Thomas Russell: the man from god knows where

‘Into our townland on a night of snow rode a man from god knows where’ are the opening ballad about the United Irish leader, Thomas Russell. Leader of the United Irishman in Ulster, friend of Wolfe Tome and Robert Emmett, Russell was executed in Downpatrick jail in October 1803.

This sketch from the United Irishman newspapers weekly column, ‘The man of the week’ in 1899 provides an interesting perspective on Russell and his role in Irish history.

Thomas Russell

Born 21 November 1767; Died 19th October 1803

With the advent of Wolfe Tone may be said to have begun that mighty movement having for its chief aim the union of Irishmen of every creed, class, and clan in one common ambition—the uplifting of the old land. Amongst his contemporaries, Tone stands on a great intellectual height as an organiser, a strategist, and a man of action, as is evidenced by the advantages which he. saw would accrue from an association aiming directly at the emancipation of the great masses of the nation.

Amongst the men whose aid he sought in founding the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast, in 1791, we find the name of Thomas Russell—a man of intellect and intense ardour, and whose subsequent career proved his devotedness to the cause for which he sacrificed his life.  He was born in Cork County in a month memorable in Irish annals. We first hear of him accompanying his brother Ambrose to India as a volunteer, and at this portion of his life we discover a noble feature in his character, for he almost immediately returned home disgusted at the barbarities inflicted on the oppressed. Indians in the name of progress and civilization. In 178 9 he became acquainted with Tone, and a deep friendship was the result. He must have been no ordinary mortal who could attract Tone, who loved Thomas Russell with a whole-heartedness and depth that is seldom experienced in the intercourse of men. Mr. Alfred Webb, in his " Compendium of Irish Biography," a work of great research and careful construction, says : " His " (Russell's) " sobriety of demeanour and deep religious convictions contrasted strangely with his friend's mercurial temperament and heterodoxy of religion." 'Tis surely a strange contrast, but it has ever been that the strongest friendships spring up between men of the most opposed temperaments and divergence of opinions, for the mind demands variety of thought just as the human eye seeks for contrast on the stage.

Russell about this time sold out his commission in the Army, and we see him appointed Seneschal of the Manor Court of Dungannon and promoted to the Magisterial Bench of the County Tyrone. But those positions soon became distasteful, for the principles of toleration and equality of justice had taken firm root in his mind. He vacated the Seneschalship and retired from the Bench with the declaration, " That he could not reconcile it to his opinions to sit as a magistrate on a bench where the practice prevailed of inquiring what a man's religion was before going into the charge of which he was accused." Worldly prospects are thus sacrificed to convictions and he becomes librarian in Belfast, at a miserable wage, in 1794. He now embarked on the uncertain and troublous sea of literature; and besides contributing to the Northern Star, he published a pamphlet on the Catholic claims and several pieces vigorously assailing slavery, for his nature abhorred oppression or cruelty wheresoever perpetrated on suffering humanity.

His life henceforward was more stormy, and he was entrusted with the command bf the United Irishmen in the County Down, and so faithfully did he discharge his duties that he was arrested on the 16th of September 1796, and Ireland saw him no more for six years. His captivity was divided between Newgate and Fort George, but his prolonged imprisonment did not in the least quench his ardour.

In 1802 he met Robert Emmet in Paris, and at once expressed a willingness to join the movement which the following year, met with such prompt suppression. He reached Ireland in disguise, and Emmet immediately sent him to organise the Northern province. His efforts were of little avail, and he returned to Dublin, where he was arrested on the 9th September, 1803. Thence he was sent to Dungannon, where he was convicted on the 15th of October following. "His last letters to his friends," says Mr. Webb, " were full of a spirit of lofty devotion and sacrifice, and his only request, before sentence was passed, was that he might be given a few days to complete a treatise he was writing on the Book of Revelations, which he believed would some good in the world." This cultured man was executed the day after his Conviction, and his body was laid to rest in Downpatrick churchyard, where a slab, bearing the simple inscription, " The grave of Russell," marks his tomb.

His speech from the dock was unassuming in diction, and though laying no claim to orateness, it was that of a polished and learned gentleman, and of one impressed with the justice of the cause he advocated. His words and actions were those of a man of fervid religious convictions, and the implicit trust placed in him by Tone and Emmet tells us that truth, honour, and trustworthiness were the underlying principles of his character. He was one of the men whose names were recalled last year; this kindly, Christian gentleman whose last words were an expression of forgiveness to those who had borne testimony against him, and to the jury who pronounced the sentence which consigned him to the scaffold.

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