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[Page 286]

MICHAEL DOHENY, GENERAL MICHAEL CORCORAN, JOHN O'MAHONY, JAMES STEPHENS.


Sketch of Michael Doheny--youth at the Plough—Desire for Knowledge—Studies Greek and Latin—Life in London—Writes for the Press—Admitted to the Bar—National Orater in the O'Connell Movements—Joins Young Ireland Party, and Writes for the " Nation " and" Tribune "—Escapes to France and Comes to America—Life in New York—Hopes for Ireland—Death. Sketch of General Corcoran—Son of a Half-Pay Officer—In the Constabulary—Emigrates to America-Joins the 69th N. Y. S. M.—Orderly Sergeant, Lieutenant, Cap­tain—Complimented by the Inspector-General—Elected Colonel—Refuses to Parade the 69th in Honor of the Prince of Wales—Court-martialed—Breaking Out of the Rebellion—Advises the 69th to go to the War—Court-martial Quashed, and Popular Applause—Services of the 69th—Corcoran Captured at Bull Run—In Prison—Held as Hostage for a Privateer—Cabinet Council on Exchange of Prisoners—Liberated—Great Ovation—In the Field Again with the Irish Legion—Defeats Pryor and Baffles Longstreet—Defence of Washing­ton—Death. Sketch of John O'Mahony—Position in '48—What Influenced his Political Career—Hereditary Disputes Between the 0 Mahonys and the Earls of Kingston--Death of O'Mahony's Father--Leaving the Family Residence at Kilbenny—First Ideas on the Land Question—Shelters the Young Ireland Outlaws--Joined by Savage—The "Reaping of Moulough "—Risings in Sep.. tember—Projects the Release of O'Brien—Perilous Escape—To Wales—To France. Sketch of James Stephens—Civil Engineer—In Kilkenny in '48—Takes Charge of O'Donohue en route to Smith O'Brien—Remains with the Latter—At Killenaule and Ballingarry—On the Hills—Escapes to France—O'Mahony and Stephens in Paris—Join a Revolutionary Society—O'Mahony a GaelicTutor—Stephens the French Translator of Dickens—O'Mahony goes to America—Stephens to Ireland—Arrested—Repudiates British Law Before the Magistrates—Escape from Prison—In America—Retirement—O'Mahony defines his Present Position.

THE extension, if not the very existence of modern Fenianism, is indebted to the men whose names head


DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS. 287

this chapter. The existence of Irish disaffection is not owing to any one man, but to the sufferings of many from generation to generation. Doheny has truly said that " the disaffection of Ireland is immortal." But there is none the less honor due to those who combine, organize and direct disaffection, so that it may cope with oppression, redress grievances, and finally confer freedom. Of these fosterers of disaffection, founders of the Brotherhood, and propagandists of the organiz­ation, two are in the grave, and two in retirement. The memories of the dead are eloquent with great truths nobly spoken, great deeds nobly done, great examples which cannot be buried with them. The acts of the living speak for themselves. The life and ser­vices of either of these four men might easily and in­structively be extended to a volume ; but a brief sketch is all that can be furnished here. Being widely known, however, there is less necessity for detail than in the case of others treated of in this book.The name of Michael Doheny is intimately associa­ted with every movement suggested by the ills of his country, or projected for their amelioration, for more than a quarter of a century before his death. His life was an evidence at once of the untameable nature of indigenous ability, and of the cares which unconquer­able devotion to an idea engenders and overcomes. His first twenty years were as remarkable in their un­lettered throbbings, as the remainder were active in the rostrum, at the hustings, in the journal office. In those latter years he was but putting into energetic and eloquent service the visions and impulses that vis-


288 FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS.

ited him at the plough. Actually, he was an inspired plough-boy.* Doheny boasted of the transition, was proud of alluding to his youth ; and looking at the po­sition he attained, the speeches he made, and the vari­ous writings, both in prose and verse, from his accom­plished pen, there are none who can deny the assiduity and energy that must have produced such results.Doheny was born 22d May, 1805, at Brookhill, near Fethard, County of Tipperary. His early life, like that of so many eminent men, both dead and living who have left their deep track on the road of renown, like Jackson and Clay, Webster and Douglas, Corwin and Lincoln, and Andrew Johnson—was occupied in labor—learning those needs which they, in after life, so eloquently advocated for the masses. The son of a small farmer, young Doheny's days were chiefly spent at the plough, not always attentively driving it, to be sure, but ostensibly so ; drinking in the memories which every hill and stream, the clouds of sunshine and shower-overhead, and the gray ruins about him presented, so typical of his country's gloom and glory.
His early education was scanty, but a natural desire for books, and the unappeased hunger for knowledge which their perusal created, soon made a suggestive foundation for the future orator, writer, and patriot. He had closely approximated to the age of manhood before an opportunity presented by which he could approach the classics. With his usual energy, he at-tacked and captured Latin and Greek ; and fortified with them, he graduated from the field into the study
*'98 and '48--p. 347.


DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS. 289

as a tutor, and was thus enabled to solidify by use the acquirements he had made. An intellect so strong and so busy soon found utterance by the pen ; and af­ter some telling essays on local politics, he mainly sup-ported himself by its use on the London press, when he sought that city to put in his terms at the Temple as a Student of Law. The means adopted for a living in London necessarily made him a student of the lead­ing men who ruled Great Britain, the measures they discussed, the whole modus operandi of British politics. In after life, this knowledge was of the greatest use in the frequent impromptu debates his great powers as a public speaker forced him into.Admitted to the bar, he returned to his native coun­try, and, fixing his headquarters in the ancient city of Cashel, he was ever afterwards identified with it until increasing force and an irrepressible influence made him not only a potent man in his county, but in the nation. Ever throbbing with the feelings of the peo­ple, he became one of the most popular tribunes of our day, at times rivaling even O'Connell. In the days of the Catholic Association—in the brilliant fight for Catholic Emancipation, under the lead of Richard Shell and O'Connell; in what was known as the " tithe war ;" in every struggle, great or small, in which a popular right was involved, there was to be found the trenchant logic, the impassioned force, the popular en­ergy, the poetical sympathy, the broadly-enunciated principle, the bold invective, the high-souled apostro­phe—to suit the mood or measure of the people—from the glowing heart and gifted head of Michael Doheny.


290 FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS.

His patriotic energies expanded with the increasing necessities of the Repeal cause. He was one of the most ready and reliable of the gifted band which cir­cled " The Liberator " throughout the great Repeal movement; and mixing with the still younger blood which infused its passion and power into the national cause, in prose and verse, through the columns of the Nation newspaper, contributed many powerful and timely essays and poems to that then splendid organ.His prose writings were characterized by a suggest­ive force and simplicity of argument which quickly supplied the populace with ready reasons for national discussion ; while his occasional poems breathed a lov­ing and strong effulgence of inspiration caught from the hills and vales of his dear Tipperary. In every-thing he then, or indeed ever, wrote, there was a direct, ' unswerving, hopeful purpose, growing from or guiding his intense and devoted love of country. He touched nothing but to draw a lesson of perseverance from it, to incite to noble passion in the public mind. He was the author of that apothegm which became one of the world-honored shibboleths of the " Young Ireland "party—" EDUCATE, THAT YOU MAY BE FREE ! " and by every means he sought to illustrate the ennobling sen­timent by pen and tongue.In addition to his constant labors in the sanctum and on the rostrum, he was a member of the celebrated '82 Club, an active member of the Council of the Re-peal Association, and the important sub-committees to which were variously referred the questions of finance, Parliamentary duty, internal resources, which


DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS. 291

agitated or illustrated the times. Some of the ablest reports were from his pen.
When the younger branch of the Association de­clined to be the simple satellites of O'Connell, he join­ed them, as he ever was the advocate of free speech and the right to differ. In the new organization, the Irish Confederation, he was still more eminently promi­nent and effective, and in '48, after the " three days of Paris " had lit the fires of popular revolution all over Europe ; after the, prosecution of O'Brien, Meagher and Mitchel, and the still further prosecution and banishment of the latter, Doheny flung himself wholly into the revolutionizing of the island by force of arms.He wrote in the Irish Tribune, and on the seizure ' of that and other national journals, took to the hills with the other leaders. The adventures he passed through with a price on his head, the untiring energy with which he went among the people, the passionate yearnings of his soul, as well as the endeavors of his associates, have been—as far as circumstances would allow—recorded by his own pen.
It is not the time for us to follow him through all the hopes and heart-burnings, the attempts and devo­tion of that gallant band. Suffice it, they were un­successful; and Doheny, making his escape as a drover, first found his way across the Irish Channel to London, thence to Paris, and ultimately to the United States—landing in New York early in 1849. He made this city and its vicinity his home to his death. For many years he practiced as a lawyer, became


292 FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS.

known in politics and letters, as an able speaker and lecturer, and otherwise endeared himself to his friends and many men of distinction by those loveable char­acteristics of head and heart which we can but faintly analyze here.Amid the many vicissitudes surrounding the exile, Michael Doheny kept " the whiteness of his soul." The same star that shone over his hopes in Ireland and led him into exile, was his beacon and his glory in it. His brain was ever iluminated by it. It was to him the eternal and unquenchable lamp in his temple of immortality. The hopes and feelings which bent in homage to it, found vent in participation in various Irish societies and military organizations, and in the constant use of his pen and tongue, whenever oppor­tunity presented to expound or give aid and comfort to the darling projects of his manhood; in all of which he was lovingly and enthusiastically seconded and ani­mated by a devoted wife, and by a sister-in law—now, alas, no more—to whose untiring solicitude, under all circumstances of his career, he has left us most touch­ing and ennobling testimony. He was a member of every society started in New York for the dissemina­tion of Irish principles, or the aid of those who kept alive the' patriotic fire in Ireland. His connection with the Fenian Brotherhood has already been noticed. His soul was centered on it. It presented to him a prospect which would more than repay his life-long labors—under every change of fortune—to the great cause. But lie passed away before it had assumed the gigantic proportions which set the world wondering.


DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS. 293

After a brief illness, Doheny departed this life at his residence, Eighteenth street and Ninth avenue, South Brooklyn, at half-past nine o'clock, on the night of the 1st of April. The suddenness of his decease sent a thrill through the hearts of his comrades and friends, as well as the community at large, which has not yet, even after five years, been tempered down to a calm comprehension of the sorrowful fact. Those who knew and loved him, those who had such hopes in his faith, can scarcely yet realize that Michael Doheny is no more—that the hearty energy and elo­quent tongue, which once indicated so stalwart a phy­sique and so luxuriant an intellect, can no more come within our circle to enliven us with his brilliant and loving reminiscences, and exalt us with the holy pur­poses in which he alone lived, moved, and had a being. Doheny was one of those firmly-knit, hearty men, whose departure to the "shadowy land "- we rarely permit ourselves to think of, much less to dwell on. In his instance, the love and affection his purity and innocence of heart instigated and won, placed at a still more remote distance any anticipations of so sad a reality. The officers of the Sixty-ninth Regiment, and those of the Phoenix Brigade, attended his remains to the Calvary cemetery, where all that was mortal of the exiled orator, poet, patriot and man, Michael Doheny, was lowered into the grave by John O'Mahony, Richard O'Gorman, John Savage, Captain John Kavanagh, Patrick O'Dea, and John Hughes, who were his associates in Ireland.


294 FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS.


'While presenting a flag to the Irish Brigade, and alluding to that previously presented to the " Old 69th," Judge Charles P. Daly made touching allusion to the faith of the Irish soldier as represented by Mi­chael Corcoran. "At the head of it (the 69th)," he said, " was the noble-minded, high-spirited and gal­lant officer, to whom so much of its after-character was due—a descendant by the female line of that illustrious Irish soldier, Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, whose name is identified with the siege of Limerick, and who fell fighting at the head of his brigade upon the bloody field of Landen. * * * Colonel Corcoran is now within the walls of a rebel prison, one of the selected victims for revengeful Southern retaliation ; but he has the satisfaction of feeling that he owes his sad but proud pre-eminence to having acted as became a descendant of Sarsfield." At the same fight—the siege of Limerick—which made Sarsfield immortal, the O'Corcoran's of Sligo were not without a representative who inspired the muse of Carolan. In the second volume of the Irish Minstrelsy (Hardiman), will be found a hearty song from the Irish, commencing


" O'Corcoran, thy fame be it mine to proclaim,"


in honor of one of the heroes of that struggle. Thom-as Corcoran, an officer in the British service, re-turned from the West Indies, and having retired on half pay, was, in the 'year 1824, married to Miss Mary McDonogh. Of this union sprung Michael Corcoran, who was born on the 21st September, 1827, at Car-


FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 295


rowkeel in the County of Sligo. After receiving an English education, he spent some three years in the Irish Constabulary establishment—resigned this po­sition, and emigrated to America in 1849. Gifted with a keen, clear intellect, and having nothing to rely on but his own exertions, he was almost immedi­ately employed. He exhibited directness of purpose, unimpeachability of action, and strong natural talents. The former made him friends, and the latter kept awake an honorable ambition, which subsequently led to distinguished position.
The military career of Corcoran may be dated from his entrance into the 69th Regiment, N. Y. S. M., as a private. Here the military passion which was strengthened by early discipline, developed, and he became Orderly Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain, in which position the troubles on Staten Island, known as the " Quarantine War," found him. He was then Senior Captain of the Regiment, and the Inspector-General's report paid him a very marked tribute : " What I might say of Captain Corcoran, command­ing Company A, as to his military knowledge, would* not add to his already well-known reputation as among the best, if not the very best officer of his rank in the first division." On 25th August, 1859, Captain Corcoran was elected Colonel, to fill a vacancy; and from that time his name and that of the Regiment were synonymous. The former was brought before the whole country on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales to New York. Corcoran deeply sympathized with the cause of Irish Nationality; he


296  DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.


was the personal friend of several of the exiles who were prominent in '48, and, last--not least—was one of the founders of the Fenian Brotherhood. He de­clined to parade the Irish-born citizens under his mili­tary command, to do honor to the son of a Sovereign under whose rule and in whose name the best men raised in Ireland for half a century were banished. He was consistent with the heroes with whom tradition associ­ated his blood, not less than with the corps he com­manded; his own theories, and the principles of the Brotherhood he sought to extend. This action brought Corcoran under considerable censure and a court-mar­tial; but there was a speedy change in the opinion of those who thought the ruthless conduct of Great Britain to the Union during the war a base requital for the hospitality extended to the heir-apparent.
Colonel Corcoran's action at the breaking out of the Rebellion was quite characteristic of his patriotic character. His unselfish and upright course was one of the most severe blows the sympathizers with secession in the North received. Many of the officers of the 69th 'were doubtful of the propriety of " turning-out " while their Colonel was undergoing a court-martial for an act which they justified. Immediately, Corcoran, in a public letter, implored them riot to take him into any account, but to stand by the flag of the Union and the sacred principles involved in its sustainment. The court-martial was quashed ; the Union sentiment of the Irish rushed like a torrent into the ranks of the army ; and the 69th left for the seat of war, attended by one of the greatest demonstrations recorded in the history of New York.


FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 297


In the progress of the arduous labors assigned to his command, Colonel Corcoran won the esteem of the heads of the War Department, and the applause of the United States officers with whom he co-operated. As the bulwark and avant-garde of the brigade, hav­ing in special charge the defence of the principal ave­nues from Virginia into Washington, the 69th won enduring honors. All through its service—at Anna­polis, along the railroad to the Junction ; at Georgetown ; during the building of Fort Corcoran—a name conferred by the War Department—along Arlington Heights ; at the relief of the Ohio troops at the railroad near Vienna ; the various midnight alarms and preparations in and out of camp ; and the subsequent , movements at Centreville, ending at the battle of Bull Run—the indomitable Colonel gave his regiment unceasing examples of courage and patriotism. He greatly distinguished himself at Bull Run, and we believe was the only one officially chronicled (see General Sherman's report) as having brought his regiment off the field in a hollow square.*  In this duty Corcoran was wounded, and soon captured. For some time he was prisioner in Richmond; afterwards at Castle Pinckney, Charleston harbor; and in anticipation of an assault by th Port Royal expedition, he was removed to Columbia, in the interior of South Carolina. Soon after his capture, he was offered liberation on condiion that he would not again take up arms. Indignantly repel-
* "Notable Men of the Time," &c., 2nd Edition; Frank Morton, N.Y:, G: P: Putnam; from which this sketch is condensed.

298 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.

ling the overture, he avowed his faith in the Union, and declared he would take up arms just as soon as circumstances would permit.
Upon Colonel Corcoran, probably more than on any other of the Union prisoners, was public attention fixed at that time. The announcement that he was chosen as one of the hostages for the safety of the privateers, condemned to death as pirates, sent an in­dignant thrill of pity and shame throughout the North, and fixed more intently and impatiently the minds of thinking men on the subject of a general exchange of prisoners ; and a commission, composed of Hiram Barney, Esq., Collector of New York, Judge Daly, and Messrs. Richard O'Gorman and John Savage, Esqs., was induced to proceed to Washington to con­fer with the Cabinet and Congress on the immediate and humane necessity of such a proceeding. For several days the Committee were actively engaged canvassing the leading minds at the seat of Govern­ment, and on the 10th December, they were invited by the President to attend a full Cabinet council. Their efforts were satisfactory in an eminent degree.*In August, 1862, Colonel Corcoran was exchanged, and immediately commissioned by President Lincoln as Brigadier General, to date from the day of his cap­ture. The progress of Corcoran from prison to New York, through camps; cities and towns, was a brilliant and marvelous ovation, and served only to bring out more fully the dignity of his character, and to develop his dormant talents in a very remarkable manner.
* "Notable Men of the Time," &c., p. 52,


FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 299.

His speeches, in reply to municipal addresses and pop­ular outbursts, attracted universal attention to him as a man of prompt thoughts and felicitious expression, as well as of unflinching courage and decisive action. * Immediately entering on his new duties, he recruited and organized the famous " Irish Legion," and was in the field by the middle of November, reporting to Major General Dix at Fortress Monroe. He immediately encamped at Newport News, and towards the end of December proceeded to Suffolk. In January General Corcoran, in command of several details from the various regiments of the division, was sent to check a movement of the rebels, under General Pryor, across the Blackwater. At four o'clock, on the morning of the 30th, the troops struck the enemy near a deserted house, from which the fight that ensued took its name. The rebels were repulsed, and the General command­ing, Major-General Peck, issued the following order:

"HEADQUARTERS, SUFFOLK, VA., Feb. 5, 1868.
"The commanding General desires to thank Brigadier General Corcoran and the troops assigned to his command, for their good conduct and gallant bearing in the engagement of the 30th Jan­uary, 1863, at Deserted House, which resulted in driving the enemy to the Black water."

In April Longstreet and Hill invested Suffolk with over thirty thousand men. During this seige General Corcoran, who had been assigned to the command of the first division of the Seventh Corps, made a recon-
*It Is to be hoped that these addresses, and especially his correspondence with Captain James B. Kicker, and other friends, portions of which have found their way into print, will be collected and given to his countrymen entire. 

 

300 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.


noisance, with about five thousand men, to find out the position and strength of the enemy, and had a brisk engagement on the Edenton Road, uncovering the enemy's position and driving him from the breast-works. This gallantry again drew forth the special congratulation of the Department Commander. In consequence of the disability of General Peck, who was confined to his bed, the chief command devolved on General Corcoran, who completely baffled Long-street, who raised the siege after a month's vain efforts, and after the raising of most extensive works to effect his object. The rebels driven over the Blackwater, Long-street being compelled to retire, the evacuation of Suffolk was decided on ; and the important duty was assigned to Corcoran. He was now placed in com­mand of the defences of Portsmouth ; thence to the Department of Washington, and assigned an import-ant position for the defence of the Capital. His head-quarters were at Centreville, and subsequently at Fairfax Court House, where occurred. the sad accident which deprived (on 22d December, 1863,) the army of the Union of one of its most devoted officers, and the future army of Ireland of an efficient leader, who hoped to culminate his military career on an Irish battle-field for Irish rights.General Corcoran was, as stated, one of the foun­ders of the Fenian Brotherhood, and through the days of its trials one of its most hopeful workers. He saw it spread to be a power, to vindicate its military char­acter on the field for republican liberty and the Irish name; was one of the Central Council, and gave

FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 301.

every facility to extend its ramifications through the army, so' that the best and bravest soldiers might be enlisted in the cause so dear to his heart.

