The Irish standard., 1900-06-09
1HB PHOENIX PARK TRAGEDY. r


other parts OF the world.
IHB PHOENIX PARK TRAGEDY: +
!, The awful crime of assassination ir
Phoenix Park, Dublin, in 1882, wher
Lord Cavendish and Under Secretar,
Burke were brutally murdered, is re.
called by the arrival in New York re.
Gently of James Fitzharris and Joseph
Mullet who had served eighteen years
in British prisons as convicts for being
implicated in the bloody affair. Nc
event in Irish annals during the English
occupation Of Ireland was more deeply
regretted by Irishmen at home and
abroad than the slaughter OF the Eng
lish nobleman who had just come to
Ireland with an olive branch in his hand
to put stop to the brutal treatment
of the Irish people by the odious
"Buckshot" Forster. On the day of his
arrival he was in company with de-
generate Irishman named Burke when
the latter was assailed by party OF
thugs known as the 'invincibles," and
in defending him from their attacks
Lord Cavendish lost his life.
Five were tried, convicted and hanged
upon the testimony OF informer Carey,
the ringleader OF the cabal, and Fitz-
harris and Mullet were sentenced to pc
nal servitude for life. The fact must not
be lost sight of that they did not re-
ceive fair trial from a packed jury
and partisan Judge at a time when
anti-1rish political feelings ran high in
all English circles, and when men OF
strong Nationalist sentiment were cast
into prison as suspects" without the
formality Of any trial at all.
Fitzharris' offense consisted in driv-
ing the party who committed the crime
in his hack to the park, but no other
evidence other than that was adduced
to connect him with the deed. He says
in his examination by the immigration
officials in New York that the British
government offered him f1oooo if he
would turn informer against the twenty
three others who were arrested with
him nine months after the tragedy. He
spurned the bribe and was found guilty
himself, though he always claimed his
innocence. Mullet was law clerk al
the time of the crime and was then 81
years DID, He was convicted in the
usual manner on the charge of trying
to assassinate both Judge Lawrence
who presided at the trial Of the Phoenix
Park prisoners, and Foreman Field o
the jury that convicted them. He also
has always proclaimed his innocence
and his countrymen believe that botl
Fitzharris and himself have been the
victims of British law as administered
in ireland.
That Dublin Castle thought they had
been unjustly sentenced for life is evi-
denced in the fact that Lord Cadogan
the present viceroy Of Ireland, pardoned
them after suffering nearly eighteen
years. Imprisonment in British bastiles
on condition that they would leave the
country on their release from "durance
vile"
They arrived on the Llica11ia in New
York harbor on May 27, there to find
out that they would not be allowed to
remain in the United States, because
they had been adjudged guilty by Brit
ish law in Ireland of a felony. When
asked OF what crime he had been con-
victed Fitzharris answered, Treason, y
and Mullet Indignantly refused to an
swer any OF the questions put to him,
saying he was not accorded proper
treatment by the American government.
They could not have reached these
shores at worse time than under the
Mckinley administration, which is no.
toriously pro-British. Whether any
correspondence passed between Wash
ington and London regarding "thc
Irish murderers," as Mckinley organs
stigmatize them. we know not; but they
need not expect any courtesies at the
hands of McKinley's appointees in New
York. The two men have secured All
able attorney to represent them, but in
all probability they will be sent back to
Ireland. We believe they are victims OF
British injustice, and hence it is that
our sympathy goes out to them from
this western city.