An Phoblacht/Republican News  ·  Thursday November 30 1995

Young Ireland poet

AMONG the many contributors to the Young Ireland newspaper was Denny Lane, who wrote numerous verse and ballads over a number of years.

Lane, poet, republican and businessman, the son of a distiller, was born in Riverstown near Glanmire in County Cork in 1818. Educated at the famous school of Hamlin and Porter in Queen Street, he later studied at Trinity College Dublin and at the Inner Temple in London, where he qualified for the Bar.

A close friend of Thomas Davis in Dublin, he became involved in the Repeal Association, soon after its formation in April 1840 by Daniel O'Connell. During the following years Lane played an active part in the activities of the Association and vigorously campaigned for the Repeal of the Union of 1801 and the establishment of a separate legislature in Dublin.

In the early 1840s, Lane became associated with the small group of republicans led by Davis which became known as the Young Irelanders. Inspired by the teachings of Davis and impatient with O'Connell's campaign for repeal of the union, they began to prepare for an armed rising in Ireland.

In October 1842, following the establishment of a newspaper, The Nation, by Davis and two other Young Irelanders, John Blake Dillon and Charles Gavan Duffy, which preached the republican gospel of complete separation from England, Lane soon became one of its many contributors. During the following years he published stirring poetry which was popular with the readers, his most famous being, Carrig Dhoun and Kate of Araglen.

In 1846 when the Young Irelanders led by William Smith O'Brien, John Mitchel and Thomas Francis Meagher seceded from the Repeal Association following the rift with the older members led by O'Connell on the use of physical force, they were joined by Lane who enthusiastically supported their stand.

Following the collapse of the Young Ireland Rising which took place at Ballingarry, County Tipperary in July 1848, Lane was among those arrested. He was eventually released after four months and returned to his native Cork.

Lane became president of the Cork Literary and Scientific Society and was involved in other business including railways and the Cork Gas Company. Following the death of his father he took over the family distilling business and later set up a highly successful starch-making business, The Silversprings Starch and Blue Works.

Denny Lane, Young Ireland poet, died on 29 November 1895, a century ago this week.