi Sheila,

Thank you for sharing what you found on William MacNamara Downes. The Moher address was interesting which made me think of the well-known Cliffs of Moher. I now realize upon looking at a map, that the Cliffs of Moher are a fair distant from the Cliffs of Kilkee. Back in 1836 W.M. Downes wrote a poem about the loss of a ship off the Cliffs of Kilkee which was still being recited in County Clare over 100 years later.

THE LADY’S GLOVE.

A few minutes after the Intrinsic (lately wrecked at Bishop’s Island, Kilkee) went down, a gull, hovering over the spot, was seen to descend and pick something out of the water. The bird then rose to a great height, and let go what the wind wafted ashore, and which proved to be a lady’s glove.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬———— “O, where is she ?
Ask of the wind, that far around
With fragments strews the sea ?” HEMANS.

What relic hath fallen from you wild bird,
__ A bider by sounding sea ?
What relic, be booming surges steer’d,
__ And white as the billowy spray ?

Doth it speak aught of the perished there,
__ Gone down to their stormy graves ?
Bringeth it record of brave or fair,
__ Sleeping ‘neath ocean’s waves ?

A lady’s glove! O, bear it hither:
__ Alas! for the hand it press’d !
Fair cheek hath blanch’d, fond hear that wither’d,
__ And bright eyes closed in rest !

Of the cherish’d, at many a hearth and home,
__ There’s left of this relic—toss’d,
Fragile, and light as the deep sea’s foam—
__ A type of the loved and lost.

O, when shall the voice of the mourners cease
__ To wail in the far-off land,
For her who has left the “vacant place,”
__ And severed the kindred soul ?

Whose glove, like the dover-borne branch of yore,
__ Is given for those that weep her:
A pledge that the waters can chill her no more,
__ That sweet is the rest of the sleeper.

Kilrush, February, 1836

Dublin Evening Packet and Correspondent, Tuesday, 9 February 1836

The Lady’s Glove was later published in other newspapers (Tuam Herald, Belfast Commercial Chronicle and others on 23 February 1839) and the poet reported as William M. Downes.

W.M. Downes was able to compose The Lady’s Glove within a very short period of the Intrinsic sinking on 30 January 1836 off the coast of Kilkee. The news of the shipwreck made all the Irish newspapers:

The weather continues this week equally bitter, cold and harsh at the last. The wind has veered about to the northeast, blowing in violent gusts, with occasional showers of sleet and snow.

We have to register in the fatal catalogue of losses at sea in the recent desperate gales, another appalling catastrophe, at Bishop’s Island, near Kilkee, where the Intrinsic merchant vessel, Quirk master, late Chambers, of and from Liverpool to New Orleans, was driven in totally unmanageable by the tempest, on Saturday morning, and dashed to pieces, in the tremendous surf which breaks upon the mighty cliffs along that iron-bound coast. The Master and crew, 14 persons, are reported to have perished within view and hearing of the few natives who collected on the rugged heights of that wild region, but without the possibility of affording succor or relief. The Intrinsic was laden with a general cargo, and appears to have sailed on the 14th of January from the port of Liverpool.

Limerick Chronicle, Wednesday, 3 February 1836

During the gale on Saturday, in which the Intrinsic went down off Kilkee, the congregation were at the chapel, and when it was reported to them, they went in a body to the shore side, in the hope of making an effort to save the crew. But alas! there was nothing available within their reach. One of the crew fell overboard, and was drawn on deck again by a rope which was thrown out to him, and which he was enabled to hold by. This, however, was only a momentary rescue from the devouring deep, for immediately after a sea struck the vessel, and as those witnessed it said, appeared to cut it asunder. The unhappy crew were in a moment swallowed by the wave. A universal shriek of terror and dismay burst from the crowd on the beach, and by a simultaneous impulse they knelt down and offered up an imploring prayer for mercy on their behalf, under the wide spreading canopy of heaven, to him who rideth on the whirlwind and directs the storm.

Clare Journal and Ennis Advertiser, Thursday, 4 February 1836

William M. Downes introduced The Lady’s Glove with three lines taken from Casablanca, a poem written in 1826 by the English poet, Felicia Hemans (1793-1835). Apparently, in Britain, and likely Ireland back in the day, the poem is very famous and one that school children had to memorize. The Guardian newspaper described it as “perhaps the most loved and widely-anthologised poem of the 19th century”, but now more likely to be parodied.

https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/casabianca
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/ ... cia-hemans

The Lady’s Glove may have been written in a rush to get published, but some 18 months later William MacNamara Downes published another poem on the same topic:

THE WRECK.

