HIi ilili 1 1 fiiiil 1 iffllllfl H IS m m OF AN T T» "H" O TT 13 ITS TT^ T PERSONAL NARRATIVE BY JOHN DEVOY Class Book VOLU M E pen nsylvan i a State Library PISL-U COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 28M-8-4I DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION STATE LIBRARY HARRISBURG In case of failure to return the books the borrower agrees to pay the original price of the same, or to replace them with other copies. The last borrower is held respon- sible for any mutilation. Return this book on or before the last date stamped below. AFR 1 } 1966 f PENPENNSYLVANIA STATE LIBRARY GENERAL LIBRARY —.L NUMBER DATE WR 13 19*6 L.L. Bind. THOR (Last Nome First) M. Loon NATURE OF BORROWER DRESS 7 ^ LEPHONE NUMBER TE OF REQUEST NOT WANTED AFTER Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/reollectionsofirOOjohn RECOLLECTIONS OF AN IRISH REBEL J* THE FENIAN MOVEMENT ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. METHODS OF WORK IN IRELAND AND IN THE BRITISH ARMY. WHY IT FAILED TO ACHIEVE ITS MAIN OBJECT. BUT EXERCISED GREAT INFLUENCE ON IRE- LAND'S FUTURE PERSONALITIES OF THE ORGANIZATION The Clan-na-Gael and the Rising of Easter Week, 1916 A PERSONAL NARRATIVE by JOHN DEVOY CONTENTS. Introduction. All Irish History Points to the Necessity of Separation from the British Empire .... 1 PART I. Chapter I The Gloom of the 'Fifties 6 II Fenianism Started in America 17 III Burial of Terence Bellew McManus 22 IV The Movement Spreads 26 V The Feud with the Sullivans 36 VI The "Irish People" 41 VII Important Events in 1864 47 VIII When Billy Keogh for once was Merciful 50 PART II. IX "The Year of Action" 55 X Getting Ready for the Fight 60 XI The English Government Strikes 69 XII Millen's Brief Authority 73 XIII The Rescue of Stephens 77 XIV The Fight Postponed 88 XV The Council of War 98 XVI The Last Chance Thrown Away 107 XVII Fenianism Fighting for its Life 112 XVTII The Catholic Church and Fenianism 118 PART III. XIX Fenianism in the British Army 128 XX "Pagan" O'Leary 133 XXI How the British Army was "Organized" 140 XXII "Organization" Systematized in the Army 145 XXIII John Boyle O'Reilly 152 XXIV The Soldiers on Trial 160 PART IV. XXV The Rising Doomed from the Start 185 XXVI Stepaside and Glencullen 193 XXVII Filgate's Personal Narrative 199 ii CONTENTS. XXVIII The Disaster at Tallaght 203 XXIX The Fighting in Cork 207 XXX Knockadoon and Kilclooney Wood 213 XXXI Tipperary's Effort Failed 219 XXXII The Siege of Kilmallock 223 XXXIII Part Played by Clare 229 XXXIV Some Other Fiascoes 232 PART V. XXXV The "Erin's Hope" Expedition 235 XXXVI The Manchester Rescue 237 XXXVII The Manchester Martyrs 244 XXXVIII The Clerkenwell Explosion 248 XXXIX The Catalpa Rescue 251 XL The Fenians and the Irish Language 261 PART VI. XLI John O'Mahony 266 XLII James Stephens, C. O. I. R 272 XLIII John O'Leary 280 XLIV Thomas Clarke Luby 288 XLV Charles J. Kickham 304 XLVI O 'Donovan Rossa 319 XLVII James J. O'Kelly 333 XLVIII Colonel Ricard O'Sullivan Burke 347 XLIX Thomas Francis Bourke 353 L The O'Donovan Brothers 363 LI My Own Record and Antecedents 372 PART VII. LII Reorganized Fenianism, 1871-1916 392 LIU Foreign Military Aid for Ireland 397 LIV First Interview with Von Bernstorff 403 LV Casement and the Irish Volunteers 407 LVI Casement Goes to Germany 416 LVII English Plot to Murder Casement 423 LVIII Casement Partially Successful in Germany... 431 LIX "Butting in" on the Clan-na-Gael 442 LX The First Irish Race Convention 449 LXI Ireland Decides on Insurrection 458 LXII German Prerogatives Violated 466 LXIII Casement Executed by the English 472 LXIV The Philosophy of "Easter Week" 479 ILLUSTRATIONS Devoy, John Frontispiece Davis, Thomas 10 Mitchel, John 16 Denieffe, Joseph 20 Kelly, Colonel Thomas J 58 Stephens, James 78 O'Reilly, John Boyle 152 Manchester Martyrs 244 Breslin, John J 256 O'Mahony, Colonel John 266 O'Leary, John 280 Luby, Thomas Clarke 288 Kickham, Charles J 304 Rossa, Jeremiah O'Donovan 320 "Cuba Five", The 330 Burke, Colonel Ricard O'S 348 Clarke, Thomas J 392 Casement, Sir Roger 408 MacDermott, Sean 458 Connolly, James 464 Pearse, Padraic 474 PREFACE In the death of John Devoy (born 1842—died 1923) there passed from this mortal stage one of the most remarkable figures in Irish history. Blessed with many talents, he devoted them all, tirelessly and unselfishly, to one idea, and to one ideal. For more than sixty years, in storm and in sunshine, in sick- ness and in health, he dreamed and toiled and worked for the cause of Ireland a Nation. His services covered a wide range of