Stories about the Bonapartes - Napoleon and Lucien - fond memories of her young days in Dublin with her husband, Theobald Wolfe Tone, and the love of Ireland come out in a fascinating article in the autumn edition of History Ireland. Matilda Tone was being interviewed in March 1849 by a Young Irelander, Charles Hart, who was touring in the United States. She was approaching her 80th birthday and was frail enough, but for events of long ago had a lively memory. She wished to be known as Matilda Tone, though in 1816 she married Thomas Wilson, a Scotsman whom Tone knew and approved of. Wilson died in 1824.
"I lived in France for 20 years and am almost a Frenchwoman," she told Hart. After Tone's death, Napoleon, at the prompting of his brother Lucien, president of the Council of Five Hundred, secured for Matilda a pension which was paid until her death. Lucien, she said, was the very best of them: "He was the beauty of the family . . . taller and a better figure" than Napoleon. She asked frequently, wrote Hart, for "poor old Dublin". She spoke of Grafton Street, where she lived, and Anne Street and the nearby church. Hart said how wonderful it was that she had such a strong Irish feeling. "Ah, [in rather a sad voice"] it was Tone gave it all to me".
She talked about the College (Trinity), said she knew it well. "Tone was such a pet there. I used after I was married to walk constantly there and could go where I pleased to the museum, etc, etc." When Hart apparently voiced something about remaining in America, she said: "Oh, don't expatriate yourself. Here I am for 30 years in this country and I have never had an easy hour - longing after my native land." She said of Smith O'Brien and others that they were being punished for "being virtuous". She would have liked to go back to see Dublin "but could not summon up courage". She died two weeks later.
Christopher Woods is the author of the article, an archivist working on the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Professor Myles Dillon in 1961 worked on Hart's diary with a view to publication, which did not come about. Perhaps now? His typescript is in TCD Library. Y