From The Correspondence of Daniel O’Connell, Vol. II, published 1888. Letter is addressed to Thomas Matthew Ray and is written from Derrynane Abbey, County Kerry.
Derrynane Abbey, Septr. 17th, 1845.
My dear Ray,—I do not know what to write. My mind is bewildered and my heart afflicted. The loss of my beloved friend, my noble-minded friend, is a source of the deepest sorrow to my mind. What a blow—what a cruel blow to the cause of Irish nationality! He was a creature of transcendent qualities of mind and heart; his learning was universal, his knowledge was as minute as it was general. And then he was a being of such incessant energy and continuous exertion. I, of course, in the few years—if years they be—still left to me, cannot expect to look upon his like again, or to see the place he has left vacant adequately filled up; and I solemnly declare that I never knew any man who could be so useful to Ireland in the present stage of her struggles. His loss is indeed irreparable. What an example he was to the Protestant youths of Ireland! What a noble emulation of his virtues ought to be excited in the Catholic young men of Ireland! And his heart, too! it was as gentle, as kind, as loving as a woman’s. Yes, it was as tenderly kind as his judgment was comprehensive and his genius magnificent. We shall long deplore his loss. As I stand alone in the solitude of my mountains, many a tear shall I shed in the memory of the noble youth. Oh! how vain are words or tears when such a national calamity afflicts the country. Put me down among the foremost contributors to whatever monument or tribute to his memory shall be voted by the National Association. Never did they perform a more imperative, or, alas! so sad a duty. I can write no more. Fungar inani munere.1
1 Cartlann: ‘Perform my empty duty.’ From Virgil’s Aeneid, Book VI.