The Irish standard., 1913-12-13
Condor Sentenced to Death.

YOrk, mis- maven for half century.
Condor Sentenced to Death.
Capt. Edward O'Meagher Condor is
still with us. Up in Richford, VT, in
little town he, too, is living a peaceful
life in contrast to his early years.
Into English prisons he went in those
troublesome days following the close
of our Civil War when a number of
Irishmen went home to fight the bat
ties for their native land if need be.
His story is likewise entwined with
that of James Stephens. 1t was to help
Stephens that Col. Kelly and Capt.
Deasy went back to Ireland, and when
they were arrested at Manchester,
Eng, it was resolved to get them out
! to show that prison walls in that coun-
try were no stronger than those in
Ireland, a fact impressed upon the
government by the escape of Stephens
in Dublin.
The rescue of Kelly and Deasy was
! one of the most startling and daring
adventures ever conceived and carried
out. Just imagine band of men gath
ering under a bridge leading to Bos.
ton waiting for a prison van taking
men to the Charles street Jail. And
on the van inside and out half dozen
policemen; another half dozen fol-
lowing as an escort in carriage; the
prison van divided into compartments
and locked, with police sergeant in.
side with the keys.
What chance would band of men
have to rescue two men under such
circumstances? But it was under
somewhat similar conditions that the
Fenians did it in Manchester, Eng, in
1887. They had to blow the lock off
the prison van when pickaxes would
not break it open. And they had to
fight the police guard and the other
people who gathered quickly when the
fight started.
Kelly and Deasy were promised lib
erty by their fellow-Irishmen. They
got it. England never got them after
ward. For his part in the affair Capt.
Condor was sentenced to death; was
reprieved, and spent IL years in pris-
on. Three of his fellowmen, Allen,
Larkin and O'Brien, paid the penalty
for this by their lives, being hanged
shortly after the rescue to appease
public clamor. And Irishmen the
world over fittingly honor their men,
DRY every November That in brief is
the Manchester martyr story.
Eean's Lucky Escape.
Hon. Patrick Egan is the other
member of the living trio. He has had
stormy career on both sides of the
Atlantic, but he had the nerve and
judgment to go through with affairs
to the end. In the early days of the
Parnell movement he was one of the
directing minds in Dublin that planned
what to do.
The doors of prisons were swinging
wide open for him on more than one
occasion, but he was not on hand to
enter. In those troublesome days he
knew more about the governments
case against the Irish leaders than
some of the prosecutors. When he
went to Paris with the books and
funds of the Land League it was
most surprised party of raiders that
entered the headquarters in Dublin to
find what they supposed was the nee
essary evidence to send the leaders to
jail, only to get nothing.
Later, when the Dublin Castle au.
thorities planned to entangle him in
the Phoenix Park murders, and they
Swallowed his house day and night
while he was inside supposedly i'll, he
showed his nerve by going out dis
guised as his physician, entering the
latter's carriage one night and driv-
ing away out of trap all set to be
sprung.
1t makes story equal to any plot in
ward the government authorities fig
ured that Egan was the brains of the
organization of Irishmen at that time,
and had he been arrested he was to
have been tried for his life. And with
the evidence that it was so easy to
obtain his chances of escaping with
less than life sentence were small,
with the possibility of his being exc
cuted looming up large. Later, as
minister to Chile for this county, he
figured in the exciting times of the
Balmaceda Revolution and the killing
of American sailors from the Balti-
more in Valparaiso. ........
Leaders Gone This Year.
The roll of the illustrious dead has
leaders in peace and strife. Because
Of their recent deaths, when much
was published it is not necessary to
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