This article is from page 12 of the 2014-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A COROFIN priest, who attempted to set up a colony of Clare people in California in the 1840s, has just been identified as the man who precipitated the start of the American Mexican War.
It has also been uncovered that maverick priest Father Eugene Mcnamara died in mysterious circumstances while in possession of a fortune in Paris in 1852 and that fortune passed back to his Clare family.
Long lost details of the life of Eugene Mcnamara, who was originally from High Street in Corofin, has been uncovered following years of research by Professor John Fox. Fr Mcnamara had planned to bring thousand of Clare people to California, which was then a part of Mexico in the 1840s, but was wrongly iden- tified by the Americans as a British spy.
Fearful that Mcnamara and his Clare settlers would give the British a foothold in mainland North America, the US invaded California, starting the American-Mexican War.
“He goes to California to choose the land for the colony but at that same time the American government become aware of him and see him as part of a British plot to take California. He really wasn’t, but when he starts getting lifts from the Royal Navy all around the Pacific, they become convinced of it. The Americans very much viewed him as British spy at this stage,” said Professor Fox.
“This leads directly to the American president taking America to war with Mexico to prevent them from allowing a British colony to be formed on California, a colony which they believed Mcnamara was about to start. The moment the president learns about Mcnamara the American president starts planning to take California either by force or by money. Mcnamara receives 20,000 acres in California from the Mexican government. He gets the deed from the land in California on the same day as the American army comes in and takes over. The British navy arrives eight days later and there is a moment when the Royal Navy appear in Monterey Bay with their cannon primed and find the America navy ready with their canon primed. It could have gone one way or the other.”
Mr Fox’s book ‘El Proyecto Macnamara’ will be published later this week by Irish Academic Press. Check out the Life section of next week’s