Prophet of the independence movement – Brian Maye on journalist and poet William Rooney

Although the journalist, poet and Gaelic League activist William Rooney (Liam Ó Maolruanaidh), who was born 150 years ago on October 20th, lived a comparatively short life, major figures in the Irish independence movement such as Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins strongly praised his influence, while WB Yeats dedicated the first edition of his play, Cathleen Ní Houlihan, to his memory.

Rooney was born in a tenement building on Mabbot Street, in the “Monto” area of Dublin, the eldest of seven children of Patrick Rooney, a coachbuilder (and a Fenian), and Teresa Buckley. He attended Strand Street CBS and Richmond Street CBS before leaving school at 12 to become a solicitor’s junior clerk. Continuing to study at night, he passed his junior certificate exams at the age of 14 and became a clerk with the Midland Great Western Railway.

The Irish Fireside Club was a nationalist reading and debating society that also gave Irish-language lessons and Rooney joined it around 1885. He also joined the Young Ireland Society and Thomas Davis became his national apostle, as he did also Arthur Griffith’s. Griffith and Rooney first met at the Fireside Club in the late 1880s and then joined the Leinster Literary Society; Griffith became its president and Rooney its secretary and both contributed to its journal, Eblana. United Ireland newspaper first published Rooney’s poetry in 1891 and his first published journalism, a series of articles on notable graves in and around Dublin, written together with Griffith, appeared in the Evening Herald in 1892.

The Leinster Literary Society was replaced by the Celtic Literary Society (CLS) that same year. Rooney became its president and most active member, editing its journal An tSeanachaidhe (The Storyteller) and also contributing articles and poems to the Shan Van Vocht, Northern Patriot and Shamrock. He became fluent in Irish and through the CLS gave classes in rooms rented in Marlborough Street and Abbey Street. Eoin MacNeill persuaded him to join the Gaelic League on its foundation, although Rooney disagreed with its non-political stance. He was very active in the 1798 Centenary Committee and spoke in Irish at a large meeting in the Phoenix Park in March 1898, and travelled throughout Ireland promoting the language.

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When the Shan Van Vocht ceased publication, leading members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) were determined that a similar journal should replace it and they asked Rooney to edit it but he suggested that Arthur Griffith should be persuaded to return from South Africa to be its editor. This suggestion was probably Rooney’s “most significant contribution to Irish nationalism”, William Murphy, who wrote the entry on him in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, believes. United Irishman, the journal that first appeared on March 4th, 1899, launched Griffith on his editorial career to become the foremost political propagandist of his generation, and it had an enormous influence on the generation of young men and women who eventually secured Irish independence.

Rooney wrote numerous articles for the paper, under many pseudonyms. He and Griffith began working out a policy that was eventually given the name of Sinn Féin and they formed Cumann na nGaedheal in November 1900, an umbrella organisation to coordinate the work of various like-minded nationalist bodies, inviting the old Fenian John O’Leary to become its president.

Rooney was engaged to be married to another Gaelic League activist, Máire Ní Chillín, when he died suddenly on May 6th, 1901, at the tragically young age of 27.

He had worked ceaselessly and tirelessly for his various causes, in addition to his day job, and it was said that he died from exhaustion but his death has been attributed to TB, although the official cause was given as typhoid fever (other members of his family had also died of this disease).

Griffith idolised his younger companion, regarding him as the Thomas Davis of their generation, and describing him as “the greatest Irishman I have known or can ever expect to know”.

Rooney’s death came as a terrible personal blow to Griffith. Yeats wrote to Lady Gregory that it had “plunged everybody into gloom. Griffith has had to go to hospital for a week, so much did it affect him”. The loss was such a disaster for Griffith because he believed Rooney might have become the greatest leader in Irish history.

Looking back, Michael Collins, in his Path to Freedom, saw Rooney as a John the Baptist type of figure: “Rooney spoke as a prophet. He prepared the way and foresaw the victory.” Yeats dedicated the first edition of his play, Cathleen Ní Houlihan (1902), to his memory and many active in the independence movement recorded their debt to him.

Arthur Griffith collected, edited and published his Poems and Ballads in 1902 and his Prose Writings were published by MH Gill in 1909.