Matthew Brady: The Father of American Photojournalism
Matthew Brady might just be one of the greatest Cavan people ever, that is, if it could be proven that he or his family actually have a Cavan connection. Brady’s astounding photography documented the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865 and it was a Brady photograph that helped propel Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. Tradition has it that Matthew was born in Warren County, Upstate New York, but with archives opening up all the time, new records continue to surface, which alter what we may have once taken for fact. A few years ago, Cathy Hayes, writing for the Irish Central, an online news platform, threw some light on Brady’s own sketchy references to his place of birth.
Brady Sept from Cavan
It is very likely that Matthew Brady’s father, or their ancestry were originally of Cavan stock. The Brady clan, known as MacBradaigh, were a powerful sept in East Breifne whose lands lay to the east of Cavan Town. A book, ‘The Bradys of Cavan in history and genealogy’ by Seán MacBrádaigh, details the history of this noble Gaelic family whose name features in such eminent works as the ‘Annals of the Four Masters’.
They rose to become army Generals, Bishops, sports champions and of course ‘photographers’. The following are a small sample of some of the well-known Bradys who came from Cavan: People like Field-Marshal Baron Thomas Brady, said to be a son of a Cootehill farmer, he led the Austrian army and was noted to be the best of their swordsmen; Fiachra MacBradaigh, Stradone, renowned poet of central Cavan; Sheriff William Brady of Lincoln County, born near Cavan Town; John Brady, Bishop of Perth, Australia; Cardinal Sean Brady, Armagh, originally from Laragh; and Noel Brady, a sports broadcast producer in Australia, who came from Cootehill.
Matthew’s birth
Like that highly decorated Army General of Cavan parentage, Philip H. Sheridan, it seems that Brady’s birthplace was mislaid to history since no record has yet been found to resolve the mystery. A full page article in ‘The Sunday Star, Washington’ on July 17, 1921, does little to assuage our angst over the place upon which he first saw the light of day, telling us in some records that he was born in Warren County, Up State New York (accepted as fact by most people) and, at the time of his death, informing us that other newspapers stated New Hampshire, while in an even odder twist during his own lifetime, Brady himself wrote in official records, both Ireland and later Warren County.
However, and it may be a slim however, it is stated by the Sunday Star that Brady told George Alfred Townsend he was a New York born man. Yet, in an introductory note to ‘The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes’ the editor Francis Trevelyan Miller wrote: ‘Matthew B. Brady was born in Cork, Ireland (not in New Hampshire, as is generally stated), about 1823’ and ‘arriving in New York as a boy, he got a job in the great establishment of A.T. Stewart, first of the merchant princes of that day’. But, without a baptism record and Brady’s habit of placing on record both Ireland and America as his place of origin, it is unlikely that the truth will ever be known.
Cavan veterans
Among the countless Irish veterans of the American Civil War there was a contingent of Cavan soldiers, about which Damian Shields spoke eloquently in the Johnston Central Library, Cavan, in August 2015. To learn more, I highly recommend Damian’s books and his website, https://irishamericancivilwar.com/?s=cavan
In his talk, he spoke of soldiers like Richard Byrnes from Cootehill, Patrick O’Rorke from Drumbess, Cornafean; Brigadier General Richard Busteed from Cavan Town and General Philip Henry Sheridan whose family were from Kilinkere, Co Cavan. Thanks to Matthew Brady and his employees, we are able to know what the soldiers who fought in the campaign actually looked like.
During the Civil War Brady was sure to be found in the ‘thick of things’ and at the first battle of Bull Run he had to flee the dangers of the field. A photograph taken of Brady after the battle, depicts the high-spirited photographer, a ‘small man’ with ‘hair that’s black and bushy’, a black moustache and beard with a ‘funny looking’ straw hat, a linen duster, and a sword by his side. The sword, a favourite personal item of Bradys, was less an ornament than a means of defence. He was only too ready to strike anyone who dared go near his precious glass plate negatives. Thankfully, the plates survived, and we can now appreciate Brady’s photographs of those distant and dangerous days in America.
REV HERON’S SHOCK
On August 31, 1824, the Cavan Herald reported on a ‘daring robbery’ committed at the House of the Rev Heron of Belturbet. The crafty culprits smashed a pane of glass, and then sawed through a ‘timber bar’ that secured the parlour window-shutter, easily gaining access having removed the window sashes. They proceeded to remove a large ‘secretary’ (a type of cabinet) on to the front lawn of the house but, being too heavy to carry-off, they proceeded to break it open and ‘plunder’ its contents.
Sometime later, a ‘cyprian lady’, who happened to be skulking about on her rambles, caught an eyeful of the thieves making off, ‘and, previously having some knowledge of them’, offered enough information ‘as induced Mr Heron’ to travel to Clones, where these likely lads resided. The reverend gentleman succeeded in recovering some of his goods and up to six of the people involved in the robbery were transported to Monaghan Jail.
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