The Life Story of an Old Rebel

Life Story of an Old Rebel, The

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Title: The Life Story of an Old Rebel
Author: John Denvir
Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16559]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE LIFE STORY OF AN OLD REBEL
BY JOHN DENVIR
AUTHOR OF "THE IRISH IN BRITAIN" "THE BRANDONS" ETC.

DUBLIN SEALY, BRYERS & WALKER 86 MIDDLE ABBEY
STREET 1910
[Illustration: John Denvir]
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
I.--Early Recollections--"Coming Over" from Ireland
II.--Distinguished Irishmen--"The Nation" News-paper--"The
Hibernians"
III.--Ireland Revisited
IV.--O'Connell in Liverpool--Terence Bellew MacManus and the
Repeal Hall--The Great Irish Famine
V.--The "No-Popery" Mania--The Tenant League--The Curragh Camp
VI.--The Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood--Escape of James
Stephens--Projected Raid on Chester Castle--Corydon the Informer
VII.--The Rising of 1867--Arrest and Rescue of Kelly and Deasy--The
Manchester Martyrdom
VIII.--A Digression--T.D. Sullivan--A National Anthem--The Emerald
Minstrels--"The Spirit of the Nation"
IX.--A Fenian Conference at Paris--The Revolvers for the Manchester
Rescue--Michael Davitt sent to Penal Servitude
X.--Rescue of the Military Fenians
XI.--The Home Rule Movement
XII.--The Franco-Prussian War--An Irish Ambulance Corps--The

French Foreign Legion
XIII.--The Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain
XIV.--Biggar and Parnell--The "United Irishman"--The O'Connell
Centenary
XV.--Home Rule in Local Elections--Parnell succeeds Butt as
President of the Irish Organisation in Great Britain
XVI.--Michael Davitt's Return from Penal Servitude--Parnell and the
"Advanced" Organisation
XVII.--Blockade Running--Attempted Suppression of "United
Ireland"--William O'Brien and his Staff in Jail--How Pat Egan kept the
flag flying
XVIII.--Patrick Egan
XIX.--General Election of 1885--Parnell a Candidate for Exchange
Division--Retires in favour of O'Shea--T.P. O'Connor elected for
Scotland Division of Liverpool
XX.--Gladstone's "Flowing Tide"
XXI.--The "Times" Forgeries Commission
XXII.--Disruption of the Irish Party--Home Rule carried in the
Commons--Unity of Parliamentary Party Restored--Mr. John Redmond
becomes Leader
XXIII.--The Gaelic Revival--Thomas Davis--Charles Gavan
Duffy--Anglo-Irish Literature--The Irish Drama, Dramatists, and
Actors
XXIV.--"How is Old Ireland and how does She Stand?"

THE LIFE STORY OF AN OLD REBEL * * * * *
CHAPTER I.
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS--"COMING OVER" FROM IRELAND.
I owe both the title of this book and the existence of the book itself to
the suggestion of friends. I suppose a man of 76 may be called "old,"
although I have by no means given up the idea that I can still be of use
to my country.
And a Rebel? Yes! Anything of the nature of injustice or oppression
has always stirred me to resentment, and--is it to be wondered
at?--most of all when the victims of that injustice and oppression have
been my own people. And why not? If there were no rebels against
wrong-doing, wrong-doing would prosper. To an Irishman, who is a
fighter by temperament, and a fighter by choice against those in high
places, life is sure to provide plenty of excitement; and that, no doubt,
is why my friends have thought my recollections worth printing. The
curious thing is that my share in the struggle for Irish self-government
has been almost entirely what I might call outpost work, for I have
lived all my life in England.
Indeed, it seemed but a stroke of good luck that I was born in Ireland at
all. My father (John, son of James Denvir, of Ballywalter, Lecale) came
to England in the early part of the last century, and settled in Liverpool,
where my eldest brother was born. It was during a brief period, when
our family returned to Ireland, that I and a younger brother were born
there. My father was engaged for about three years as clerk of the
works for the erection of a castle for Sir Francis Macnaghten, near
Bushmills, County Antrim. This must be one of the least Catholic parts
of Ireland, for there was no resident priest, and I had to be taken a long
distance to be christened. There was a decent Catholic workman at the
castle, James MacGowan, who was my god-father, and my Aunt Kitty
had to come all the way from "our own place" in the County Down to
be my god-mother.
Brought to England, my earliest remembrances are of Liverpool, which

has a more compact and politically important Irish population than any
other town in Great Britain.
Anyone who has mixed much among our fellow-countrymen in
England, Scotland and Wales knows that, generally, the children and
grandchildren of Irish-born parents consider themselves just as much
Irish as those born on "the old sod" itself. No part of