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Manchester Martyrs

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Portraits of the Manchester martyrs – Michael O'Brien, William O'Mera Allen and Michael Larkin – in a shamrock

The Manchester Martyrs were Fenians, members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood executed for killing a policeman during a prison escape. William O'Mera Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien were hanged in Salford, England on 23 November 1867. These men were caught after having taken part in the attack on a police van carrying two leaders of the Brotherhood, Colonel Thomas J. Kelly and Captain Timothy Deasy. The incident took place on the borders of West Gorton and Ardwick, to the immediate southeast of Manchester city centre.

Contents

[edit] Background

Kelly and Deasy were both Fenians who played important roles in the failed Fenian Rising of 1867. Kelly had been declared the chief executive of the Irish Republic at a secret republican convention, and Deasy commanded a Fenian brigade in County Cork. Wanted men throughout the United Kingdom, both were arrested on a vagrancy charge[1] on 11 September 1867.[2]

The scene of the fatal incident on Hyde Road, Manchester

On 18 September 1867, both men were being transferred from the courthouse to the county gaol on Hyde Road, Manchester. They were handcuffed and locked in two separate compartments inside a police van escorted by a squad of 12 mounted policemen. The van contained six prisoners in all: a 12-year-old boy who was being conveyed to a reformatory, three women convicted of misdemeanours, and the two Fenians.[3] As it passed under a railway arch, a man darted into the middle of the road, pointed a pistol at the driver and told him to stop. At the same time, a party of about 30 men leapt over a wall at the side of the road, surrounded the van and seized the horses, one of which they shot. The unarmed police offered little resistance and soon fled.[4][5]

The rescuers, after an unsuccessful attempt to burst open the van with hatchets, sledgehammers, and crowbars, called upon Police Sergeant Brett, who was inside the van with the prisoners, to open the door. Brett refused to give up his keys. One of the rescuers placed his revolver at the keyhole of the van to blow the lock, at the same moment Brett put his eye to the keyhole to see what was happening outside. The bullet passed through his eye into his brain and killed him. The door was opened when one of the women prisoners took the keys from Brett's pocket, and passed them through the ventilator to the Fenians outside.[6] Kelly and Deasy escaped, and were never recaptured.[7] Brett was the first Manchester police officer ever to be killed on duty.[8]

[edit] Trials

Monument in Kilrush

On Thursday 25 October, the prisoners were brought up for committal, before Mr. Fowler, R.M. Some of those arrested had already been discharged, not because no one could be found to swear against them,[9] but because of the number of witnesses who could swear to their innocence.[10] When asked if they had anything to say before sentence was passed, each of the accused made a closing speech. Allen stated his innocence, and that he regretted the death of Sergeant Brett, but that he was prepared to "die proudly and triumphantly in defence of republican principles and the liberty of an oppressed and enslaved people".[11]

Larkin said he felt that he had received a fair trial, and that his counsel had done everything they could in his defence. He ended by saying: "So I look to the mercy of God. May God forgive all who have sworn my life away. As I am a dying man, I forgive them from the bottom of my heart. May God forgive them."[12]

O'Brien claimed that all of the evidence given against him was false, and that as an American citizen he ought not to be facing trial in a UK court. He then went on at length to condemn the British government, the "imbecile and tyrannical rulers" of Ireland, until he was interrupted by the judge, who appealed to him to cease his remarks: "The only effect of your observations must be to tell against you with those who have to consider the sentence. I advise you to say nothing more of that sort. I do so entirely for your own sake."[13]

A commemoration plaque at the site of the incident on Hyde Road, Manchester

One of their co-accused, Edward O'Meagher Condon, also made a speech, during which he exclaimed, "God save Ireland!" At this, all the accused repeated "God save Ireland!"[14]

William O'Mera Allen, Michael Larkin, Michael [Gould] O'Brien, Thomas Maguire and O’Meagher Condon, were found guilty and sentenced to death, again crying "God save Ireland" from the dock after sentence was pronounced.[15] Maguire was pardoned and discharged and O’Meagher Condon's sentence was commuted on the eve of his execution. On Saturday 23 November 1867, O'Brien, Larkin, and Allen were publicly hanged on a scaffold erected on the prison walls facing New Bailey Street,[16] in front of an enormous crowd. The Times newspaper reported that "the mob were quiet and orderly".[17] The executions gave rise to an enormous outburst of feeling among Irish communities the world over.[18]

[edit] Effects

Mural depicting the Manchester Martyrs in Belfast

The events of the rescue became known by the majority of the local populace as the "Manchester Outrages".[19] According to Christy Campbell, Ireland drenched itself in martyred indignation.[20] One unexpected effect of the executions was the narrowing of the rift between the Catholic Church and the Fenians. Cardinal Cullen instructed his priests to pray for the dead men, and to say masses privately for them. Bishop Moriarty of Kerry, however, having once declared: "when we look down into the fathomless depth of this infamy of the heads of the Fenian conspiracy, we must acknowledge that eternity is not long enough, nor hell hot enough to punish such miscreants",[21] prohibited such displays in his parish.[22] The rescue inspired many to join the Irish cause for independence, and was also the inspiration for the song "God Save Ireland", Ireland's unofficial national anthem until it was replaced by "Amhrán na bhFiann" ("The Soldier's Song"). The events were important in shaping physical force Irish republicanism, the strand of Irish nationalism later represented by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The events also – several years later – served to bring the parliamentary nationalists of the Irish Parliamentary Party under new leader Charles Stewart Parnell closer to the physical force men – Parnell told the Commons "there was no murder" – and so helped create the conditions for the New Departure and the Irish National Land League and the subsequent "Land War" struggle against landlordism.

