The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848Doheny, Michael
History
The Felon's Track; Or, History of the Attempted Outbreak in Ireland: Embracing the Leading Events in the Irish Struggle From the Year 1843 to the Close of 1848
Doheny, Michael
Ireland -- History -- Rising of 1848; Young Ireland Party -- History; Young Ireland movement
Mr. Meagher and Mr. O'Donohoe were arrested under circumstances over
which they had still less control. They were utterly unacquainted with
the country, and did not know, if they left the high road, but the first
house they might approach would be a police barrack. They had made every
attempt desperation could suggest to rouse the people, but in vain.
They were opposed by some, shunned by some, and from some they received
false counsel. They had exhausted the welcome of all who were inclined
to receive them, and they knew not one step of their way. Previously,
too, Mr. Meagher had peremptorily refused to avail himself of a mode of
escape provided for him and he equally peremptorily refused to listen to
any terms from Government, which did not include all his comrades. His
object, on the night he was arrested, was to make another trial at
Cashel, which he designed to approach by a circuitous route.
The 6th day of August was the date of Mr. O'Brien's arrest; the 13th of
August that of Messrs. Meagher and O'Donohoe, and the 7th of September
that of Mr. MacManus. Mr. O'Brien was taken at the Thurles railway
station; Messrs. Meagher and O'Donohoe, near Rathgannon, on the road
between Clonoulty and Holycross, about five miles from Thurles, and Mr.
MacManus on board the ship _N.D. Chase_, in the bay of Cove, on the 7th
of September. They were each conveyed to Kilmainham Jail, in the first
instance, where they remained until within a few days of the opening of
the special commission at Clonmel. This took place on Thursday, the 21st
of Sept., when the bills were found, but six days were allowed to Mr.
O'Brien and the rest of the prisoners to peruse the indictment, with
copies of which they were respectively furnished. On Thursday, the 28th,
the trial of Mr. O'Brien commenced; that of Mr. MacManus on the 9th of
October; that of Mr. O'Donohoe on the 13th, and that of Mr. Meagher on
the 16th.
Juries were empanelled in each case, from whose prejudice and bad faith
verdicts for high treason were expected, even though the evidence only
sustained a charge of common assault. Roman Catholics were, in the first
instance, scrupulously excluded; but after the first two verdicts one or
two were admitted, upon whose weakness of character, or genteel
aspirations, the Government might safely rely. It is but justice to say
that, according to the law expounded by the Bench, and the evidence
given on the table, any other verdict was not to be expected. But a jury
differently composed, a jury of Englishmen, with their country, their
liberties and their lives perilled to the last extremity by
misgovernment and maladministration of law, would have spurned the law
and the evidence, and relied on the great fundamental rights of humanity
so flagrantly outraged by the Government that then appeared as
prosecutors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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