THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 52. | SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1841. | Volume I. |
TOMB OF CURRAN.
Twenty years had nearly elapsed, and no stone marked thegrate where Curran was interred: still Ireland continuedunpossessed of the remains of one of the ablest of her oratorsand purest of her patriots, and seemed, in this instance especially,to justify the reproach of her habitual neglect towardsthe posthumous reputation of her great men.
To the managing committee of the cemetery at Glasnevinbelongs the merit, in this eminent instance, of setting an examplewhich may remove or mitigate the humiliating truth ofthat too just reproach.[1] They reclaimed for Ireland the bonesof Curran, which were transferred from England to the cemeteryover which they preside.
To Lord Cloncurry, ever foremost or forward in aught affectingthe public weal, and through life distinguished as the munificentsupporter of all the elegant and useful arts—of every objectproposing to advance the interests of his country or honourof her name—to him belongs the merit of originating a subscriptionfrom which has resulted the monument at Glasnevin,and the other now in progress at the church of St Patrick.[2]Thus at the northern extremity of Dublin the tomb of Curranstands over his remains; and at the southern extremity,in our metropolitan Cathedral Church, which may be called ourlittle Westminster, a cenotaph, now begun, will soon bearwitness that after a lapse of 23 years, new recorded honoursgather round his monument, and his glory still freshens in thememory of posterity.
A senior fellow of our University, who had no other sharein his subsequent elevation to a mitre than the circumstanceof having rendered himself worthy of it, observes on the subjectof this commemoration as follows:—“It (a letter) showsme, however, that you intended to apply to me on a subjectwell calculated to excite my sympathy; and it gives me anopportunity of indulging my own feelings, and of promotingmy own honour, in avowing my admiration and respect forsplendid talents and disinterested patriotism. I shall thereforebe flattered by the insertion of my name in your list,though I do not entertain the ambitious thought of my doinghonour to the memory of a man who has erected for himself amonument greater and more lasting than can be contained inany cemetery.”
The wood-cut engraving prefixed to this article is descriptiveof Curran’s tomb at Glasnevin, of which Mr J. T. Papworth,A.R.H.A., architect of the Royal Dublin Society, wasthe architect, and conductor of its construction and successfulexecution. It is a fac simile of the celebrated chef-d’œuvreof the antique known as the tomb of Scipio Barbatious,[Pg 410]exemplars of which are favourite objects of purchase to thevisiters of Rome, and lovers of virtu. It is a magnificentspecimen of that simple, durable, massive grandeur, whichthe early artists of the mistress of the world deemed suitableto the character of a great man’s sepulchre; fit to outlive,like its great Roman prototype, numerous generations ofmen, and bear down the name of its honoured object to theadmiration of a most distant posterity. Napoleon’s tomb atSt Helena was of course the su