The Life Story of an Old Rebel

Life Story of an Old Rebel, The

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life Story of an Old Rebel, by John Denvir This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
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
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE STORY OF AN OLD REBEL ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

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 our race has shown more determination and enthusiasm in the cause of Irish nationality. As a rule the Irish of Great Britain have been well organised, and, during the last sixty years and more, have been brought into constant contact with a host of distinguished Irishmen--including