kildare brigade
04-13-2008, 07:19 PM
Help Bring the Manchester Martyrs Home
On 11th September 1867, the police in Manchester arrested two men for behaving suspiciously in a doorway. The two, Colonel T.J.Kelly and Captain Deasy, were leading figures in the Irish Rising. A week later, the two men were handcuffed and piled into a prison van to be transported from court to Belle Vue Prison. It was on this journey that Kelly and Deasy were rescued by their friends. During the rescue, the men had trouble opening the locked back door of the van. The police sergeant in the back with the prisoners refused to let them out. One of the raiders then shot the lock off with his revolver. In smashing the lock, a bullet penetrated the door and killed the police guard inside, Sergeant Brett. A female prisoner inside the van then took the keys from Brett and passed them out to the rescuers through the ventilator. Kelly and Deasy quickly ran off and were never recaptured.
Although the policeman had been killed with just one shot, by accident, five men were sentenced to death for the killing. None of the five had fired the shot that had killed Brett, however four of them had taken an active role in the rescue. According to historian and author John Devoy, the man who actually fired the shot was Peter Rice, a Dubliner who later escaped to the United States.
Witnesses
In the Manchester case there was a strong suspicion that witnesses were bribed. The activity at the time of the rescue confused the eyewitnesses. As a result of this, the prosecution found itself with very little evidence and treasured any it could get. The key witnesses for the prosecution were ‘whores and jailbirds’. The first prisoner said in his closing statement that he was forced to stand in the police line-up wearing handcuffs and iron chains. This had marked him out to the witnesses who identified him in order to claim the reward.
Double Standards
One of the five arrested was a marine named Maguire, a man of few words and fewer opinions. He was not involved in the rescue attempt, and was arrested simply because he had an Irish name and was in the neighbourhood at the time. Even the newspaper-men in the courtroom came to the conclusion that he could have had no conceivable connection with the raid. They made a representation to the home secretary that Maguire was an innocent man who had been convicted on perjured evidence. On examining his case, the home secretary agreed and he was immediately pardoned and released because the witnesses lied in their statements. However, the evidence that convicted Maguire in the first place was precisely the same evidence that condemned the other men. The implied attitude in the home secretary’s discrimination was that Maguire had shown no interest in Irish affairs and deserved to live, whereas the rest took pride in their Irish attitudes and deserved to die. A couple of days before the scheduled executions, one more of the men was reprieved by the intervention of the American Ambassador, Charles Francis Adams. It then became clear that the remaining three, William Philip Allen and Michael O’Brien, both from Cork, and Michael Larkin from Offaly, could not be saved.
Sentenced To Death
All three were condemned to death and publicly hanged at Manchester Jail on 23rd November 1867. These young men, the youngest nineteen, are the celebrated Manchester Martyrs. Bitter public feelings were aroused by their conviction on what many regarded as flimsy evidence. When they were executed, many Irish nationalists believed that the British government had refused to exercise mercy - not because the men were unquestionably guilty - but in order to satisfy public opinion in England, which expected that somebody would be punished. The unjust hanging of the three men however, was not the end of their punishment. Their bodies were not released to their families; instead they were buried in quicklime inside the jail yard. This action was interpreted throughout Ireland as a cal
On 11th September 1867, the police in Manchester arrested two men for behaving suspiciously in a doorway. The two, Colonel T.J.Kelly and Captain Deasy, were leading figures in the Irish Rising. A week later, the two men were handcuffed and piled into a prison van to be transported from court to Belle Vue Prison. It was on this journey that Kelly and Deasy were rescued by their friends. During the rescue, the men had trouble opening the locked back door of the van. The police sergeant in the back with the prisoners refused to let them out. One of the raiders then shot the lock off with his revolver. In smashing the lock, a bullet penetrated the door and killed the police guard inside, Sergeant Brett. A female prisoner inside the van then took the keys from Brett and passed them out to the rescuers through the ventilator. Kelly and Deasy quickly ran off and were never recaptured.
Although the policeman had been killed with just one shot, by accident, five men were sentenced to death for the killing. None of the five had fired the shot that had killed Brett, however four of them had taken an active role in the rescue. According to historian and author John Devoy, the man who actually fired the shot was Peter Rice, a Dubliner who later escaped to the United States.
Witnesses
In the Manchester case there was a strong suspicion that witnesses were bribed. The activity at the time of the rescue confused the eyewitnesses. As a result of this, the prosecution found itself with very little evidence and treasured any it could get. The key witnesses for the prosecution were ‘whores and jailbirds’. The first prisoner said in his closing statement that he was forced to stand in the police line-up wearing handcuffs and iron chains. This had marked him out to the witnesses who identified him in order to claim the reward.
Double Standards
One of the five arrested was a marine named Maguire, a man of few words and fewer opinions. He was not involved in the rescue attempt, and was arrested simply because he had an Irish name and was in the neighbourhood at the time. Even the newspaper-men in the courtroom came to the conclusion that he could have had no conceivable connection with the raid. They made a representation to the home secretary that Maguire was an innocent man who had been convicted on perjured evidence. On examining his case, the home secretary agreed and he was immediately pardoned and released because the witnesses lied in their statements. However, the evidence that convicted Maguire in the first place was precisely the same evidence that condemned the other men. The implied attitude in the home secretary’s discrimination was that Maguire had shown no interest in Irish affairs and deserved to live, whereas the rest took pride in their Irish attitudes and deserved to die. A couple of days before the scheduled executions, one more of the men was reprieved by the intervention of the American Ambassador, Charles Francis Adams. It then became clear that the remaining three, William Philip Allen and Michael O’Brien, both from Cork, and Michael Larkin from Offaly, could not be saved.
Sentenced To Death
All three were condemned to death and publicly hanged at Manchester Jail on 23rd November 1867. These young men, the youngest nineteen, are the celebrated Manchester Martyrs. Bitter public feelings were aroused by their conviction on what many regarded as flimsy evidence. When they were executed, many Irish nationalists believed that the British government had refused to exercise mercy - not because the men were unquestionably guilty - but in order to satisfy public opinion in England, which expected that somebody would be punished. The unjust hanging of the three men however, was not the end of their punishment. Their bodies were not released to their families; instead they were buried in quicklime inside the jail yard. This action was interpreted throughout Ireland as a cal