CHAPTER XV

MEMOIRS OF ARTHUR O’NEILL—SECOND JOURNEY

“I knew a Michael Keane, a blind harper, who was born in the County Mayo in Connaught. He was a decent performer. He left this country for America with a Governor Dobbs, of Castle Dobbs, in the County of Antrim, who was appointed to the Government of South Carolina, previous to the American Independence. Keane returned from America, and Sir Malby Crofton told this story of Keane, that when he and some other officers were garrisoned at Fort Oswego, and had a party, Keane was with them, and quarreled with them, and beat them very well, and took a Miss Williams from them all.
He left the Governor, and came back to his native country which he longed to see.”²Arthur O’Neill (1734-1818)

1. Charlotte Milligan Fox, Annals of the Irish Harpers. Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1911, p169.
2. Dictated at Bunting’s request to Thomas Hughes at some point during the period 1808-1813.