A Passionate Girl by Thomas Fleming

Author:Thomas Fleming
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2004-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

Ireland’s Agony, Recapitulated

“Oh,” sighed Annie with a sympathetic sniffle. “The poor devils. Condemned for life.”

We were in her new apartment at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, reading the newspaper reports of the trials of the Fenians in Ireland. Outside, rain drizzled down from a gray November sky.

“There’s little we can do for them. We must look to our own strength here in America, and do with it what we can by way of revenge,” I said.

I was becoming very American in my blithe disregard for our suffering brethren in Ireland. So was Annie, in spite of her sentimental sniffles. Annie enjoyed nothing so much as a good cry. She loved songs about dying birds and faithful dogs who laid down their lives for their masters. She never failed to search out the daily diet of misfortunes in the newspapers—men crushed beneath the wheels of Broadway omnibuses, children trampled by runaway horses.

From all reports in the newspapers and from our confidential agents in Ireland, the British had smashed the Irish Fenians in almost every county. The Dublin leaders were tried, and a dozen were sentenced to servitude for life in the penal colony on the island of Tasmania. Many of the convicted men gave magnificent speeches from the dock, condemning their accusers and calling on their brethren beyond the ocean to carry on the fight.

So far as we could see—which was, alas, not very far—these Irish misfortunes strengthened us. The Irish in America were universally angry, and the sales of Irish Republic bonds boomed. So did recruiting for the Fenian army. On the political front all was going smoothly enough. Robert Johnson remained a supporter of our cause in spite of my personal rift with him, and so apparently did Secretary Seward. At the annual Fenian convention in Philadelphia in mid-October, we had heeded Seward’s advice to reassure America about our patriotism. By an overwhelming vote, the convention accepted a plan proposed by William Roberts and his followers to abandon the secret-society structure of the movement and transform it into an imitation of the American government. Elections were held for a president, a vice president, a senate, and a house of representatives. For unity’s sake, John O’Mahoney was elected president, but all the other positions of power went to Roberts and his adherents, among whom I continued to number myself.

In New York, the Celts also prospered. Tammany put its man, John T. Hoffman, in the mayor’s office, and Dick Connolly in as city comptroller. They were busy naming their friends to dozens of other offices and laying plans to elect Hoffman governor next year, giving them control of New York state.

The Fenians had contributed not a little to Tammany’s victory. We sent representatives to rallies in the Irish wards and made statements in the newspapers urging the Irish to back men who were prepared to oppose imperial England wherever they had influence in the American government. Now Tammany was returning the favor, passing the word to its ward leaders and district captains to urge young Irishmen to enlist in the Fenian army.

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