Fenian history
The Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Fenians, was formed simultaneously in Dublin and New York in 1858 and then established in Cork. This was less than a decade after the Great Famine, the effects of which would have still been reverberating. The Fenians believed only force would lead Britain to concede to Irish independence and accordingly prepared a secret military organisation for an armed uprising (Moody, 2001). They concentrated on the single aim of independence.
The Fenian movement drew support from emigrant Irish in Britain and the USA. The US body supported the Irish organisation with arms and officers experienced in the American Civil War. Although always just a small minority within the national movement, by 1865 there were thousands enrolled. Almost all were working men: small farmers, labourers, clerks, shop assistants and artisans. Several trades (bakers, carpenters and tailors) are described as having Fenian sympathies and were ideal breeding grounds for nationalism. Nearly all were reportedly Catholic, but they stood for the separation of the church and state. The Catholic clergy disapproved of them, claiming they were communists. By the time of the uprising in 1867 nearly all the Fenian leaders had been imprisoned, and the uprising was limited.
Fenians in Cork
There were three or four Fenian circles in Cork. At the height of the action in 1867 fewer than half of the workers at Murphy’s Brewery in the Shandon area turned up for work, having taken leave to participate in the uprising (Beecher, 1992; Lenihan, 2009). Actions included raids on gun shops for arms.
Timothy was a Fenian, involved in the 1867 Cork Uprising.[1] My great grandmother, Mary B., was just over a month old at that time. Timothy’s wife Margaret (Taylor) must have been supportive, or tolerant, or perhaps she had no say in the matter.
The day before the attack the following proclamation was received by the Times of London. Note the refence to the separation of church and state.
The Irish People of the World
We have suffered centuries of outrage, enforced poverty, and bitter misery. Our rights and liberties have been trampled on by an alien aristocracy, who treating us as foes, usurped our lands, and drew away from our unfortunate country all material riches. The real owners of the soil were removed to make room for cattle, and driven across the ocean to seek the means of living, and the political rights denied to them at home, while our men of thought and action were condemned to loss of life and liberty. But we never lost the memory and hope of a national existence. We appealed in vain to the reason and sense of justice of the dominant powers.
Our mildest remonstrance’s were met with sneers and contempt. Our appeals to arms were always unsuccessful.
Today, having no honourable alternative left, we again appeal to force as our last resource. We accept the conditions of appeal, manfully deeming it better to die in the struggle for freedom than to continue an existence of utter serfdom.
All men are born with equal rights, and in associating to protect one another and share public burdens, justice demands that such associations should rest upon a basis which maintains equality instead of destroying it.
We therefore declare that, unable longer to endure the curse of Monarchical Government, we aim at founding a Republic based on universal suffrage, which shall secure to all the intrinsic value of their labour.
The soil of Ireland, at present in the possession of an oligarchy, belongs to us, the Irish people, and to us it must be restored.
We declare, also, in favour of absolute liberty of conscience, and complete separation of Church and State.
We appeal to the Highest Tribunal for evidence of the justness of our cause. History bears testimony to the integrity of our sufferings, and we declare, in the face of our brethren, that we intend no war against the people of England – our war is against the aristocratic locusts, whether English or Irish, who have eaten the verdure of our fields – against the aristocratic leeches who drain alike our fields and theirs.
Republicans of the entire world, our cause is your cause. Our enemy is your enemy. Let your hearts be with us. As for you, workmen of England, it is not only your hearts we wish, but your arms. Remember the starvation and degradation brought to your firesides by the oppression of labour. Remember the past, look well to the future, and avenge yourselves by giving liberty to your children in the coming struggle for human liberty.
Herewith we proclaim the Irish Republic.
The Provisional Government.
In March 1867, large numbers assembled in Fair Hill, and around 1000 men set off for Mallow, of whom only 200 or so were armed. The blizzard of March 5th may have impacted on final numbers. The men tore up the railway rails at Rathduff on the way. It appears the campaign plan was for the Cork and Kerry contingents to meet in Mallow and then head to Limerick Junction, the rallying place for a new ‘Army of the Irish Republic’ (Beecher, 2005). According to a report in the Freeman (March 7th, 1869) shortly after two in the morning they attacked a police barracks at Midleton but were repulsed, and then proceeded to Castlemartyr. On the way they killed a policeman, wounded another and took two police prisoners. They attacked the barracks at Castlemartyr, and their leader was killed. The police station at Burnfort, between Blarney and Mallow, was also sacked and burnt.
