Essays and Such
Irish Cultural Society
of San Antonio Texas
Promoting Awareness of Irish Culture
John Devoy - Irish Rebel
by Dr Eoin McKiernan
Most dedicated, ingenious, and successful of the Irish rebels
Lest We Forget
by Dr Eoin McKiernan
Irish America Magazine, June/July 1999, Pg 86
One of the most dedicated, ingenious, and successful of the Irish rebels who opposed English rule in Ireland was John Devoy, the anniversary of whose birth and death occurs this September (1999). So tenacious a grip had Ireland's cause on him that he had no time for marriage or career, wealth or reputation. ln his early teens he came under the influence of Fenianism, the 19th century continuation of the United Irishmen movement of the 1790s whose policy was Irish independence from England. At the age of 19, he took the extraordinary step of enlisting in the French Foreign Legion to prepare for the coming war against England. After a year on the Algerian front he returned to Dublin where he undertook the perilous responsibility of suborning Irish members of the British Army in Ireland, administering to them the oath of the Fenian Brotherhood, an oath "to break the connection with England." Over almost five years, he had arranged for approximately 15,000 soldiers to be sworn in before he was captured in 1866, convicted of treason, and sentenced to 15 years at hard labor. Five years later, he and several comrades were paroled on the condition that they reside outside of Ireland and England. Glad to comply, they embarked for the US. where a new, vibrant Irish revolutionary organization, the Clan na Gael, had been founded in 1867 in New York City. Here they were given an ecstatic welcome, and officially honored by a resolution of the House of Representatives, an almost inconceivable partisan gesture. The Civil War in the U.S., which ended in 1865, had already provided military experience to Irish and Irish-Americans soldiers who were willing to employ the, military skills against England. Ex-officers were infiltrated into Ireland and England and arms shipped. Although the 19th century had a well developed anti-Irish animus, America showed a degree of sympathy for any nation struggling for liberty. In relation to Ireland, however, this took the form of a backhanded interest. In various cities across the U.S., Irish and Irish-Americans paraded with arms, drilled publicly raised hands, and, in print and in open meetings, proclaimed their intention of war against the Crown forces in Ireland. Yet the American authorities turned a blind eye toward the Fenian maneuvers. The rationale governing this violation was a willingness on the part of General Ulysses Grant (and to a lesser degree President Johnson) to enjoy the discomfiture of Britain who had supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. In all of this preparation to "break the connection with England," John Devoy-regarded in England as capable and dangerous - was the archconspirator. Soon after his arrival in America Devoy became a member of the Clan na Gael, the secret Irish revolutionary organization which came to dominate the struggle for Irish independence. His influence in the organization continued from 1871 to the attainment of the Irish Free State in 1922. The word Fenian came to be applied collectively to cover various groups who shared the goal of an independent Ireland to be achieved, if necessary, by a resort to arms. And there were several distinct secret organizations included under this umbrella term: the Fenians, founded in New York in 1858; the Irish Republican Brotherhood, founded in Dublin in 1858; and the Clan na Gael, founded in New York in 1867. Devoy was a significant member of all three. In 1866, losing hope of a revolution in Ireland, and overconfident of American toleration of their actions, the (American) Fenians launched two attacks upon Canadian objectives, one, from Buffalo. New York, the other from Maine, in the expectation that success would result in negotiations for an Irish Republic. Only the Buffalo expedition had a small degree of success but the American government felt obliged to recall the Fenian troops, though imposing no penalty upon them. Devoy had been opposed to this diversion of funds, energy, and purpose which had little chance of contributing to breaking the connection with England. From this moment on, the Clan ra Gael provided the driving force for revolutionary activity and Devoy's influence in it grew accordingly. In 1875, in one of the boldest and most imaginative exploits in Irish or American history, Devoy conceived of a plan to rescue several Fenians imprisoned in Australia. With Clan na Gael funding he purchased a 90 foot-long ship, outfitted it as a whaler and followed a deceptive route to Australia where surreptitious contact was made with six Fenian prisoners. Their escepe was perilously made. with the Fenians barely aboard before a British naval cutter fired upon the ship demanding their surrender. The day was won, however, when Captain Anthony ran up the Stars and Stripes, and challenged the cutter to fire upon the American flag. Months later, on August 16. 1876. The Catalpa hove into New York harbor to an ecstatic welcome. At the time hopes for fielding armed rebellion against England seemed remote but the success of the extraordinary rescue from the British penal colony so many thousand miles away proved the capability of Devoy and the Fenian movement. A new tactic fun her tested their mettle and Devoy's leadership. Using the words "New Departure," Devoy promoted a melding of [1) the demand for Irish self-government and [2) the ownership of the land of Ireland by the Irish, a replacement of the landlord system which he saw as a system of helotry. During the last quarter of the 19th century these twinned goals kept the national spirit alive and prepared the seedbed for the Easter rebellion of 1916 and the birth of the Irish Free State in 1922, to all of which Devoy contributed importantly. From his youthful enlistment in the French Foreign Legion to preparing for his death in 1923. Devoy led a life devoted to the independence of his country. Though he broke with comrades in accepting the Treaty which brought the Irish Free State into being, he nonetheless, must be regarded as one of the apostles of modern Ireland.
Note: This essay was written before the publication of Terry Golway's lrish Rebel: John Devoy and Ameica's Fight for Ireland's Freedom ($15.95, St. Martin's Press), which this writer highly recommends.