# n the history of Irish anti- regiment of horse in the army of the quarian research, the work Parliament and volunteered for service in of the Ordnance Survey Ireland in 1647. The Limerick line takes its holds an important place. It descent from the Rev. James Graves, vicar was begun in the late 1830s ion. His new demands required O'Curry of Kilfinane and Darragh. He had two in response to the recommendation of the and O'Donovan to rework the translations eminent sons. One was Dean Thomas parliamentary commission chaired by already done. They appealed to Graves, Graves of Ardfert, who lived during the Lord Monteagle (Thomas Spring-Rice, who became caught in the middle as he 1780s at Sackville, near Ardfert village. Mount Trenchard). In the aftermath of the tried to smooth relations. Graves showed Judge Day of Kerry (whose seat was Famine, the intensification of interest in equal solicitude for the work of another Loughlinstown House in south Dublin) Gaelic scholarship represented something Catholic, the historian and archivist John corresponded with the Dean as 'cousin', of a rebellion against the continuing Gilberi. In 1852, Gilbert was turned down though the pedigrees do not make clear dominance of British history to the for membership of the Royal Irish the connection. The Dean of Ardfert later detriment of a now obviously diminishing Academy, though his list of supporting became an eminent Dean of Connor, Gaelic culture. In its own way, it represent- signatures included Graves2 residing at Carrigfergus, before retiring to ed a rebellion just as important as better- Kinsale. The Dean's brother, Rev. Richard known rebellions of 1848 and 1867. The Graves, was Professor of Divinity at Celtic Society was founded 1847 and the Trinity College Dublin (1819). The Dublin Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland According to the Dictionary of National base of the family was strengthened when (known at its inception as the Kilkenny Biography in an entry about one of the the Dean of Ardfert's son, the barrister Archaeological Society) in 1849. names that follows (Rev. Richard Graves), John Crosbie Graves, became chief of The great generation of antiquarians the Irish ancestor of this family was a police. His son was the future Bishop of post-Famine included the renowned Colonel Graves, who commanded a Limerick. Bishop of Limerick, Dr Charles Graves (1812-1899, Bishop of Limerick 1866-99), who came to antiquarian research from the background of a distinguished career in mathematics at Trinity College Dublin. In 1852 he, Monteagle and Lord Dunraven became members of the Commission established for the publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland. It became known as the Brehon Laws Commission. As such, Graves was instrumental in appointing Eugene O'Curry and John O'Donovan (native of south Kilkenny) to undertake the work. Both scholars had been involved in the Ordnance Survey and, when this ceased in 1842, both were free to work on the Brehon Laws. For their greater comfort, he loaned his chambers in Trinity College to O'Curry and 0'Donovan.l O'Curry, of Dunaha on the Loop Head peninsula, had come to Limerick after his school failed, and worked on the con- struction of Wellesley Bridge and later as a warder in the Limerick Asylum. From there he joined O'Donovan to work on the Ordnance Survey. Now together again working on the Brehon laws, the prelim- inary transcription and translation took five years. With the work incomplete, O'Donovan died in 1861 and O'Curry in 1862. Bishop Graves's willingness to appoint Eugene O'Curry and John O'Donovan to the Brehon Laws project on their merit as scholars, though both men were Catholic and the sons of Irish peasant farmers, is consistent with his popularity across the religious divide. Prejudice dogged the pair in their work, and a Belfast legal expert with little Irish scholarship, Hancock, was superimposed to see the work to complet- Parknasilla House, summer home of Bishop Graves. Postcard, c.1910. (Tom Keogh Collection) When the former chief of police died in quin, a stone's throw away. They returned The Graves link with Limerick ended January 1835, old Judge Day, native of there annually. The house still stands and with the Bishop's death in 1899, the house Tralee, heard the news at Loughlinstown is called 'The Bishop's House'. It would in Parknasilla having been already sold. House. (Day was an old political associate became a convenient base for the Bishop (The purchasers were the Great Southern with the chief of police's father, the Dean to conduct his visitations to places within Hotels, who built a fine hotel