The World's Greatest Military Spies and Secret Service AgentsBarton, George
History
The World's Greatest Military Spies and Secret Service Agents
Barton, George
Secret service; Spies
One of the most conspicuous of these was General Napper Tandy, who
urged upon the Man of Destiny the advisability of attacking England
by making a descent upon the coast of Ireland. For more than a
half-century the greatest mystery hovered about the name and the
identity of General Napper Tandy. But it was finally cleared up through
the persistence and the painstaking efforts of William J. Fitzpatrick,
the Irish historian, but only after he had secured the permission of
the English Government to make an examination of the secret archives of
Dublin Castle.
As a result of that, we now know that Tandy was an adventurous soul
who was willing to fight at the drop of a hat. He is described in
Government reports as an “arch rebel,” and it is certain that he took
part in various Irish uprisings against the English Government. He went
over to France about 1796 and identified himself with Napoleon. He was
a brave man, with much knowledge of military strategy and undoubtedly
made an impression upon one who was regarded as the greatest military
strategist of his day.
That Napoleon thought well of the proposed invasion of Ireland is
proven by his negotiations with Thomas Addis Emmet. The correspondence
of the great Corsican makes that fact clear. But Emmet accused him of
coldness and indecision on the Irish program, because, instead of going
to Ireland in 1798, he changed his plans and went to Egypt.
However, there was never any doubt about the plans of General Tandy,
and the manner in which he carried them out is part of the secret
history of the times. A meeting to arrange the details was held in
Paris, and was attended by Messrs. Blackwell, Morres, Tandy and
Corbett. Unfortunately for them, there was another person present, and
that was the English spy who became known later from the fact that he
signed all of his communications to the English Government with the
letter “O.”
Mr. Fitzpatrick, after the most exhaustive researches, is convinced
that this spy was a man named Orr, who had been on Pitt’s payroll for a
long time. He had been a thorn in the side of Napoleon for years, and
even before the meeting which Tandy held in Paris had sent a note to
his chief in which he said:
“The grand object of the French is, as they term it themselves, London.
_Delanda Carthago_ is their particular end; once in England, they think
they would speedily indemnify themselves for all their expenses and
recruit their ruined finances.”
It is certain that “O” was not only present at the meeting to arrange
for the expedition into Ireland, but that he made suggestions regarding
the details of that historic trip. It is interesting to know that
before the ship set sail full particulars of it had been sent by “O”
to his English employers. He even goes so far as to make sport of the
finances of the French nation at that time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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