____________________________


On the banks of the Suir, at a place called Mullodgh, in the County Tipperary, there lived, in the beginning of '48, a gentleman farmer of ample means and thorough education, of unassuming manners and devoted patriotism, in whose warm southern nature a deep knowledge of the ancient Celtic tongue and mis­fortunes brooded and tinct with a silent but lofty ven­eration and enthusiasm, the hopes and aspirations which at the period manifested themselves in the Young Ireland party—who, in a word, was a " rebel;" a pure-souled, high-hearted, courageous, and in his dis­trict—which encompassed the counties of Tipperary, Waterford, and Kilkenny—most powerful rebel. His name was John O'Mahony.O'Mahony was born at Clonkilla, a lovely spot on the south bank of the Funcheon, as it flows out of Mitchelstown demesne, and reared at Kilbenny, with which the pleasantest associations of his early life are connected. With it also are connected memories which are deeply and intensely reflected in his politi­cal career. Kilbenny had been the first resting place of the branch of the O'Mahony's which settled in the neighborhood. They held it of the Earls of King­ston ; who in turn held Clonkilla of the O'Mahony's. Their families were hereditary and bitter enemies, and
* '98 and '48, pp. 352-3.

302 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.


on the death of John O'Mahony's father, who had been a powerful Nationalist, and with whom the lease of Kilbenny expired, the fiat went forth that the O'Mahony's should be exterminated, as there could not be "two lords" in that neighborhood. To be thus compelled to leave the hearth which had become sacred by family associations, at the will of an upstart Saxon lord, was like tearing out the heart of O'Mahony. It was in 1840, while pacing for the last time the deserted rooms of the old house, which still stands over the weird town Loch-na-Anna, that John O'Mahony first conceived those ideas on the Irish Land question, which he has since brooded over and advocated until they have become a distinguishing characteristic of Fenianism. He learned to feel for the other victims of the Irish Land law by the poignancy of his own grief and indignation. Against such wrongs he did not see the use of what was called " Constitutional agitation;" and it was not until he saw the young Irelanders about to take the field that he exerted the influence which his family wrongs and his associations with the people gave him.
When the leaders took " to the hills," he succored, aided, and cheered them, and when they were arrested, wandering outlawed through the island, or seeking the shores of America and France, O'Mahony still brooded over the wrongs and sorrows of the fatherland. He could not leave his native hills. Ile looked down the golden valley of the Suir, and said, as Cromwell said when gloating over the same scene, "This is a country worth fighting for." Looking for O'Brien

FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 303

and Meagher, John Savage met O'Mahony, and they remained together, organizing the country while any hope remained. Doheny says, "they spent many anxious nights in counsel together, when it was sup-posed all spirit had left the country. The first ostensible object that brought the people together under their immediate guidance and control, was the reaping of a field of wheat belonging to O'Mahony. A vast crowd, amounting to several hundred stalwart men, assembled. They had scarcely entered on their labor when the approach of a troop of horse was announced. O'Mahony and Savage were compelled to retire. The military cavalcade rode through the people and the corn, but the reapers desisted not, giving no pretext for any arrests or further outrage from the soldiers." The time for defiance and resistance was yet some weeks ahead: Savage at once threw the in-spiriting scene into the following verses, to a popular air :

THE REAPING OF MOULOUGH.
Air-" IRISH MOLLY O."

If Nature gave to human life a centuried length of years,
And with them gave the strength of mind for which age only fears,
I'll bless that glorious harvest-day, and chronicle the date,
For 'tis a smile 'midst mem'ry's tears for sorrowed 'Forty-eight.
From far and wide the Reapers came, through love our cause they bore,
From Commeragh's wild to Slievenamon—from Grange to Galteemore;


* Doheny's " Felon's Track," p. 157-8.


304 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.



Like streamlets rushing to the sea, like wreck'd men to a rock, 
They hurried down, and gathered at the Reaping of Moulough.
God bless the sturdy Reapers I and God bless the mind that gave 
The thought that made their sinews aid and help the outlawed brave!
The minds that live in noble deeds, all earth-made vaunters mock,
 And souls like yours are Freedom's hope, ye Reapers of Moulough!
Oh I bend the Reapers joyfully !—the hook with fervor plies,
And maidens of the sunny south bind up the falling prize! 
Oh! may the tyrants of our soil so fall before our wrath, 
And wives of Irish victors aid to bind them in their path!
Bright thoughts of Freedom 'woke my mind, as bound was stook and sheaf ;
There thousands not less noble souls around the noble Chief, 
And eager waited but the word to make each stook a rock—
To plant the Flag of Freedom at the Reaping of Moulough!



