When in 1841 the
Whig government in England was defeated, and William Peel became
prime minister, Daniel O'Connell was convinced no further concession
would be forthcoming from the English government, he began the Repeal
Movement.
In 1842 the movement was joined by two young
men of middle class backgrounds. one Thomas Duffy a protestant born
in Mallow county Cork, in 1814 the son of a English army surgeon.
He studied at Trinity College where he met John Blake Dillon a Catholic
from County Mayo, both were keenly interested in Irish politics.
In 1842 they met Charles Gavin Duffy a Catholic journalist from
County Monaghan, all three were firmly committed to the repeal movement,
and held O'Connell in high regard.
In the autumn of 1842 the three met in Phoenix
Park, Dublin and discussed ways to educate the Irish people for
independence. The result of this meeting was that on the 13th October
that year a new weekly newspaper The Nation appeared. The paper
was owned by Duffy but all three contributed articles.
The objectives of the paper was to instill
a pride in Ireland as a nation, to educate and make them aware of
Irish history and culture. To that end there were regular articles
on traditional music, liturature and architucture intersperced beween
the news, they also published ballads on Irish topics, many of which
retain their popularity to this day. The paper invited readers to
send in their own ballads, and Duffy stated that some weeks they
got as many as 100. Many of these were published in a book The Spirit
of a Nation which became very popular and sold many copies.
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