The Irish standard., 1908-05-16
"God Save Ireland"

"God Save Ireland"
While the soft. sweet, old Irish mel
odies made popular by Moore, are
widely known there is an interesting
if sad story connected with the writ
ing of Ireland's national anthem. God
Save Ireland" which will doubtless in
terest many of our readers and re-
fresh the memory of others who re-
member the days Of the Fenians
Early one morning in September.
1867. the police on duty In Oak street.
Manchester. England. after a desper
ate struggle. accosted as suspicious
characters two broad .shouldered, mus
cular mer who proved to be heavily
armed and at a hearing few hours
later We're about to he sentenced by
onment u:.der the vagrancy act. when
a detective recognized them as Colonel
Thomas j. Kelley and Captain Deasey
prominent Fenians. foc whose capture
the COVER, ment forces had been bend
ing every effort since the remarkably
clever rescue of James Stephens from
Richmond jail. Dublin Their arrest
caused great satisfaction in England
and after preliminary hearing few
days later they were 1cmanded to the
county jail to await trial on the
charge of treason felony" a. crime
then newly invented by the English
government. enabling 1t to condemn
7rishmen TO death for political reasons
They We're Immediately handcuffed
and placed in locked cells in the or
dinary prison van for the journey
across the city with n dozen police as
guards-eight with the van and four
in a cab. Passing the Hyde Park rail-
way arch in a thlnly populated sec
tion. as if by magic score of men
appeared, many carrying pistols. and
the police fed without a struggle,
leaving the rescuers free to break
down the door. In firing through the
| l'th H. SIIbi IDustN III tHt DItdSI vi fo-
lice Sergeant Brett who was inside
the van, and his death two hours lat
err was the only fatality Of the daring
rescue. which shook England to it's
foundators-a little band of Fenians
in broad daylight rescung fellow con-
spirators IN the midst of an English
| 4 to-, fn1, wi, t1,o ,ol>
police. Ten minutes after their flight
the police returned reinforced by a
mob. and only three Of the band who
sacrificed themselves to cover their
comrades retreat. were captured and
roughly handled
In response to the howl of the Brit
| ish press for vengeance. an all night
raid on the Irish quarters in Man.
chester resulted in over sixty men be-
ing summarils arrested and sentenced
to short terms on various pretexts,
and five were rcmandcd to stand trial
for the murder" Of William
P. Allen, n native of Tippcrary: Mi
chael OBrien. a native Of Cork, and
lieutenant in the Union army during
the Civil war; Michael Larkin, "A ma
tive Of Kings county; Edward O'Mea-
CHER Condor. citizen of Ohio, also a
Civil war veteran, and Thomas Ma
guire Of the Royal Marines. During
the trial. which was arranged long be-
played by the accused men showed
them worthy followers of the princi-
pies for which many others had glad
ly died. Responding to the formal
questions as TO why sentence Of death
should not be passed. Condor tersely
expressed their sentiments when he
our cause and our country; we have
done nothing to regret and 60 to the
scafold saying God Save Ireland"
Their defiant cry echoing through
the court house was taken up by their
relatives and friends.
Condor was soon pardoned because
Iie WAS al AHIcI .udkuITc WAS re-
leased on A petition signed by forty
English journalists. who had attend
ed the trial and protested against the
evidence though it was the same as
that which convicted the others TO
the last moment 1t was the general
belief that the death sentence would
not be carried out, and on the morn
ing of Nov ember %. the people of Ire
the world were horror r-stricker to re-
ceive the news that Allen. iarkn
and O'Bri,n had been hanged az 8
o'clock. True Irishmen in life. the:'