The organization of the disaffected districts resulted in the insurrectionary movements in Tipperary and Waterford, which commenced on the 12th September. O'Mahony, by a series of really startling adventures, eluded the vigilance of the police. He was in Clonmel during the trial of O'Brien, organizing a force to attack the Court House, when he was discovered, and saved himself by leaping from a back window. He ultimately escaped from Island Castle, between Bonmahon and Dungarvan, in the County Waterford, in a collier, and was landed in Wales, where he remained for six weeks, until an opportunity offered for his conveyance to France. He resided in Paris for five years.


FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 305


James Stephens is a native of the City of Kilkenny, and is now, probably, between forty-three and forty-four years of age. He received a good education, which he has continued to enlarge and improve. He was by profession a surveyor and civil engineer, and during the latter years of O'Connell's repeal agitation he was engaged on the great Southern and Western Railway works, at Inchicore, Dublin. About this time politics commenced to throw their fascination over the young engineer, and he became an attendant at the clubs. In the early part of '48 his professional duties brought him from Dublin to Thurles, in the County of Tipperary, and in the Summer he took advantage of his proximity to Kilkenny to visit his parents. While in Kilkenny an incident occurred which changed the whole current of his life—that was the arrest in that city of Mr. Patrick O'Donohoe, who was entrusted with dispatches from Dublin to Mr. O'Brien. " He proceeded on his mission to Kilkenny," says Doheny, "and there applied to one of the clubs. He was known to none of the members, and became at once the object of suspicion. It was, accordingly, determined to send him the rest of his journey under arrest, and Stephens and another member were appointed to that duty. They proceeded to Cashel, where Mr. O'Donohoe was warmly welcomed by Mr. O'Brien, whose fate he thenceforth determined to share. Mr. Stephens came to the same resolution; but the other guard refused to commit himself to for-tunes which appeared so desperate. With Messrs. Stephens and O'Donohoe this very desperation acted

306 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.


as the most ennobling and irresistible inducement. They clung to him to the last, with a fidelity the more untiring in proportion as the circumstances portended imminent disaster and ruin." * All through O'Brien's movements Stephens exhibited an earnestness which won the approval of all who witnessed it. At Killenaule, when O'Brien's party threw up some barricades to intercept the passage of a troop of dragoons, young Stephens suddenly raised his rifle and covered the officer in command ; his finger was on the trigger. "One moment," says Mitchel, "and Ireland was in insurrection." Dillon sternly ordered him to lower his rifle, and the officer, pledging his honor he was not seeking the arrest of O'Brien, was led through by Dillon himself. At the Ballingarry affair, Stephens, with McManus, and the late Captain John Kavanaugh of the Irish Brigade,+ was clear-sighted and efficient. After the failure of O'Brien's movement, he had many adventures with O'Mahony and Doherty, and finally escaped to France.
At this period, the Continent of Europe generally, and Paris particularly, was inwoven with a network of secret political societies, at once the terror and the offspring of the sway of tyrants. They had peculiar fascinations for those whose former attempts at rebel-lion had proved failures, simply for the want of previous organization of the revolutionary elements. O'Maho-
*"Felons' Track," p. 96.
+ This gallant officer, whose first wound for liberty was received in his native land at Ballingarry. fell defending his adopted country on the field of Antietam, 17th September, 1862.


FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 307


ny and Stephens soon conceived the idea of entering the most powerful of those societies, and acquiring the means by which an undisciplined mob can be most readily and effectually marched against an army of "professional cut-throats." Accordingly, they became enrolled members and pupils of some of the ablest masters of revolutionary science which the nineteenth century has produced. In one point alone they neglected to copy from their continental instructors—they devised no means of visiting with summary chastisement such members of their organization as were led by ambition, arrogance or cupidity, into the unpardonable crimes of treason and insubordination.
Stephens was an accomplished linguist, and, in time, his knowledge of the French language enabled him to contribute to the feuilleton columns of the Paris news-papers. Every succeeding effort of his astonished those who were aware of his foreign birth and education ;. but his great triumph was his success in translating Dickens into French. Those translations, which were published, we believe, in La Presse, attracted the attention of the Paris literary world, and were a source of extreme surprise and gratification to the distinguished author of "David Copperfield." His efforts as a litterateur thus brought Stephens a handsome compensation, which, added to certain remittances which O'Mahony received from time to time out of' the remains of his Irish patrimony and the product of his exertions as instructor of Gaelic to some students of the Irish College, enabled our exiles to live comfortably enough.

308 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.


After working night and day at their tuitions, translations, and above all, their revolutionary schemes, it was decided to make another attempt, and on a practical basis, to organize the Irish race at home and abroad, and continue, on a foundation of discipline, the struggle for national independence.
O'Mahony came to America towards the close of 1853, and Stephens went to Ireland. Under the cognomen of Shook, the latter, in 1858 and in 1859, was known to be an active participator in the " Phoenix Conspiracy," and during the prosecutions in Tralee and Cork, which followed, he was constantly referred to in the evidence given by the informer, O'Sullivan (Goula.) He disappeared at the time of the trials, but returned subsequently. The onward career of O'Mahony and Stephens in connection with the Fenian organization, is outlined in the historical introduction. The latter became widely known, and the authorities were eager for his capture, which was at last effected between five and six o'clock on the morning of the 11th November, 1865, by Colonel Lake, attended by over thirty police and detectives, who surrounded his residence, Fairfield House, Sandy Mount. Scaling the garden walls, they knocked at the back door. Almost immediately Stephens came to the door, and inquired " Who was there ? " The constables announced themselves as police officers authorized by warrant to enter and search the house. Stephens hesitated in opening the door, stating that he was undressed. The police promised not to resort to force or violence if he complied with their request. Stephens

FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 309

endeavored to close the door ; Mr. Superintendent Ryan and Acting Inspectors Hughes and Dawson drove it in. Stephens rushed up stairs, followed by Hughes, who took him into custody in his own bed-room, his wife being in the apartment at the time. Mrs. Stephens started out of the bed, alarmed at seeing the police, and said, "Are you going to take my husband from me ? " Inspector Hughes then sent down for Constable Dawson to identify the prisoner. Dawson proceeded to the bedroom, and on entering said, " How are you, Stephens? " Stephens replied, "Who the devil are you, sir?" Dawson then told him who he was, and Stephens replied, " Oh, I have read enough about you—I want no favor. Wife, you will never see me again." The house was then searched, and in the adjoining bedrooms were arrested Messrs. Kickham, Duffy and Brophy, who were all in bed at the time. The police, " over thirty in number, were well armed, and entered with pistols in their hands, but the prisoners offered no resistance. Pistols and balls were, however, lying about their rooms, and the police found immense quantities of bacon, flour, bread, &c.—enough, in fact, to feed all the parties for near a twelvemonth." On some of them, too, £45 in gold was found, and a bank check for a larger amount, and others of them were likewise well provided with cash. The prisoners were placed in separate cabs, each in charge of three officers, and were lodged in the Lower Castle yard at half-past six o'clock.
On Tuesday, the 14th, the prisoners were brought before the Magistrate, under the Treason-felony Act.


310 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.


After some further identification, the hearing was adjourned to the next day, when Mr. Stephens acted in a very bold manner. In reply to the Magistrates, he said :


" I feel bound to say, in justification of, or rather with a view to, my own reputation, that I have employed no attorney or lawyer in this case, and that I mean to employ none, because, in making a plea of any kind, or filing any defence—I am not particularly well up in these legal terms—I should be recognizing British law in Ireland. Now, I deliberately and conscientiously repudiate the existence of that law in Ireland—its right, or even its existence. I repudiate the right of its existence in Ireland. I defy and despise any punishment it can inflict on me. I have spoken."


The prisoners were committed for trial, and removed to Richmond Bridewell.
The defiance of Stephens before the Magistrate, and his repudiation of British law in Ireland, tantalized the leading English press exceedingly. They sneered at his assumption and ridiculed his " I have spoken." They had not ceased leveling their shafts of satire at their prisoner, when the three kingdoms were startled by the news of his escape from prison. A howl of mingled indignation and trepidation went forth, and the conviction forced itself upon the minds of those who sneered at his defiance, that Stephens "knew what he was about." The fear into which the authorities were thrown sharpened their memory, and many threats and rumors were remembered, which did not add to their peace of mind. Among these was a statement, made some months before, that Stephens had, in various disguises, visited all the jails in Ireland, had


FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 311


tested their strength, and declared that none of them were strong enough to hold him. " The extreme daring and cleverness of the conception and execution of this feat," said a Tory journal,* " also recalls to mind the fact—a strange one, to say the least—that the American Fenians have boasted of the knowledge they had contrived to acquire of Irish prisons, and the power they had to draw the strongest bolts by which they might be held."
The escape of Mr. Stephens was effected on the early morning of November 24. The night was dark and tempestuous, and very favorable for the attempt, as the storm and rain prevented the incidental noises from being heard. The Richmond prison is situated in an isolated position, on the Circular Road. There are no houses in front, and the canal is in the rear. The locality is little frequented, especially at night. The cell occupied by Stephens was in the corridor leading to the eastern wing of the building, and ad-joining the Chapel. His cell door was composed of strong hammered iron, and secured by a massive stock lock, a huge padlock to a staple, and a thick swinging bar. The corridor on which the cell opened was guarded by another ponderous iron door of great strength and thickness, and also double-locked. But these were only the commencement of the obstacles that would prevent escape by the doors ; and escape from the windows was absolutely impossible. After leaving his cell, the padlock of which had been opened
* "Dublin Evening Mail."


312 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.


by a skeleton key, he had to pass through about eight locked doors, three of which had two locks, and all of which were left open, except one, which was relocked to prevent pursuit.
At a quarter to four in the morning, Daniel Byrne, the watchman, gave the alarm, stating that he had discovered two tables, placed one above the other, near the southwestern wall, adjoining the Governor's gar-den. It was found that these tables belonged to the lunatic dining-hall, and had to be brought a long distance. There were no footprints on the upper table, which should have been the case had it been stood on by any person who had walked through the open pas-sages, which were wet and muddy, as torrents of rain were falling. The wall bore no marks whatever of any person having escaped by climbing over it. When the Governor and his assistants went to the section of the prison in which Stephens had been confined, they found the doors of the corridor open, and also the door of his cell. IIis bed looked as if he had not recently slept in it, and as if he had only rolled himself up in a railway rug which was found on the floor, and waited for the time that his deliverer was to arrive. A portion of the clothes which he wore on the morning of his arrest he left after him, and he must have put on a suit of black, which lie had received a few days before. His books and papers were in the position they were last seen in by the warders. The searchers for the fugitive were not left long in doubt as to the means by which the many doors were opened, as a master-key, quite bright, as if it had been only recently made, was


FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 313


found in the lock of the corridor door. While the detectives were scouring the city a suburbs, far and near, watching the early steamers vessels going to sea, and making active use of the telegraph wires, the search and inquiries were continued in the prison and
in its neighborhood.
It was quite evident that Stephens was under the guidance of a person who knew the prison well, as the winding and difficult route from one extreme of the prison to the other was accomplished without a single blunder, or without balking at a lock or door. This added to the anxiety of the officials, which was destined to be still further increased and excited on learning that Daniel Byrne, who had formerly been a police-man, had left that force to join the Battalion of St. Patrick in the Pope's army, had returned to Ireland after the affair of Castelfidardo, and that papers were found among his effects associating him with the Fenian Brotherhood. "With such facts before us," said the London Times, " it may be asked, What strong-hold of the Government is safe from the treachery of men who eat the Queen's bread? Are the arsenals and magazines? Is the Bank of Ireland?"
Byrne was at once arrested, and a proclamation is-sued, offering a reward of £1,000 for information leading to the arrest of Stephens, and of £300 for the arrest of any person who harbored, received or assisted him, with a free pardon, in addition to the reward, to any persons concerned in the escape who would give in-formation to lead to his arrest.
Outside the prison Stephens was met by Colonel T.


314 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.


J. Kelly and John Flood, and his subsequent escape to France and visit to America is told in the sketch of the former, who has since had a still more thrilling, though less mysterious, escape from the hands of the authorities in Manchester on the 18th September,
1867.
Of O'Mahony's labors in America a brief outline has been given in connection with the progress of the Fenian movement,* up to his retiring from a leading part in it, on the arrival of Mr. Stephens in America. The position of Mr. O'Mahony, then and since, has been defined by himself,+ and it is due to his services to give his own words. Of the past, he says :

For more than eight years I held the position of Chief Officer of the Fenian Brotherhood in America. By excessive labor and ceaseless vigilance, I built it up till it became the most extensive, if not the most effective, revolutionary organization of Irishmen that ever existed. I may also assert that it would not, with its other surroundings, have ever reached its late magnitude, either at home or in this country, but for my persevering exertions. During all my administrative career, I am not conscious to myself of having committed one dishonest or one selfish act. From the first to the last, I have had around me, cognizant of my official con-duct, many men who have since become my bitterest enemies. Not one of these persons has ever come forward openly to charge me specifically with such an act, though several of them have betrayed my most secret confidence in other matters. They can-not do it. During the same time I have had official communication, both by word and letter, with many thousands, hundreds

*See Historical Introduction.
+Letter addressed to D. O'Sullivan, Esq., Editor "Irish People," dated New York, April 19th, 1867.


FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS. 315


of whom are also my bitterest enemies now. Not one of these has, up to this, charged me with ever having deceived him by wilful falsehood. It cannot be done.


In reply to the statement that his retirement was compulsory, Mr. O'Mahony says :


My resignation was not alone altogether voluntary on my part, but I had resolved on that step for some months before it actually took place. My principal reasons were, because, after the 1st of January, '66, I could not understand Mr. Stephens' perseverance in his war programme in Ireland, and because I felt that there was no prospect of an united Fenian Brotherhood in this country, which I believed to be an indispensible, requisite to success whilst I held my office in it, surrounded and undermined, as I had been for some time, by treacherous and wily opponents and personal enemies of all kinds.


Of his position since retirement, he remarks :

With respect to my present connection with the Fenian Brother-hood, I beg to state that I am still a private member of that body, and in what is technically called " good standing," in the Corcoran Circle in this city. But further than this I have had no connection with either Mr. James Stephens or with his successors in the government of the organization for now nearly twelve months. Since last May I have taken no part, public or private, in directing their acts or counsels. From its commencement I totally dissented from that reckless and haphazard course of action of which Mr. Stephens gave notice in the now notorious promise made by him at the Jones' Wood meeting last Summer. I condemned the whole tenor of his conduct in the management of Fenian affairs from that time up to the hour of his departure for Europe. Had I been consulted on the subject in time, and had my opinion prevailed in the Executive Department of the Brotherhood, no attempt at a rising would have been made in Ireland this Spring.


316 DOHENY, CORCORAN, O'MAHONY & STEPHENS.



Of the rising in March, and the men connected with it, he says :

Their late action had indeed become indispensable to the present honor and ultimate success of the Fenian cause, as well as to their own characters as honest and devoted patriots. Theirs was a desperate venture, but it had become both a moral and military necessity upon their parts by reason of the severe pressure that was upon the organization and themselves. Should it fail for the present, it has even already advanced and elevated the cause of Ireland immensely before the world, and has opened the road for others to her fast approaching liberation. Our gallant brothers who have lately left us must be considered the hardy pioneers of Ireland's freedom in any case.