The Douay (Douai) Rheims Bible is an English translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible (which had been the Latin Bible used by the Catholic Church since the 4th century). It was produced by Roman Catholic scholars in exile from Elizabethan Protestant England at the English College of Douai (then in the Spanish Netherlands but later part of France). The New Testament translation was published in 1582 at Rheims where the English College had temporarily located in 1578. The Old Testament was translated shortly afterwards but was not published until 1609-1610 in Douay (which makes it older than the King James version). The completed work was the only authorized Bible in English for Roman Catholics until the 20th Century. Its purpose was to uphold the Catholic tradition in the face of the Protestant Reformation and was produced as an alternative to the several Protestant translations then in existence. Prior to it being published, the Roman Catholic practice had restricted personal use of the Bible, in the Latin Vulgate, to the clergy. Bishop Richard Challoner issued a series of revisions (1749 - 1772) intended to make the translation more easily understandable and subsequent editions (including this one) were based upon this revision. In 1871, an edition of the Douay - Rheims Bible was published by Thomas Kelly & Sons of Philadelphia (and later, New York). Thomas Kelly described himself as a "Publisher, Printer, Binder, Lithographer and Steel Plate Engraver". In 1876, Thomas Kelly won an award (a Diploma of Honor and a Medal of Merit) for "the Best Catholic Bibles and Prayer Books" at the International Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia and his firm continued to print editions of the Bible throughout the 1870's but little is known of him after 1880 when this edition was published. This Bible has been in the Kermond family from 1888 until 1984 when Laurence Kermond (its last owner) died. The Kermonds were an old Warrnambool family with ties to the district going back to the mid 1840's. Joseph Kermond's mother, Catherine (1818 - 1895) and her husband John Kermond,, an ex-convict (1809 - 1877), had moved from Tasmania around 1843 and were living in the Warrnambool area in 1844 where their eldest son was born. They had six more children born at Port Fairy (or Belfast as it was then called). Catherine is buried at the Tower Hill cemetery. The last owner of the Bible was Laurence Kermond (1918 - 1984). He was the great grandson of John and Catherine Kermond and was a well known painter who lived in the Merimbula and Paynesville areas of N.S. W. and Victoria during the 1970's and early 1980's. The story of Joseph Kermond finding the Bible on a beach on the Shipwreck Coast near Peterborough on the southern coast of Victoria, Australia is plausible as it was not uncommon for items from shipwrecks to be washed ashore. However this Bible would not have come from the wreck of the Loch Ard as the dates don't align. The Loch Ard was wrecked in 1878 and this Bible was printed in 1880. It appears to have been printed for the Australian market as there is a page (with an engraved portrait) dedicated to the "Most Rev. Roger Bede Vaughan, O. S. B. Archbishop of Sydney, N. S. W.". It may also have been aimed at the Irish immigrants as the four "Family Register" pages are decorated with borders of shamrocks. The donor found the Bible in a box of secondhand books on a market stall in Gippsland and recognised its links to the Shipwreck Coast through the name of previous owners (a well-known Warrnambool name) and the story of it being found on a beach near Peterborough. This Bible is a rare example of Douay and Reims Catholic Bible of the late 19th century that was once a treasured item belonging to the Kermond family - one of Warrnambool's early settlers. It also has a most unusual story attached to it - being found (and rescued) washed up on a local beach and almost one hundred years later, being rescued again from a secondhand book stall.This Catholic Bible is an 1880 edition of a "Douay Bible and Rheims Testament", printed and published by Thomas Kelly of New York. Its full title is "The Holy Bible translated from the Latin Vulgate Diligently Compared with The Hebrew, Greek and Other Editions in Various Languages". It is revised with annotations by the Right Rev. R. Challoner D.D. The Bible has brown leather embossed front and back covers decorated with identical ornate gilt patterns and a central picture of a cross. It has two coloured illustrations and numerous black and white lithographs and engravings including portraits of past popes, events and places from Bible stories and decorative borders. The Bible includes the Old and New Testaments, approbations from Pope Pius the Sixth and Archbishops of the United States and other countries (including Archbishop Vaughan of Sydney), a Family Register with handwritten notes on births, deaths and marriages from the Kermond family (as well as a description of how they obtained the bible), a Catholic dictionary of the Bible, a history of the Holy Scriptures, a chronological list of heretics (Theological history) and a description of the "Centennial Award - Diploma of Honor and medal of Merit" won by Thomas Kelly (for the "Best Catholic Bible") at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. The Records section has a note on the Memoranda page written by William John Kennard in 1920.Spine: HOLY BIBLE Title Page: THE/ HOLY BIBLE /TRANSLATED FROM/ THE LATIN VULGATE/ DILIGENTLY COMPARED WITH/THE HEBREW, GREEK AND OTHER EDITIONS/ IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES/ THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT DOUAY, A.D. 1600 / AND THE NEW TESTAMENT, BY THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT RHEIMS, A.D. 1582./ REVISED WITH ANNOTATIONS/ BY THE RIGHT REV. R. CHALLONER D.D./ TOGETHER WITH REFERENCES, AND AN HISTORICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX./ NOW CAREFULLY CORRECTED ACCORDING TO THE CLEMENTINE EDITION OF THE SCRIPTURES/ NEW YORK / THOMAS KELLY, PUBLISHER/ 17 BARCLAY STREET. / 1880 Dedication Page: DEDICATION OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION/ TO/ THAT LOYAL, RELIGIOUS AND ENLIGHTENED BODY OF MEN / THE/ CATHOLICS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA/ IN ADMIRATION OF THE STEADY ZEAL WITH WHICH THEY HAVE KEPTTHE/DEPOSIT OF FAITH/ BEQUEATHED THEM BY THEIR FOREFATHERS/ AND HANDED DOWN, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION OT ADULTERATION, TO THEIR GRATEFUL POSTERITY/ THIS EDITION/ OF THE/DOUAY BIBLE AND RHEIMS TESTAMENT/ IS / WITH GRATITUDE FOR PAST FAVORS AND HOPES OF FUTURE ENCOURAGEMENT/ MOST RESPECTFULLY ENSCRIBED. Handwritten note: ""This Holy Book was found . on the beach . near Peterborough Vic. having been washed ashore . from the wreck of the Loch Ard, (sailing ship) in the year 1888 . By .Joseph . Kermond; and presented to . his mother . Catherine Kermond , who in turn passed it - on . to her youngest . son ; one Jacob Kermond. He in turn presented . it to his son . William John Kermond , (the writer), 23/3/20)" [Original punctuation]flagstaff hill maritime museum and village, warrnambool, shipwreck coast, peterborough, kermond, kermond family, loch ard, bible, douay and rheims bible, catholic bible, thomas kelly and sons publiisher, douai, rheims, holy bible, religious bible, catherine kermond, john kermond, william john kermond'

Daniel O’Connell was born near Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry, on 6 August 1775. His wealthy childless uncle adopted him at an early age and brought him up at Derrynane. He spoke Irish and was interested in the traditional culture of song and story still strong in Kerry at the time. He also understood how the rural mind worked which served him well in later years. In 1791 he was sent to school at St. Omer and Douai and what he saw there of the French Revolution left him with a life-long hatred of violence. He read law at Lincoln’s Inn (1794 -96) and continued his studies in Dublin where he was called to bar in 1798. He had soon built up an enormous practice. The 1798 rising and the terrible butchery that followed it confirmed his horror of violence. While he approved of the principles of the United Irishmen, their call for reform and for Catholic Emancipation, he disagreed with their methods. In 1815 O’Connell criticised harshly the Dublin corporation. O’Connell was challenged to a duel by one member D’Esterre. In the exchange of shots D’Esterre was killed and O’Connell vowed never to fight again. O’Connell was soon drawn into political action. Hopes of Catholic emancipation had been raised by promises given while the act of union was being passed. In 1823, O’Connell founded the Catholic Association. The aim of the organisation was to use all the legal means available to secure emancipation. It turned into a mass crusade with the support of the Catholic clergy. All members of the association paid a membership of a penny a month (the Catholic rent). This helped to raise a large fund. The Clare election in 1828 was a turning point. O’Connell, with the support of the forty-shilling freeholders, managed a huge victory against the government candidate. He was well supported by the clergy whose influence on the poor uneducated peasant class was enormous. The polling took place in Ennis at the old courthouse where the O’Connell monument now stands. At the final count, O’Connell was elected by a majority of about eleven hundred votes. The ascendancy party had suffered its first big knock since 1798. The whole country was aflame. The British Government feared a rising and granted Catholic emancipation in April 1829. The franchise was, however, raised to 10 pounds which excluded the forty-shilling freeholders. O’Connell was now the undisputed leader in Ireland and he gave up his practice at the bar to devote his time entirely to politics. At the King’s insistence, O’Connell was not allowed to take his seat until he had been re-elected for Clare. In February 1830, O’Connell became the first Catholic in modern history to sit in the House of Commons. For the rest of his life, he was supported by “The O’Connell Tribute”, a public collection out of which O’Connell paid all his expenses. O’Connell now decided to concentrate on winning repeal of the act of union and getting an Irish parliament for the Irish people. British political leaders feared repeal as they did not fear emancipation. They saw repeal of the Act of Union as the first step in the break-up of the act of union, as the spirit of the repeal movement was revived when the young Ireland writers wrote about it in the Nation. In 1841, O’Connell was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin and in 1843 the subscriptions to his Repeal Association, the Repeal “Rent” came to 48,400 pounds. He now began to organise monster meetings throughout the country. It is thought that three-quarters of a million people gathered on the hill of Tara to hear the man they called the “Liberator”. The government became alarmed at the strength of the Repeal Movement and a meeting which O’Connell had planned for 8 October 1843 in Clontarf, Dublin was banned. Huge crowds were already on their way when O’Connell called off the meeting to avoid the risk of violence and bloodshed. He was charged with conspiracy, arrested and sentenced to a year in jail and a fine of 2,000 pounds. The sentence was set aside after O’Connell had been three months in prison. When he was released he continued with his campaign for repeal. However, a turning point had been reached. The tactics that had won emancipation had failed. O’Connell was now almost seventy, his health failing and he had no clear plan for future action. There was discontent within the Repeal Association and the Young Irelanders withdrew. There was also some failure in the potato crop in the 1840’s, a sign of things to come in the Great Famine of 1845-1847. Aware of the fact that he had failed with his great goal, (the Repeal Movement), O’Connell left Ireland for the last time in January 1847. He made a touching speech in the House of Commons in which he appealed for aid for his country. In March, acting on the advice of his doctor, he set out to Italy. Following his death in Genoa on 15 May 1847, his body was returned to Ireland and buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. [http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/daniel.htm, accessed 13/12/2013]Portrait of a man known as Daniel O'Connell.ballarat irish, daniel o'connell, o'connell