Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/93

 Calhoun, Patrick, an early American settler, was born in Ireland in 1727. He left Ireland with his parents in early life and settled in Virginia, and afterwards in the interior of South Carolina, then a wilderness. He and his family suffered severely during the war with the French and the Indians. Shortly after the peace of 1763 he was elected a member of the provincial legislature, and continued a member of that and afterwards of the state legislature (with the intermission of a single term) till his death in 1796. In the war of the Revolution he took an early, decided, and active part against the British. His son John Caldwell Calhoun (born in South Carolina in 1782, died at Washington 1850) was Vice-President of the United States from 1825 to 1833, and held other important offices, and was undoubtedly the ablest and most uncompromising champion of slavery and the slave power in his day. 

Callaghan or Kellachan, King of Cashel, reigned some ten years, dying in 952. He is worthy of notice from the interesting account Keating gives of his capture and imprisonment by Sitric, Scandinavian King of Dublin. Sitric lured him to Dublin with promises of the hand of his sister. There he was seized and sent in chains to Armagh. Cennedigh, son of Lorcan, a powerful prince, immediately mustered both land and sea forces to proceed to his release. A fierce encounter ensued at Dundalk, and Callaghan, found bound on one of Sitric's ships in the bay, was released. On Cennedigh and Callaghan's return to Munster, they wreaked vengeance upon the Ard-Righ and other Irish princes who had connived at, and indeed advised, Callaghan's capture. According to another account, it was by Muircheartach, King of Aileach, that Callaghan was imprisoned for a time with other Irish kings. As Keating says, "He returned to Aileach, carrying these kings with him, and they were for nine months feasting there." 

Callan, Nicholas, D.D., Professor of Natural Philosophy in Maynooth College, was born at Dromiskin, in the County of Louth, in 1799. He entered college in 1817, and remained there till his death, a period of forty-seven years. Much of his leisure was devoted to the translation into English of works of piety, particularly those of St. Liguori, Remarkable for his unassuming manners, he endeared himself to all, especially to the students of the college, who entertained towards him the most affectionate reverence. He died at Maynooth in 1864, aged about 65. 

Callanan, James Joseph, a poet, was born in Cork in 1795. Intended for the priesthood, he entered at Maynooth; but finding that he had no vocation for the Church, he left the college in 1816, and became a tutor in his native city. Subsequently he entered Trinity College with a view to legal studies, a course he also soon abandoned. His resources being completely exhausted, he enlisted, and was upon the point of sailing to Malta with his regiment, the 18th Royal Irish, when some friends bought him out. In 1823 he became an assistant in the school of Dr. Maginn at Cork, where he remained only a few months; but through Maginn's introduction he became a contributor to Blackwood and other magazines. During six years, and up to 1829, he spent most of his time in rambling through the country, collecting old ballads and legends, and giving them a new dress in a new tongue. His health began to fail, however, a warmer climate appeared desirable, and early in 1829 he became tutor in the family of an Irish gentleman at Lisbon. In a few months it is stated that he acquired sufficient of the language to make translations from Portuguese poetry. He also set about preparing his writings for publication in a collected form. His health, however, daily declined, and after a fruitless effort to gather strength for the voyage home, he died 19th September 1829, aged 33. Mr. Waller writes of him in these words: "Thoroughly acquainted with the romantic legends of his country, he was singularly happy in the graces and power of language, and the feeling and beauty of his sentiments. There is in his compositions little of that high classicality which marks the scholar; but they are full of exquisite simplicity and tenderness, and in his description of natural scenery he is unrivalled. His lines on Gougane Barra are known to every tourist that visits the romantic regions of the south of Ireland, and his longer poems possess great merit." Allibone styles this poem " the most perfect perhaps of all Irish minor poems in the melody of its rhythm, the flow of its language, and the weird force of its expressions." 

Campbell, Alexander, D.D., was born in the County of Antrim, June 1786, and was educated for the ministry at Glasgow University. His father, Thomas, a relative and class-mate of Thomas Campbell the poet, was a Presbyterian minister, and emigrated to the United States in 1807. Two years later, Alexander followed and took up his residence near Bethany, in western Virginia. At first a Presbyterian 69