The historic Invincibles

 Background

Colonisation never worked in Ireland, partly because each succeeding wave of foreigners quickly became "as Irish as the Irish themselves," and just as ungovernable.

Oliver Cromwell's solution was to exterminate the Irish nation. He slaughtered the citizens of captured towns like Drogheda and Clonmel. (But some authors claim that the citizens actually left town before the siege, and that those slaughtered were all soldiers). When the war was over, (1653) he confiscated all land owned by Catholics and, also, the land of disloyal Protestants. All dispossessed landowners were forced "to Hell or to Connaught" (i.e., to the poor, rock-strewn lands of the west of Ireland), but thousands of the young folk, boys and girls, were rounded up and shipped out to the Americas and the West Indies as white slaves. The remaining Catholics were turned into virtual serfs, on rack rents, with no security of tenure in their holdings, or into domestic servants at slave wages.

Sir William Petty, (medical doctor, soldier, scientist, parliamentarian, planter and economist) who organised the Down Survey, which prepared the way for the Cromwellian confiscations and plantation, estimated that, from a population of 1,500,000, before the war, over 618,000 Irish died in the war years from warfare, famine and plague; that 50,000 were shipped out as slaves and another 50,000 undefeated soldiers and "Tories"  were allowed to emigrate to join the armies of France and Spain. (The Irish word "Tóir" means pursuit, and so "Torey," at that time, meant "one being pursued," in other words, demobbed soldiers and other bandits who hid in the mountains, forests and waste-lands). The confiscations and post-war emigration further reduced the population. However, population numbers soon recovered, despite the universal impoverishment, and reached 8 million by 1845. (Petty's figures are questioned by modern scholars, and some suggest that the population loss during the Cromwellian years, though significant, was not as dramatic as he reported).

The Penal Laws, passed by Cromwell and strengthened around 1700, completed the dispossession of the Catholic population, forbidding Catholics to own land, receive education, have their births registered, hold public office or refuse to sell their horse or valuables on demand to a protestant. There was a reward for killing priests, and the death penalty for anyone harbouring a priest. The population was divided in two: the vast majority of illiterate, destitute, Catholics, and the dominant, wealthy, educated, Protestant ascendancy. Unlike previous generations of foreigners, this ascendancy did not become "as Irish as the Irish themselves," but retained its separate identity. The Catholic Irish began to abandon their language and culture and assimilate to the English culture, but as a lower class.

The ideals of the French Revolution of 1789, (Liberty, Equality and Fraternity) brought a resurgence of nationalism in Ireland. "The Society of United Irishmen" aimed to unite Irish people of all religions in a movement to break the link with England and, with French help, establish an independent Irish republic. Provoked into premature rebellion by repressive measures, the rising of the United Irishmen, in 1798, was quickly put down by the British forces.

By 1845, the population had risen to 8 million, 6 million of whom were dependent on the potato, because other foods of higher monetary value had to be sold to pay rents. When the potato crop failed, due to blight, the Great Famine occurred. There was enough food produced to feed the population, but this was exported while the poor people starved. 

After the famine, landlords evicted hundreds of thousands of tenants, in an effort to make agriculture more profitable. A new revolutionary movement, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, also known as "The Fenians," was set up. Highly organised in a cell structure, it aimed to use the soldiering experience of the Irish in America, thousands of whom had fought on both sides of the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) to make a successful revolution in Ireland. However, procrastination led to them missing this great opportunity. There was a belated unsuccessful revolt in 1867, but the organisation continued to exist in England, America and Ireland.

The very wet year of 1879 brought another surge of evictions, as thousands of tenants were unable to pay their rents. In August, several people reported seeing an apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Knock in County Mayo, boosting their spirit. In October, the Irish National Land League was established in the same county. Its objective was "The land of Ireland for the people of Ireland." It advised tenants to stop paying rents, support evicted tenants, and boycott opponents, an agrarian agitation that became known as "The Land War." Former Fenians joined the Land League in droves. Some remained members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and several landlords were shot during the agitation.

The Invincibles

In an effort to defeat the Land League, a coercion act was introduced in January 1881, suspending Habeus Corpus (the statute that requires all arrests to have a legal basis), and Trial by Jury, and giving extensive powers of arrest and detention to the police. Nine hundred members of the National Land League were arrested and interned, culminating with the arrest of Charles Stewart Parnell MP, in October 1881. 

Coercive measures always lead to counter-measures by revolutionaries.

John Walsh, a Fenian living in Middles-borough in England, was sent by Frank Byrne, secretary of the Land League of Great Britain, to Dublin, to establish a Fenian cell with the purpose of assassinating government administrators in Ireland. The directory of the group included James Mullet, a publican, Daniel Curley, a carpenter, and Joseph Mullet, a van driver. These three were all Fenian "Centres", i.e., cell leaders. One cell under this directorate called themselves "The Irish National Invincibles." (According to the evidence of James Carey, the informer).

Parnell was released on 2 May 1882 under the so-called "Kilmainham Treaty," where he agreed to use his influence to calm violent land agitation.

A few days later (5 May 1882) a peaceful protest at Ballina in County Mayo, was fired upon by the Royal Irish Constabulary, killing several children under the age of 14. The Invincibles decided to take revenge.

On 6 May 1882, seven Invincibles attacked and killed Frederick Cavendish, Chief Secretary of Ireland,  and Thomas Henry Burke, Permanent Under Secretary, the top two British officials in Ireland, in the Phoenix Park. A card was delivered to all the major newspapers, in which The Irish National Invincibles claimed responsibility for the assassinations. The next day was a Sunday: this was the first ever time that there were Sunday editions of the newspapers in Ireland.

The national leaders, including Parnell, denounced the assassinations.

Coercion was re-introduced, and vigorous police enquiries ensued. By January 1883, twenty five of the Invincibles had been arrested. Under intensive interrogation, some confessed. James Carey, one of the leaders, became the main informer and was released, while five others were executed, viz., Joseph Brady, Daniel Curley, Michael Fagan, Thomas Caffery and Timothy Kelly.

Bizarrely, Joseph Brady was observed to have a penile erection when hanged. His head was cut off and kept for medical purposes, in The Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin. John Mallon, Dublin Metropolitan Police Chief, kept part of his spine as a souvenir.

Carey, the informer, was given a new identity and set out for South Africa on a steam ship. He was recognised and shot by Patrick O'Donnell, who was later executed for this murder.

Source: Shane Kenna, historian in https://www.theirishstory.com