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Fenian Rising
In the mid-1860's the Fenian Brotherhood, the America based branch of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), became impatient and Colonel Thomas J. Kelly, a Galway man and American Civil War veteran, was appointed Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). He set sail to Ireland to support the Fenian Rising of 1867. This large scale revolt was planned for February 1867.
The primary target for the Fenians led by Thomas Kelly was Chester Castle in England. Probably this target was picked because of its well-stocked arsenal. A successful raid would provide enough arms and ammunition for thousands of Fenians.
The British however got wind of the plans. Without a doubt they had received accurate information from their informants, but also the massive movement of approximately 1200 Irishmen from cities like Leeds, Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield might have unveiled the plans prematurely. The final blow for the revolt was the arrest of a man carrying a parcel with ammunition on the railway station on 11 February.
The revolt was aborted, but unfortunately this change of plans reached Ireland too late and small, isolated fights occurred in County Kerry and in Dublin.
Numerous leaders were arrested, but none of them was to be executed.
Manchester Martyrs
On 11 September 1867 Colonel Thomas J. Kelly, who had managed to stay out of prison, and his companion Captain Timothy Deasy, were arrested in Manchester after they had attended a Fenian meeting in Dublin.
Seven days after their arrest they were transported from the court to the prison. The prison van was forced to stop for a group of armed men and in the following scuffle Charles Brett, one of the wardens, was killed. The fettered prisoners acquired the keys, released themselves and fled. Both Kelly as Deasy escaped to the United States and were never recaptured.
Soon thereafter five men were arrested for the murder of Charles Brett. Although all five plead not guilty and the prosecutor could not link one of them to the fatal shot they all were sentenced to death by hanging. Two of them, Edward Maquire and Edward O'Meagher Condon, escaped their fate. Maquire received a full pardon on grounds of mistaken identity. Maquire's pardon had undermined the judicial process and through mediation of the United States the capital punishment of Condon, who was an American citizen, was turned into a life sentence.
Despite the shaky evidence the remaining three, William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien, were executed at New Bailey Prison in Salford on 23 November 1867.
Their last words in the courtroom, God save Ireland, and their sacrifice are immortalised in the song God Save Ireland, which became the unofficial anthem of Ireland until it was replaced by A Soldiers Song in 1926. An other song which relates to the Manchester Martyrs is The Smashing Of The Van.
The bodies of the Manchester Martyrs were buried in quicklime inside the jail walls until 1991, when the remains were exhumed, cremated, put in unmarked coffins and buried in a mass grave.
The days following the executions commemorative marches took place. On Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin a gloomy funeral was held when three empty black coffins were lowered in a commemorative grave.
Since 1867 several other Irish Republicans have been involved in judicial diversions and, as often turned out, used as scapegoats, such as quite recently the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four in the 1970's. There has also been numerous cases in which the British displayed an utter disrespect for human life and corporal integrity. The execution of the badly wounded James Connolly, who played a major role in the Easter Rebellion of 1916, and the disputed medical interference to break the 1981 hunger strike in the Maze Prison are some sad examples.
Despite these more recent examples the Manchester Martyrs William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien indubitably vested their martyr status by the combination of crooked proceedings which resulted in their death, the desecration and eventually even the complete disappearance of their corpses.