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Dr. Michael Joseph Rahilly

• Sources yet to be consulted:
  • Royal Navy record for Dr. Michael Joseph Rahilly.

  • Transcripts of three naval journals of Engineer Officer, Frederick Wheeler, Royal Navy, 1855-65, manuscript collections, Centre for Maritime Historical Studies, University of Exeter.
    • 1859-61 service in HMS Gladiator in the Caribbean.
    • Wheeler is quoted in: "Officers or engineers? The integration and status of engineers in the Royal Navy, 1847–60", Oliver C. Walton (2004), Historical Research 77 (196), 178-201.

  • Diary kept on HMS Gladiator, HMS Hawke and HMS Forte, 1854-62, George Clemenger, naval chaplain, Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, 2000 Accessions, ref. 2000/30, GB/NNAF/D5006.

Dr. Michael Joseph Rahilly,
surgeon in Royal Navy, NOT officer,
bapt 27th Jan 1838 [Ballylongford],
educ boarding school in Ennis, then boarding school in Killarney, poss. also at Tralee College,
"Master Ml Jos Raleigh" was in France as at 1853 - a confraternity card, Church of Notre Dame, survives in [Aodogán's papers],
there is a letter from him at school: "met a boy called Sigerson, he has urged me to take up the study of Irish, says I'd be very good at it" [Aodogán's papers], this was the future scholar and writer Dr. George Sigerson (born 1836),
studied medicine, entered Queen's College, Cork for academic year 1855-6, guardian Mr. R. Spence, 7 Nile St, Cork,
brilliant scholar, great linguist, MD 1859 (Doctor of Medicine), 1st place in practice of medicine, living Ballylongford at time,
see Irish Times, June 29, 1859,
he was said to be the first medical graduate of Cork university, but this may not be true, Medical faculty opened 1849,
LRCS Edin (Licentiate Royal Coll Surgeons Edinburgh) 1859,

had distinguished, though short, career as surgeon in the Royal Navy, entered navy 1860, served on HMS Gladiator 1860 to 1864, in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, there were other HMS Gladiator ships both before and after this one, this HMS Gladiator was wooden hull, paddle wheel propulsion, 2nd class frigate, launched 1844, in Penzance, Cornwall is the grave of his predecessor: "In affectionate remembrance of George Hext Bellringer, Jun., late acting assistant surgeon of H.M.S. "Gladiator", who departed this life near the Island of Bermuda, on the 4th November, 1859; aged 22 Years", Michael Joseph was waiting to board ship at Queenstown, Co.Cork, writes to his brother Richard, asks him to "send me my favourite book" - History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798, by William Hamilton Maxwell, pub 1845, Maxwell was an Ulster Protestant who served in the British Army, and this book is actually famous for its anti-Irish, simian depictions of the rebels, unless this reference is a joke, this would indicate just how pro-British the Rahillys were at this time, from 23rd Apr 1860 to 6th May 1860, he was on HMS Gladiator off Greytown, Nicaragua, 4th Feb 1861 to 5th Mar 1861, off "Vera Cruz", Mexico (Veracruz, on Gulf of Mexico), 15th Apr 1861, Havana (Cuba), 19th Apr 1861, "estamos distante 200 milas de las Burmudos", 22nd Apr 1861, Bermuda (Atlantic) 2nd May 1861 to 27th May 1861, Halifax (must be Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 18th June 1861, Staten Island, NY, "I see from my window the gigantic city lying before me", note the American Civil War had just started Apr 1861, 30th June 1861, off coast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, 18th Aug 1861, Staten Island, NY, George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby (then Earl of Mulgrave, also here), the Governor of Nova Scotia, arrived in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, aboard the HMS Gladiator on Sept 7, 1861, 27th Sep 1862, off "Vera Crux" (must be Veracruz, Mexico), 21st Jun 1864, Barbados (Caribbean),

he died unmarried, Sun 22nd Apr 1866, Ballylongford, age 28 yrs, of tuberculosis (NOT tropical fever) [GROI],
bur Lislaughtin Abbey with his father and his sister Margaret [Mary Barrett, née Patt].
NOT to be confused with Michael Rahilley.

Gangs of New York is set in 1862-63.
Rahilly was off New York in 1861.
See also photos of New York in 1859 and 1860 and 1863.