Edmund O'Flaherty

Edmund O'Flaherty, Irish M.P., fl. 1854.

Biography

A native of Knockbane, Moycullen, was active in Irish politics in the middle years of the 19th century. Described as "a man of great warmth, cleverness and inexhaustible resource", he was a friend of William Keogh and John Sadleir.

His ability was recognised by the Duke of Newcastle, who wanted to forge an alliance between the Peelite party and that of the Irish M.P.'s.

The Duke employed O'Flaherty as an emissary and gave him a Commissionership of Income Tax in Ireland.

In 1854 he disappeared from London and rumours were current throughout the city that warrants were out against him for forgery. Persons concerned included Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Dunkellin, Bernal Osborne and Sir William Gregory.

O'Flaherty escaped to the U.S. under the name Captain Stewart. He began by writing for the papers, made some money, and then rented a theatre called the Winter Garden. He became successful and again famous for his hospitality and parties. It was well known that there was something against him, but it was presumed that he left England being unable to pay his debts. Englishmen of great position, on their return from America, told how they had been entertained by the pleasantest and wittiest of Irishmen, Captain Stewart. He spent the large income he was making, fell into poverty, and died in 1887.

Justin Huntly McCarthy, M.P., wrote of him:

[John Sadleir's] lieutenants were his brother, James Sadleir, Mr. William Keogh, and Mr. Edmund O'Flaherty: these men were all adventurers, and most of them swindlers. [145] O'Flaherty [became] Commissioner of Income Tax. Then they broke up. John Sadleir had embezzled, swindled, forged; he ruined half Ireland with his fraudulent bank; he made use of his position under Government to embezzle public money. [146] O’Flaherty hurried to Denmark, where there was no extradition treaty, and then to New York, where he lived under another name, a familiar figure in certain circles of New York society, famous as a diner-out, as a good story-teller, and a humourist—a sort of combination of Brillat Savarin and the later Richelieu, with a dash of Gines de Pasamonte. [147][1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Justin Huntly McCarthy, M.P.Ireland since the Union (Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly, London, 1887):145-7, condensed.

External links

Further reading

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