Loud was the ocean’s stormy roar,
__ And loud the fearful gale.
When from KILKEE’S wild rocky shore
__ Was seen a struggling sail;
High on the swelling billows toss’d
__ Before the raging blast,
Near, and more near that awful coast,
__ The sail was driving fast !

What anguish then, what black despair,
__ Had seized that fated crew;
A hideous clift, a chasm drear,
__ Yawn’d darkly on their view !
And men stood on the land above,
__ Who could no aid bestow,
When the frail bark with fury drove
__ Against the steep below !

The mountain waves were rushing high—
__ And, rending to relate,
No hand could save, tho’ many an eye
__ Look’d downward on their fate;
Each brow was chang’d to ghastly pale,
__ Each heart was seiz’d with fear,
As rose that wild and shrieking wail,
__ That spoke destruction near.

And still as higher roll’d the sea
__ Around the bursting wreck,
A female in wild agony
__ Was wailing on the deck ;
And there, amid the wreckless spray
__ That drench’d her tender form,
Her cries of horror and dismay
__ Were heard above the storm.

Too well that wretched Lady knew
__ All hope of life was past,
When clung to ropes the hapless crew,
__ Or lash’d them to the mast ;
In circling flight, with boding shriek,
__ The ocean vultures watch’d,
And one held in its greedy beak
__ Some morsel which it snatched.

The from the wreck aloft in air
__ Its prey the sea-bird bore ;
But, lo ! ‘twas seen, while soaring there,
__ To drop it on the shore ;
And when it fell upon the land,
__ A glove, alas ! was found—
It well might suit a virgin hand,
__ Sad relic of the drown’d !

That hand which one short hour ago
__ The mournful token wore,
Is lying nerveless, cold and low—
__ It ne’er shall wear it more !
Poor fellow-mortals, unprepared
__ For such dire destiny.
What dismal thoughts their souls had scar’d
__ Of dread Eternity !

No vision shown, no warning given,
__ No prospect of the grave ;
Against the rock their bark was driven,
__ The death-bed was the wave !
Down, down the shatter’d vessel rushed,
__ And never more was seen ;
And soon the awful storm was hushed,
__ Soon ocean smil’d serene !

W. M. DOWNES
Author of Original Poems, &c
Mount Atlas, 1 November 1837

*The above Poem was written on the wreck of the Intrinsic, which was lost off Bishop’s Island, near Kilkee, about two years ago. It is a sad fact that a Sea-gull picked up a Lady’s glove from off the deck, even while the vessel was in the act of sinking. It afterwards dropped it on one of the cliffs, and the glove to this day remains with a friend of ours, as a melancholy memorial of the catastrophe. There were some pretty lines written on this incident by a young gentleman residing at Kilrush, and which appeared on the LIMERICK CHRONICLE.

Limerick Chronicle, Saturday, 11 November 1837

His address as “Mount Atlas” is a total mystery.

One hundred and two years later, the sinking of the Intrinsic was the topic of several contributions to The School’s Collection (duchas) in the 1930’s. The original poem, The Lady’s Glove, was contributed by the student Mary Culhane of Tarmon West, the informant was 51 year old Mr. P. Curry. He must be Patrick Curry, age 23, living in Grattan Street in Kilkee in the 1911 census. Also living in the household, was his sister Mary Curry who was a 27-year old National School Teacher and in 1923 the mother of Mary Culhane. Unfortunate that M.W. Downes was not identified as the poet, but still amazing that the poem was being recited over one hundred years later. I wonder if you were to recite the first line “What relic hath fallen from you wild bird” to any current Kilkee residents if they would recognize the poem.

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5087927/4 ... anguage=ga

The Intrinsic was a merchant vessel with a crew of fourteen and I was somewhat skeptical that a woman would be on board given the old superstition about being bad luck. Fortunately, Patrick Mescall’s contribution to The School’s Collection, provided by a Mr. Lennon, explained that the glove belonged to the captain’s wife who was also lost in the wreck. A google search has revealed that the captain’s wife was generally believed to be an exception to this superstition by the crew (although the Intrinsic did sink).

