Charles Monck was born into a prominent Anglo-Irish family, the eldest son of Charles Monck, 3rd Viscount Monck, and Bridget Willington, whose family owned Killoskehane Castle just outside Templemore. It was here that Charles was born on 10 October 1819.
Monck was elected to the British House of Commons in July 1852. He served as lord of the treasury under Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, who later recommended Monck for the position of governor of the colony of British North America in 1861. On 23 October 1861, Monck arrived in Quebec City. The Quebec Mercury noted, “The new Governor had won golden opinions on all sides from his affable and dignified demeanour.”
Monck won distinction for the deftness of his efforts to avoid British or Canadian involvement in the American Civil War (1861–65). Monck’s sister-in-law, Frances “Feo” Monck, who visited in 1864–65, noted in her journal on 24 October 1864 that “the Yankee papers praise him much for his prompt conduct.”
Monck was also noted for the impact that his governorship had upon the move toward Canadian federation. He invited representatives from the Maritime provinces to the Quebec Conference to meet with representatives from the united Province of Canada in October 1864. Monck wrote: “they have not finished their deliberations, but I think it very likely they will agree to advise a union of some sort.” Monck attended the London Conference of 1866 and presented the formal request for Confederation to Queen Victoria.
Just as the new ‘Dominion of Canada’ was being created in 1867, his term as Governor of the existing colony was about to expire but Queen Victoria extended his term in Canada so that he might be the first Governor-General of the new Dominion of Canada. He took his oath of office on this day, July 1, in 1867. Initially it became known as Dominion Day but today it is simply known as Canada Day.
Monck returned to Ireland in 1868 and was knighted to recognise his achievements in Canada. He died in Co. Wicklow in 1894.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/.../canada-independence-from…
On this day in 1790, Father Theobald Mathew, Capuchin priest and temperance crusader was born in Thomastown, Co. Tipperary. After his death, several monuments were raised in his honour, most notably, statues on Patrick Street in Cork and O’Connell Street in Dublin.
The young Theobald Mathew was educated at St Canice’s Academy in Kilkenny and Maynooth College. In 1808 he was accepted by the Capuchins in Church St., Dublin, and was ordained priest in 1813. He spent the first months of his ministry in the friary in Kilkenny before being transferred to the friary in Blackmoor Lane in Cork City.
He was never a gifted orator; his fame as a gentle confessor, however, drew large numbers of penitents not only from the city but from the surrounding countryside. He opened a school for girls beside the friary and arranged for the Josephian Society, which he founded in 1819, to run a night school for boys. He distinguished himself pastorally during the cholera epidemic of 1832. In the same year he presided at the laying of the foundation stone of the new Capuchin church of the Holy Trinity.
In the 1820s public concern over the abuse of alcohol had grown. Inspired mainly by American models, temperance movements had started in Ireland. By 1834 there were six temperance societies in Cork, all non-catholic. Ost temperance movements at the time encouraged moderation rather than total abstinence.
In 1838 Fr. Mathew consented to act as president of the Cork Total Abstinence Society which he pledged to run in an inclusive, non-political manner. The pledge administered by Mathew ran: ‘I promise with the divine assistance, as long as I continue a member of the teetotal temperance society, to abstain from all intoxicating drinks, except for medicinal or sacramental purposes, and to prevent as much as possible, by advice and example, drunkenness in others.’
From Cork, the movement spread to Limerick and Waterford, later to Connacht, Leinster, and even Ulster. His crusade rapidly developed into a mass movement. There was the widespread popular belief that taking the pledge from Father Mathew was more effective than taking it from local clergymen. Mathew often had to correct the notion that he possessed miraculous powers.
By the early 1840s the movement had probably reached its maximum audience. Many contemporary commentators noted improvement in public order and prosperity, which they attributed to temperance. by the mid-1840s it was evident that the movement was not sustaining its initial impetus. The famine dealt it a near fatal blow, for it was precisely those counties where the temperance movement had been strongest that the famine hit hardest. Mathew was directly involved in famine relief. For a time, when he was a member of the relief committee for Cork city, his own home was transformed into a soup kitchen.
In the 1850s, the weakening of the temperance movement, expressed by the growing numbers of backsliders, discouraged him. He died on 8 December 1856 and was buried in St Joseph's cemetery, Cork.
Sources:
https://www.dib.ie/biography/mathew-theobald-a5513
