The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-06-10
WAS A PROMINENT FENIAN.

WAS A PROMINENT FENIAN.
James F. X. o'6rien, Whose Death
Occurred in Ireland.
James F. X OBrien, Member of
Parliament for one of the divisions of
Cork, and at one time prominent in
the Fenian movement, died Sunday,
May %.
A native of Cork, he came to the
! United States when young man and
resided for time in New Orleans. A
little before the outbreak OF the Civil
war he returned to Ireland and for
several years occupied prominent
commercial position in Cork. Soon
after his return he joined the Fenian
movement, then beginning to assume
formidable proportions, especially in
the south, and with John Kenealy,
John Lynch, John O'Callaghan and
other local leaders, was very active in
pushing the organization in Cork City.
When the Irish People was estab-
lished in Dublin by James Stephens
as the organ of the movement in
1862, with John O'Leary as editor,
Thomas Clarke Luby as associate
editor and Charles J. Kickham as one
of the chief editorial writer's, j. F. X.
C'RrieD hnuon RI coptrihuto tn tic nor.
respondence columns, which soon be-
came one Of the brightest features of
the paper. He wrote over the sigma
ture of DE lAbbaye," and his letters
were always we'll written and full of
sound views on current political issues.
All sorts of men in all parts Of Ire
land contributed to that department of
the paper, among them being large
proportion of country schoolmasters.
a Tipperary schoolmaster named
Brougham, who wrote under the name
OF Harvey Birch" contributed
series of pithy, sarcastic letters main
ly about "felon-setters, for whom his
dog Brann had an unerring scent, and
which had a strong effect throughout
the country. A Wicklowman, named
Hugh Byrne, who served with Walker
in Nicaragua, and was then teacher
in a classical seminary in Dublin,
wrote over the signature of "Aodh ma
Sliabh" or Hugo del Monte" (Which
mean the same thing, the raciest and
best letters that appeared in the
paper. But de l'Abbaye's contribu-
tons were always, an iatereatine.-..sea-
ture of the Irish Peoples columns.
O'Brien's connection with the move
ment was not known to the Cork po-
lice, or to Warner, the Cork informer,
and he escaped arrest when Kenealy,
Lynch, O'Callaghan, Mountain and
other Cork leaders were thrown into
prison. When the ill-starred rising"
was ordered, the men being practically
without arms and large number of
the local leaders either in prison or
out of the country, O'Brien was on
hand and, although he disapproved of
the attempt and believed it doomed
to failure, played mans part without
flinching. He had no military exper-
fence whatever, but was assigned to
the command of one of the contin-
gents which moved out of Cork City
on the night of March S, 1867. With
him were two men who had seen SER
vice in the American Civil war, Will
liam Mackey Lomasney (the Little
Captain") and Michael O'Brien, who
was afterwards hanged for participa-
ton in the Manchester rescue. Lo-
masney was the man best fitted to
command and, as matter of fact,
directed all the movements, while
O'Brien was the nominal authority.
O'Brien, in speech delivered in Lon
don few months ago, and which The
Gaelic American published at the
time, told the story of the capture of
the Ballyknocken police barracks, and
frankly gave the credit that was due
them to Lomasney and O'Brien. With
OBrien's party on that night were
also the late Captain James S. Treacy
OF New York, John Coughlan, whose
grave in Washington was decorated
last Sunday, and Professor. Edward
OMahony of New York. On the same
night the party of insurgents under
Captain John Mcclure, still living in
New York, and Peter O'Neill Crowley.
who was killed later at Kilclooney
Wood, captured the Coast Guard Sta.
ton at Knockadoon and took ten pris-
! oners and ten British rifles.
O'Brien was arrested, duly convict
ed OF high treason and sentenced to
be hanged, drawn and quartered."
the barbarous British penalty for
| fighting against the Crown, which still
! disgraces the English statute book,
although the drawing and quartering
are not now carried out. AS in the
case of Thomas Francis Bourke, John
Mcclure, John McCafferty and others
who received like sentence, the pun
1shment was committed to penal SER