[edit] Monuments

The monument in St Joseph's Cemetery, Moston, Manchester
Symbolic grave of the Manchester Martyrs, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Monuments erected in their honour stand in Limerick, Kilrush, County Clare, Clonmel, Tipperary, Birr, County Offaly, Ennis, County Clare, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, and St Joseph's Cemetery, Moston, Manchester. There is a monument to Sergeant Brett in St Ann's Church, Manchester.[23]

The monument in St Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in Moston, North Manchester was designed by J.Geraghty and unveiled in November 1898. The work was commissioned by the Manchester Martyrs Central Memorial Committee. The stone monument stands just over 6 metres (20 ft) high and takes the form of a Celtic cross.The corners are decorated with figures symbolical of Unity, Justice, Literature, and Art. (Literature and Art have been removed from their plinths and are now on the grass at the rear of the monument). On three sides of the pedestal are medallion portraits of Allen, Larkin and O'Brien (the Manchester Martyrs). These were originally surmounted by figures of the Irish wolfhound, but these have also been removed. The fourth space is filled in with an Irish harp, and on the front of the cross is a figure of Erin, armed with sword and shield. On the reverse is an Irish round tower. Rusticated base with Irish coats of arms at each corner. The site of this monument has been the scene of several disturbances as it has been the tradition for Republican symathisers to parade here at the anniversary of the deaths of those hanged. The monument has suffered from several attacks to its structure as well as acts of vandalism and is now in a poor condition. It is listed as "at risk" by The Public Monument and Sculpture Association National Recording Project.[24]

[edit] References

Notes
  1. ^ Ó Broin 1971, p. 193.
  2. ^ Comerford 1985, p. 148.
  3. ^ O'Sullivan 1945, p. 337.
  4. ^ Ó Broin 1971, p. 194.
  5. ^ O'Sullivan 1945, p. 338.
  6. ^ O'Sullivan 1945, p. 340.
  7. ^ Ó Broin 1971, p. 193.
  8. ^ Greater Manchester Police 1989, p. 16.
  9. ^ According to the O'Sullivan, this was "a difficulty which never seems to have arisen in these cases"
  10. ^ O'Sullivan 1945, pp. 344–345.
  11. ^ O'Sullivan 1945, pp. 357–360.
  12. ^ O'Sullivan 1945, pp. 360–361.
  13. ^ O'Sullivan 1945, pp. 361–364.
  14. ^ O'Sullivan 1945, pp. 366–370.
  15. ^ Ryan 1945, p. 24.
  16. ^ Ó Broin 1971, p. 202.
  17. ^ Campbell 2002, p. 77.
  18. ^ Ó Broin 1971, p. 202.
  19. ^ Kidd 1993, p. 174.
  20. ^ Campbell 2002, p. 77.
  21. ^ Irish Times, 19 Feb 1867
  22. ^ Ó Broin 1971, p. 202.
  23. ^ Worthington 2002, p. 39.
  24. ^ Manchester Martyrs' Memorial, Public Monument and Sculpture Association, http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/MR/MR-MCR80.htm, retrieved on 25 April 2008 
Bibliography
  • Campbell, Christy (2002), Fenian Fire: The British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-710483-9 
  • Comerford, R.V. (1985), The Fenian in Context, Wolfhound Press, ISBN 0-391-03312-3 
  • Kee, Robert (1972), The Green Flag Vol. II: The Bold Fenian Men, Penguin Books 
  • Greater Manchester Police (1989), The Police! 150 Years of Policing in the Manchester Area, Runcorn: Archive Publications, ISBN 0-948946-49-0 
  • Kidd, Alan (1993), Manchester, Keele: Keele University Press, ISBN 1-85936-128-5 
  • Ó Broin, Leon (1971), Fenian Fever:An Anglo-American Dilemma, Chatto & Windus, ISBN 0-7011-1749-4 
  • Ryan, Dr. Mark F. (1945), O'Sullivan, T. F., ed., Fenian Memories, M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd 
  • Speeches from the Dock, T. D., A. M., and D. B. Sullivan, Re Edited by Seán Ua Cellaigh, M. H. Gill & Son, Dublin, 1953 (from the original in 1882)
  • Worthington, Barry (2002), Discovering Manchester: A Walking Guide to Manchester and Salford, Sigma Leisure, ISBN 1-85058-774-4 

[edit] Further reading

  • Cobb, Belton. Murdered On Duty: A Chronicle of the Killing of Policemen. London: W.H. Allen, 1957.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Martyrs"
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