In
course of time the two became more intimately related.
Bianconi's son married O'Connell's granddaughter; and O'Connell's
nephew, Morgan John, married Bianconi's daughter. Bianconi's son
died in 1864, leaving three daughters, but no male heir to carry
on the family name. The old man bore the blow of his son's
premature death with fortitude, and laid his remains in the
mortuary chapel, which he built on his estate at Longfield.
In the following year, when he was seventy-eight, he met with a
severe accident. He was overturned, and his thigh was severely
fractured. He was laid up for six months, quite incapable of
stirring. He was afterwards able to get about in a marvellous
way, though quite crippled. As his life's work was over, he
determined to retire finally from business; and he handed over
the whole of his cars, coaches, horses, and plant, with all the
lines of road he was then working, to his employes, on the most
liberal terms.
My youngest son met Mr. Bianconi, by appointment, at the Roman
Catholic church at Boherlahan, in the summer of 1872. Although
the old gentleman had to be lifted into and out of his carriage
by his two men-servants, he was still as active-minded as ever.
Close to the church at Boherlahan is Bianconi's mortuary chapel,
which he built as a sort of hobby, for the last resting-place of
himself and his family.
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