Charlotte Bronte's Kilkee Honeymoon by Thomas J. Byrne
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8 Anne were, in their short lives (none livd beyond 39 years) to write some of the most popular and widely read novels of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their father, the Rev. Patrick, an "eccentrick character by his own account, stands out as a man of remarkable will and stamina, who drove himself (despite his "l his beautiful daughter Aiice. ~c~lorv stern, sober and off-putting character) to intended that, in time, his daughter would overcome great hardships and achieve wed a fellow Catholic. However, Alice met fairly ambitious goals. It is now generally and fell in love with a Protestant named forgotten that he wrote and published two j Hugh Prunt (or Prunty). McClory, by all volumes of poems, two narratives, several accounts, was a hard-drinking, irritable, pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects, violent man who wielded a big stick and many sermons and most of these were chased away any would-be suitors. When printed before his marriage (1812). he learned of Prunt he became irate but Whether or not his expectations were invited him to his house, where he offered satisfied we do not know. When he was him drink. Prunt, who was abstemious, appointed Rector of Haworth (W. Yorks.), refused the libation, so McClory in a rage, he seems to have settled down to a quiet with some of his sons and relations, beat existence as a country parson. Haworth him up and sent him packing. was then an important place, as David McClory now decided that Alice Wilson has pointed out in his excellent should be married quietly and quickly to a essay on Emily Br~nte,~in the industrial local Catholic farmer named Byrne, a revolution and its attendant social unrest neighbour. The banns were called and the which later resulted in the Queen's wedding arranged to take place in the proclamation of the Riot Act against the McClory home, as was then the custom. It rebellious workers of the West Riding of was then usual for the bridegroom, in the Yorkshire during Charlotte's lifetime. On north of Ireland, to ride with his friends to his wife's death her sister travelled north meet his intended bride at her home. Charlotte Bronte. from Cornwall to Haworth, with her There drinks would be waiting and the Photo: Courtesy Audrey Hall. baggage and her Methodism, to act man who drank the first cup would unselfishly as a stern but just housekeeper become the bridegroom. So his friends assistance on the grounds of poverty. and surrogate mother to the young Bronte allowed Byrne to reach the house first. Taking his degree (1806),5 he was children. When he arrived he learned that Alice had ordained a clergyman of the Church of The Rev. Patrick struggled hard to free fled. She had last been seen, by her England. While he was curate at Hartstead himself of Ireland and all things Irish to neighbours, riding over the bogs in her in 1812 he married the Cornish-born become a respectable Anglican clergy- wedding dress with a stranger on a black Maria Branwell, who died in 1821 after man, graduate of one of the 'two' ivy- horse. Byrne, with McClory and the bearing six children. They all died rather league English universities, and Vicar of wedding party, set out in pursuit, but they young - their average age at death was 25 Haworth. The Yorkshire Brontes had all never overtook Alice. On their return years. These were Maria, born 1813, the Victorian English prejudices against home, they found a note inviting them to Elizabeth, born 1815 - both died in 1825 Ireland and the Catholic Irish in abun- drink the health of the bride, who was by due to the rigid discipline and discomfort dance. They had all the fanatical fervour of then Mrs. Hugh Prunt (or Prunty). Hugh of a private boarding school at Cowan the newly converted, forgetting their later changed his name to Bruntee (or Bridge; Charlotte, born at Thornton, near Catholic great-grandfather, who had Branty), and his wife, Alice, changed her Bradford (Yorks.), 21st April 1816, author written in Irish at least one poem on the religion.' They had 102or E3children and of several novels including Jane Eyre then Catholic Archbishop of Armagh; they continued to farm in northern Ireland. (1847), Shirley (1849), Villette (1853), conveniently forgot or pretended to forget Here Patrick Bruntee (or Branty) - the under the pen-name of Currer Bell; and ignore their Banbridge grandparents; future father of Charlotte Bronte - was Patrick Branwell, born 1817, who died in they overlooked their Irish Protestantism born in 1777. He later changed his name 1848 aged 30, having drugged himself on and their Irish