beside it). of Ardfert.) He recorded the following the Ardfert and Aghadoe division of the Alfred continued to live in England and tribute, which, inter alia, anticipates the combined diocese, and Parknasilla pro- purchased a house in Harlech, Wales. He academic brilliance of the future Bishop: vided the base from which he was able to became involved in the Irish Literary conduct his antiquarian outings to ring Society and the Irish Texts Society and Thursday, 15th January, 1835. Alas forts and other sites in a region rich in when he died, his passing was noticed in poor John Graves died last Tuesday of a archaeology. Finally, summers at Park- the publication of the County Kerry five days brain fever, leaving in misery nasilla provided him and his family with Society, a genteel circle of Kerry exiles a wife, two daughters and four highly- the pleasure of getting to know visiting which held an annual dinner on St. talented and accomplish'd sons. He historians and antiquarians, including J.A. Patrick's Day. In Limerick, the Bishop was was my oldest acquaintance living of all Froude, author of The English in Ireland in long remembered, due primarily, perhaps, my friends out of my own family and the Eighteenth Centuy, and the historical to popularity across the religious divide. my own birth parentage and pedigree. I novel, The Two Chiefs of Dunboy. The His poet grandson, Robert (son of Alfred do not know better than his3 Bishop shared with the local parish priest, Perceval), came to Limerick in 1919 as a Fr Michael Walsh (PP Sneem 1829-1866), member of the Royal Welch Fusiliers after an interest in the Irish language, and Fr seeing action in the trenches. In his Walsh became the model for Father autobiography, Goodbye to All That, he O'Flynn. At this time the Catholic Bishop recounts what he heard about the The career of Dr Graves to his appoint- of Kerry, David Moriarty, made an out- Bishop's funeral ("wake") in Limerick in ment to Limerick in 1866 is traced by his standing claim to fame with his famous 1899, with its very large Catholic attend- son, Alfred Perceval Graves (b. 1846), in condemnation of the Fenians, with its ance. He touched on this again in an his autobiography, To Return to All That ringing conclusion 'Hell is not hot enough, article for The Old Limerick Journal (vo1.8, (London 1930). (Alfred became H.M. or eternity long enough .. .'. Autumn 1981), this time giving the reason Inspector of Schools in Manchester and Graves appears to have known, or at for the large attendance: the Catholic writer of such songs as Father O'Flynn). In least corresponded with, the great Kerry bishop, with whom he was on terms of his autobiography, Alfred tells us that antiquarian, Archdeacon Arthur Blenner- considerable friendship, had encouraged Graves was appointed Dean of the Chapel hassett Rowan, before Parknasilla days. his flock to attend. Royal (in Dublin Castle), which appoint- Archdeacon Rowan (1800-1861), founder ment provided his family with the of The Kerry Magazine, introduced Graves REFERENCES opportunity to attend all the ceremonial to the young Kerryman, Richard Hitch- 1. Patricia Boyne, John O'Donovan occasions in Dublin Castle. Simultan- cock, who assisted Graves in the record- (l806-1861), a Biography ( Kilkenny eously, he held his fellowship in Trinity ing of ogham stone inscriptions, a field of 1987), p.95, 101. and was appointed Dean of Ardagh. study in which Graves became the 2. Siobhan O'Rafferty, Gilbert and the During the 1860s, he was also President of acknowledged expert. Archdeacon Rowan Roval Irish Academv in Sir John T. the Royal Irish Academy, presided at died in August 186L4 Gilbert 1829-1898 Historian, Archivist many of its lectures and contributed Graves would continue to engage with and Librarian (Dublin 1999), p.45-58. occasionally an article to its journal. historical societies in Dublin long after his It was during the middle 1860s, and arrival in Limerick as bishop in 1866, 3. Royal Irish Academy, Day Papers, still based in Dublin, that the future bishop notably as one of the Irish commissioners Ms.12~17. picked up the threads of his family's old on the Historic Manuscripts Commission. 4. Russell McMorran article on Arch- association with Kerry: it was then that he (A fellow-commissioner was Lord Edmond deacon Rowan in Cork Hollybow 1985, first brought his family to Parknasilla. Fitzmaurice of the Lansdowne family, quoted in L.Kelly, G. Lucid and Situated near the village of Sneem, he took author of works on his ancestor, Sir M.O'Sullivan (eds.), Blennerville: a house there from the Blands of Derry- William Petty). Gateway to Tralee's Past, p.242. .