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5074609/4 ... anguage=ga

The Clare Library only has a brief note explaining how Intrinsic Bay got its name from the 1836 ship wreck with fourteen lives lost. No mention of the poem by W.M. Downes or of the lady’s glove.

https://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/cocla ... istory.htm

In the 1910’s there were many “St. Patrick’s Day Greetings” postcards with a backdrop of Intrinsic Bay. These were not for tourists in Ireland but sold in America. Sending postcards or greeting cards on St. Patrick’s Day I believe is only an American thing.

The Freeman’s Journal in 1837 stated that the “glove to this day remains with a friend of ours, as a melancholy memorial of the catastrophe”. I checked the Clare Museum to see if the lady’s glove had ever been donated and was part of their extensive collection. Sadly not. Someone in Kilkee, I reckon, must still be in possession of the lady’s glove or else have a clue where it might be located.

Sheila, in searching for “the lady’s glove” at the Clare Museum website, I see that this August there was a special exhibit for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Daniel O’Connell, The Liberator.

https://claremuseum.ie/2025/07/daniel-o ... emoration/
https://claremuseum.ie/wp-content/uploa ... ochure.pdf

The exhibit collection included “the green coat” of Michael G. Considine which is part of the museum’s permanent collection. The story, as retold in the exhibit brochure linked above, how “as a mark of his appreciation for loyal service, Daniel O’Connell gave his woolen frock coat, that he had himself worn, to Ennis man Michael G. Considine, sometime before O’Connell’s death in 1847” is charming. Back in 2016 and through to 2020 in your thread “Michael G. Considine and Daniel O’Connell” we had a lengthy discussion about Michael G. Considine. I hope you were able to see the Daniel O’Connell exhibit at the Clare Museum this August.

viewtopic.php?t=6831

LINES ON THE ACCESSION OF
THE PRINCESS VICTORIA
BY W.M. DOWNES.

“Oh ! may’st thou ever be what now thou art.
Nor unbeseem the promise of thy spring !”
BYRON

In loyal affection, with high hearts and voices,
__ Exulting we hail thee, young Queen of the Isles !
Victoria ! Victoria ! our country rejoices.
__ And hope; fairy hope ! on thy destiny smiles.

Oh, when thou art thron’d in proud Royalty’s splendor !
__ When th’ diadem adorns thy fair virgin brow.
To our country, so hapless, look forth and defend her,
__ From the wrongs and afflictions that darken her now.

She is brave—but her children in strife are unceasing,
__ Like other sad nations to history known—
Could they crush in oblivion their feuds so disgracing,
__ What a bulwark of heroes to stand round thy throne?

How oft for Britannia ! In fields dread and gory !
__ When “Erin Go Bragh !” was their loud battle cry !
Have they aided her conquests which brighten her story,
__ With hearts that are framed, but to vanquish or die.

Lov’d Queen ! would’at thou wish their dissentions to trample,
__ Thy lot let it be their complaints to redress—
And show to thy people that glorious example
__ Of wisdom and feeling which nations shall bless.

May thine ear never heed unto councils designing,
__ Of courtiers or statesmen who prompt to betray;
But while to the dictates of virtue inclining,
__ Peace, Freedom, and Glory, will hallow thy sway.

Oh, hear the fond prayer of a subject, though lowly,
__ in candour and loyalty firm and sincere !
May the eye of the MONARCH whose Kingdom is holy,
__ Illumine thy mind ! and watch o’er thy career !

Long, long be thy reign, and secure from commotion—
__ And never may strife dim its prospect serene;
We give thee a cheer of true heart-felt devotion !
__ Hurrah for Victoria ! our young British Queen !

Limerick, July 4

Limerick Chronicle, Wednesday, 5 July 1837

Princess Victoria’s accession to the throne was on 20 June 1837, so William MacNamara Downes was very quick to write the above poem and get it published only two weeks later. There was a similar quick turnaround for his poem The Lady’s Glove about the sinking of the Intrinsic in 1836.

The Kilrush poet W.M. Downes hoped that “long, long be thy reign” of Queen Victoria which ended up being 63 years and 215 days. Sadly, poor William MacNamara Downes only lived for 16 years and 97 days of Victoria’s long reign.

Downes also wished that Queen Victoria’s reign would be “secure from commotion and never may strife dim its prospect serene” which for Ireland was surely not the case. During his lifetime Ireland suffered the Great Famine, so I wonder if his views and loyalty to the British Crown altered over time.

I searched the School’s Collection (duchas), but, unlike The Lady’s Glove, none of the students in County Clare recited Lines on the Accession of the Princess Victoria by W.M. Downes.