Sarah Curran

Sarah Curran playing the harp. Painted by William Beechey, c.1805.
Lady Sarah Curran, by George Romney

Sarah Curran (1782 – 5 May 1808) was the youngest daughter of John Philpot Curran, an eminent Irish lawyer and his wife Sarah Curran (née Creagh). Sarah was born in Newmarket, County Cork. She was raised in The Priory in Rathfarnham and was the great love of Irish patriot Robert Emmet.[1]

Curran met Robert through her brother Richard, a fellow student of Emmet's at Trinity College in Dublin.[2] Sarah's father considered Robert unsuitable, and their courtship was conducted through letters and clandestine meetings. Notable is Robert's letter to Sarah. Robert and Sarah were secretly engaged in 1803.[1] When her father discovered that Sarah was engaged, he disowned her and then treated her so harshly that she had to take refuge with friends in Cork, where she met and married Captain Henry Sturgeon, a nephew of the Marquis of Rockingham in November 1805. The two lived in Haiti (according to the Cambridge Biographic Encyclopedia), where Sturgeon was posted; she had a child, John, who died at the age of one month, after a difficult birth. Sarah died of tuberculosis on 5 May 1808. She had wished to be buried in her father's garden in Rathfarnham beside her sister Gertrude, who had died at the age of 12 from a fall from a window in the house; her father refused. She was buried in the birthplace of her father at Newmarket, County Cork.[1]

Recognition

Washington Irving, one of America's greatest early writers, devoted "The Broken Heart" in his magnum opus The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. to the romance between Robert Emmet and Sarah Curran, citing it as an example of how a broken heart can be fatal.

Irish poet Thomas Moore was inspired by her story to write the popular ballads, "She is far from the land" and "Oh breathe not his name!"[3] and the long poem Lalla Rookh.[4]

She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps,
And lovers around her are sighing,
But coldly she turns from their gaze, and weeps,
For her heart in his grave is lying.

The road leading past Saint Enda's Park in Rathfarnham is called Sarah Curran Avenue. The ruins of The Priory still stand across the road in The Hermitage housing estate.

There once was a pub in Rathfarnham Village called The Sarah Curran, named in her honour.

In her family's home town of Newmarket, County Cork, there is a statue of Sarah Curran standing across the road from the graveyard where she is buried.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Robert Emmet". Library Ireland. 2010. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Robert Emmet". The Robert Emmet Society. 2010. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  3. ↑ "Robert Emmet & Sarah Curran". Robert Emmet.ORG. 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  4. ↑ Terence de Vere White, Tom Moore, p.123
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