Catholicism alike. They to Bronte when he went to Cambridge. laudanum and drink and God knows what also forgot or pretended to forget that Patrick Bronte was a remarkable man,4 else, including a one-sided involvement their father, by birth if not by tempera- who first began earning his living at a very (unreciprocated) with his employer's wife. ment, = Irish. Yet, like the other early age as a blacksmith and later as a However, Patrick Branwell was, in many Yorkshire Brontes, Charlotte was Irish in linen-weaver. He was largely self-educated ways, a much maligned man. The younger many ways, not least in her literary and at sixteen became headmaster of a daughters were Emily Jane, born 30 July genius, as one of her editors has correctly small school at Drumgooland, Co. Down. 1818, authoress of Wuthering Heights and intimated: "Has it ever been sufficiently He later became tutor to the sons of a Agnes Grey and Poems (all published in recognised that Charlotte Bronte is first Methodist clergyman. Having saved as 1846 under her pen-name of Ellis Bell) and and foremost an Irishwoman, that her much money as he could he entered the Anne, born 1820, authoress of Poems genius is at bottom a Celtic genius? The University of Cambridge as a sizar at the under the pen-name of Acton Bell. Of main characteristics indeed of a Celt are age of twenty-five, receiving financial these six children, Charlotte, Emily and all hers - disinterestedness, melancholy, Postcard of Moore's Hotel, posted in 1905. Limerick Museum. wildness, a wayward force and passion, Arthur never spoke of it due to his natural matters so fell out that I saw little of forever wooed by sounds and sights to diffidence and good breeding. Dr. Alan him. He continued to write. The corres- which other natures are insensible - by Bell was headmaster of this outstanding pondence pressed on my mind. I grew murmurs of the soul, that speak of the school and from there, in July 1836, very miserable in keeping it from papa. Celtic sense as to no other ... Then, as to Arthur Bell Nichols, then aged 18, entered At last sheer pain made me gather the Celtic pride, the Celtic shyness, the Trinity College, Dublin, as a pensioner (of courage to break it. I told all. It was very Celtic endurance, - Charlotte Bronte was Dr. Bell) and graduated BA in the spring hard and rough work at the time, but the rich in them alLn7In Shirley (1849), of 1844.12He was duly ordained a priest of issue after a few days was that I obtained Charlotte had pilloried the "typical" the Church of England and, by the time of leave to continue the communication. Irishman as "boisterous, vain, and mean; his marriage, had spent eight years as Mr. Nicholls came in January 118541, pressed, she would also admit to believing curate at Haworth and was by then well he was ten days in the neighbourhood. I the Irish shiftless and dirt^."^ These acquainted with the vagaries and life-styles saw much of him. I had stipulated with prejudices would remain with her until her of the Bronte family. Charlotte dismissed papa for opportunity to become better only visit to Ireland, when they were him originally as one of the 'highly un- acquainted. I had it, and all I learnt partially allayed. Her sisters, Emily Jane 'a interesting, narrow and unattractive inclined me to esteem and affection. Still greater poet than Charlotte' as Virginia specimens of the coarser sex.''3 At the papa was very, very hostile, bitterly Woolf has astutely pointed out,gand Anne same time auly 1846) she had denied a unjust. demonstrate many characteristics of their report of an engagement to Nichols.14 "I told Mr. Nicholls the great obstacle Irishness in their poetry. However, this may have been a case of the that lay in the way. He has persevered. In 1846 the Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls lady protesting too much as the Irish The result of this, his last visit, is, that was appointed curate to the Rev. Patrick curate is alluded to in her novel Shirley papa's consent is gained, that his res- Bronte at Haworth. Now the Brontes had (1849) as the 'true Christian gentleman' pect, I believe, is won, for Mr. Nicholls the opportunity of observing another who had succeeded the three curates. has in all things proved himself dis- Irishman at close quarters, for the new In December 1852 Nicholls proposed interested and forbearing. Certainly I curate was born at Tully Farm, Co. marriage to Charlotte, declared his love, must respect him, nor can I with-hold Antrim, in 1818, the son of a farmer, was referred to her father and although from him more than mere cool respect. William Nichols, as the name was then she then returned his affection, her father In fact ..