An attack on March 5th on the Knockadoon Coastguard station, about six miles from Youghal, by about 60 armed men resulted in Fenians securing arms but there were no follow up orders, so the attack fizzled out.
A group of 2000 men captured the Royal Irish Constabulary (R.I.C.) barracks at Ballyknockane, Mourne Abbey on March 6, 1867.[2] This area was far enough away from Cork city for Fenians to attack without R.I.C. reinforcements coming from Cork city to prevent it. They were led by James O’Brien and William Lomasney, the later whom had fought in the American Civil War. Five policemen were forced to leave the barracks, surrender their arms and the barracks was burned (Devoy, 1929). The same party also successfully carried out the sabotage of the Great Southern and Western Railway, damaging rails and points, cutting telegraph wires and actually derailed the Dublin express. No passengers were injured (Kee, 1992).
On March 7th, 1867 the Cork Examiner described the uprising:
On Tues. night a widespread and formidable insurrection was begun by the Fenians, in the South of Ireland. The rising was made simultaneously in parts of the counties of Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Clare …
With profound sorrow we have to-day to record the outbreak of an insane and criminal insurrection in the South of Ireland. The blow has fallen suddenly and unexpectedly…
The insurrection did not last long, unsurprisingly, given the small number involved, lack of leadership and their few arms against the size and strength of the R.I.C. and soldiers.
The Cork Examiner ran stories on March 8th describing the effects on the city and the authorities’ response in calling in troops:
The effects of the occurrences of the last few days were very visible yesterday in Cork. Trade was generally at a standstill, the only centres of excitement seeming to be the newspaper offices of the city; and towards nightfall the gloominess of the weather, the early closing of many of the shops, and the almost deserted streets, made the city present the dullest and most cheerless of aspects. …
The complaints amongst the shopkeepers and merchants of the city were loud and plentiful against the interruption brought upon their business by the present movement. Trade, they say, has entirely stagnated and it will be some time before it recovers its activity again. …
Since Tuesday night, the attitude of preparation has been maintained by the authorities. The body of 150 men of the 60th Rifles remains posted in the Protestant Hall, on the South Mall – that is, in the centre of the commercial and banking quarter of the city. These men remain under arms all night; and as the Mayor’s office, in which his worship and about a half-a-dozen other magistrates have remained up till a late hour for the past two, nights, is only two doors distant from the Hall, it will be understood that there is perfect readiness to meet any assault that may be expected in that quarter. In addition to the troops now in the city, it is expected that 700 marines from Southampton will arrive in Queenstown this day, the Government having telegraphed to the Mayor to that effect, in answer to an application sent forward by the magistrates.
The Cork Examiner also reported that day on the find of weapons, hidden in a Blackpool sewer.
SEIZURE OF SIXTY PIKES IN BLACKPOOL – A large seizure was made yesterday in Blackpool. It appears a girl was picking cinders, quite near the opening of a sewer, adjacent to the Cork Flax Mill, when she observed a pole lying in the sewer. She took it out and found it to be a pike. Information was immediately sent to the nearest police station, and a party of police arrived on the spot. They searched the sewer, and in a few minutes found no less than sixty pikes, all of which had handles of about fifteen feet long. They are exactly of the same description as those seized in other parts of the country. As may be imagined, the seizure caused no little excitement through Blackpool.
[1] As reported in his obituary in the Cork Examiner, 10/11/1917.
[2] Ballyknockane runs alongside the N20, the New Mallow Road, north west of Cork city. Timothy was buried south of the Ballyknockane area, at Garrycloyne, north-west of Cork city and of Blarney. I have not been able to confirm any connection to the Garrycloyne area, other than evidence of centuries of O’Callaghans having lived in the area.
In Search of Thomas Davis 