Speeches from the Dock; Or, Protests of Irish Patriotism. Part I: Speeches delivered after conviction by Theobald Wolfe Tone, William Orr, the brothers Sheares, Robert Emmet, John Martin, William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher, Terence Bellew McManus, John Mitchel, Thomas C. Luby, John O'Leary, Charles J. Kickham, Colonel Thomas F. Burke, and Captain Mackay
History
Speeches from the Dock; Or, Protests of Irish Patriotism. Part I: Speeches delivered after conviction by Theobald Wolfe Tone, William Orr, the brothers Sheares, Robert Emmet, John Martin, William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher, Terence Bellew McManus, John Mitchel, Thomas C. Luby, John O'Leary, Charles J. Kickham, Colonel Thomas F. Burke, and Captain Mackay
Ireland -- Biography; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 19th century; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 20th century
quietly as they had come, and the next that was heard of M'Afferty was
his arrest, and that of his friend and companion John Flood, on the 23rd
of February, in the harbour of Dublin, after they had got into a small
boat from out of the collier "New Draper," which had just arrived from
Whitehaven. M'Afferty was placed in the dock of Green-street
court-house for trial on Wednesday, May 1st, while the jury were absent
considering their verdict in the case of Burke and Doran. On Monday, May
the 6th, he was declared guilty by the jury. On that day week a Court of
Appeal, consisting of ten of the Irish judges, sat to consider some
legal points raised by Mr. Butt in the course of the trial, the most
important of which was the question whether the prisoner, who had been
in custody since February 23rd, could be held legally responsible for
the events of the Fenian rising which occurred on the night of the 5th
of March. Their lordships gave an almost unanimous judgment against the
prisoner on Saturday, May 18th, and on the Monday following he was
brought up for sentence, on which occasion, in response to the usual
question, he spoke as follows:--
"My lords--I have nothing to say that can, at this advanced stage of
the trial, ward off that sentence of death, for I might as well hurl
my complaint (if I had one) at the orange trees of the sunny south,
or the tall pine trees of the bleak north, as now to speak to the
question why sentence of death should not be passed upon me according
to the law of the land; but I do protest loudly against the injustice
of that sentence. I have been brought to trial upon a charge of high
treason against the government of Great Britain, and guilt has been
brought home to me upon the evidence of one witness, and that witness
a perjured informer. I deny distinctly that there have been two
witnesses to prove the overt act of treason against me. I deny
distinctly that you have brought two independent witnesses to two
overt acts. There is but one witness to prove the overt act of
treason against me. I grant that there has been a cloud of
circumstantial evidence to show my connection (if I may please to use
that word) with the Irish people in their attempt for Irish
independence, and I claim that as an American and as an alien, I have
a reason and a right to sympathise with the Irish people or any other
people who may please to revolt against that form of government by
which they believe they are governed tyrannically. England
sympathised with America. She not only sympathised, but she gave her
support to both parties; but who ever heard of an Englishman having
been arrested by the United States government for having given his
support to the Confederate States of America and placed on his trial
for high treason against the government? No such case ever has been.
I do not deny that I have sympathised with the Irish people--I love
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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