Notes and References:

1. For O’Brien’s family background, see D. O’Brien, History of the O’Brien’s from Brian Boirmhe, A.D. 1000 to 1945 (London, 1949); Ivar O’Brien, O’Brien of Thomond (Chichester, 1986); R. Davis, William Smith O’Brien: Ireland – 1848 – Tasmania (Dublin, 1989); P. de Bhaldraithe, ‘William Smith O’Brien and his Second’ in The Other Clare, vol. 13 (1989), pp. 25-28.

2. For Irish Politics during the 1840s see, K. Nowlan, The Politics of Repeal (London, 1965); T. O’Sullivan, The Young Irelanders (Tralee, 1944); C. Duffy, A Final Edition of Young Ireland (London, 1896).

3. For the 1848 rebellion see, D. Gwynn, Young Ireland and 1848 (Cork, 1949); R. Davis The Young Ireland Movement (Dublin, 1987); M. Doheny, The Felon’s Track (Dublin, 1914).

4. O’Brien’s period in exile is covered in B. Tuohill, William Smith O’Brien and his Irish Revolutionary Companions in Penal Exile (Missouri, 1981); R. Davis, op cit.; T. Kiernan, The Irish Exiles in Australia (Dublin, 1954); J. Cullen, Young Ireland in Exile (Dublin 1928).

5. The Tasmanian Journal is Ms. 449 in the O’Brien manuscript collection in the National Library of Ireland. The plans to publish the Journal were initiated by Dr. Richard Davis, History Department, University of Tasmania, Hobart, and the Tasmanian state government has agreed to publish this impressive volume, it is hoped, in the current year. The associate editors are Blanche Tuohill and William Nolan.
[The journal was published in 1995 as To Solitude Consigned: The Tasmanian Journal of William Smith O'Brien, RP Davis (ed.), Crossing Press, Sydney. ISBN 064622784X.]