John O'Mahony
John Francis O'Mahony (1816 – 7 February 1877) was a Gaelic scholar and the founding member of the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States, sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
Early life
He was born in 1816 in Kilbeheny, County Limerick, Ireland. His father and uncle had been members of the United Irishmen, and had taken part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. On the death of an elder brother, he inherited a property which yielded £300 per annum. He ignored a ban by the Roman Catholic Church, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied Sanskrit, Hebrew and Irish. He became an accomplished Gaelic scholar, and later taught Greek and Latin, and contributed articles to Irish and French journals. He left Trinity without getting a degree.
Irish Politics
In 1843, he joined Daniel O'Connell's movement for the Repeal of the Union Act of 1800, but quickly became dissatisfied with the lack of progress and joined Young Irelander movement which Smith O'Brien led and took part in the failed Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848.