Author: Richard Robert Madden

Publisher:

Published: 2016-06-16

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9781332540839

Excerpt from The Memoirs (Chiefly Autobiographical) From 1798 to 1886 of Richard Robert Madden Throughout life, an interest in the affairs of the Irish Insurrectionary movement of 1798, and of those that figured therein, whose memory I have endeavoured to preserve and vindicate in my History of the United Irishmen, has been a sort of ruling passion with me. This is perhaps ascribable to the circumstance of my having been ushered into the world in that memorable year in the midst of a rebellion, the councils of which were carried on in the immediate vicinity of my father's abode in Wormwood-gate. On the day of my birth, August 20th 1798, that house was searched for arms by the notorious Major Sirr, attended by a company of yeomanry, a privileged banditti, who then carried terror and consternation into every dwelling of a Roman Catholic however peacefully disposed he might be. After ransacking without interruption the lower part of the house, they were repulsed at the door of my mothers room by her husband, who exposed his life to imminent danger in so doing, and was only rescued from it by the sudden appearance of Major Sirr, who rushed upstairs and prevented the armed marauders from bursting into the apartment, saying: "I know Mr. Edward Madden to be a peaceable citizen." This in those days was saying a good deal for a person who was one of "The Catholic Delegates" mentioned in Theobald Wolfe Tones Memoirs. These few words, however, saved Mrs. Madden, and perhaps her infant, from the consequence of so untimely a visit, and it must, perhaps, be admitted that the Major's courtesy was not duly requited by the latter in his manhood. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.