activities and only with the passing years will the full effects of his efforts be known and appreciated. Irish patriots, as far apart in their methods as William O'Brien and Padraic H. Pearse, have appraised him as among the greatest of his race. Mr. O'Brien, in his "Recollections", after ascribing to him and Michael Davitt the chief credit for the Land League, said: "The part played by his co-founder of the Land League movement, Mr. Devoy, is less known, because the terms on which he was amnestied forbade him to return to Ireland, and consequently exposed him to misunderstandings of the situation at home, which eventually made him a bitter enemy of the semi-parliamentary, semi-agrarian revolution he had so influential a part in launching. His hostility in later days, however, ought not to make us forgetful of the sagacity and courage with which he first rallied even the extremest of the extreme men to give a full and fair trial to Parnell and his methods. Mr. Devoy was a born con- spirator, and, like all born conspirators, can never be meas- ured at his true value by the public. But it is certain that, in his own special department of swearing into the Revolu- tionary Brotherhood the soldiers of the Dublin Garrison, in 1865, he was perhaps the most dangerous enemy of Eng- land in the entire Fenian body, and, in some respects, not altogether unworthy to rank not very far beneath Wolfe Tone." In the booklet issued as a souvenir of the O'Donovan Rossa funeral, on August 1, 1915, there is a preface written by Padraic H. Pearse (who himself after Easter Week, 1916, became one of Ireland's patriot martyrs) which contains the following char- acteristic sketches of the most prominent of the Fenian leaders: "O'Donovan Rossa was not the greatest of the Fenian generation, but he was its most typical man. He was the man that to the masses of his countrymen then and since stood most starkly and plainly for the Fenian idea. More lovable and understandable than the cold and enigmatical Stephens, better known than the shy and sensitive Kickham, more human than the scholarly and chivalrous O'Leary, more picturesque than the able and urbane Luby, older and ii PREFACE more prominent than the man who, when the time comes to write his biography, will be recognized as the greatest of the Fenians—John Devoy." In these "Recollections" John Devoy has recorded much of the intimate but hitherto unwritten story of the Fenian move- ment. He tells this story of that time with clearness and dis- tinction so far as it can be done within the compass of a single volume. For a more comprehensive grasp of what that extraordi- nary force meant to Irish national progress one has to read many other books, including those referred to in this narrative, which describe the intolerable political conditions in Ireland which the Fenians had to combat. Such further study is also essential to an appraisal of the varied handicaps under which they operated and to a due appreciation of the lofty patriotism, indomitable courage and immolation of self which animated them to chal- lenge, almost unarmed, the might of Britain. The lines by John Kells Ingram on the men of 'Ninety-Eight can, with equal appositeness, be applied to those of the 'Sixty- Seven period: "They rose in dark and evil days To right their native land; They kindled here a living blaze That nothing shall withstand". Volumes have been and others could be written on the ac- tivities of numerous individuals cited in these "Recollections" of Devoy, to whom, because of the nature of this work, he has made but passing reference. In the case of Devoy himself many events of momentous importance in the struggle for the estab- lishment of an Irish Republic and also for the preservation of liberty in the United States, in which he played a conspicuous part, are, for a similar reason, either not dealt with herein or received but casual mention. Born in one of the darkest periods of his country's history, John Devoy lived to see her emerge in great part from her dis- tress and advance a long way on the road to real independence. That much of that result is to be attributed to him, is well known to those who have been in touch with Ireland's efforts to secure national freedom. Stern, unbending, implacable in his course, he was person- ally lovable, gentle and simple. To the qualities and character of a leader of men, he added in his personal relationships the simplicity and likeability of youth. How much he accomplished of the great task to which he devoted himself, cannot yet with PREFACE iii exactitude be reckoned.