The Fenian Rising - 1867

The collapse of the Young Ireland Movement with the abortive rising of 1848 led to a marked decline in interest in national politics in Ireland for some time.

Before the end of the decade however, the situation was to change radically with the formation of a new vigorous organisation. Two of the Young Ireland members James Stevens and John O'Mahony escaped to Paris after the 1848 Rising. There they became associated with various secret organisations and were imbued with the idea of forming a similar conspiracy to attain Irish freedom.

In 1858 O'Mahony moved to America where he soon ascertained there was strong support for any movement for Irish Independence at his instigation James Stephens returned to Ireland and in 1862 founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Dublin. It was a secret oath society organised into 'circles' governed by a leader called a 'centre'. It was John O'Mahony who gave it the name of the Fenians.

The aims of the Fenians were to establish an Irish Republic completely independent of England and to instil into the minds of the people that by force alone and not by constitutional agitation would the freedom of Ireland be achieved .The movement quickly spread throughout the country and by late 1862 it was established in Drogheda where it was inaugurated by Thomas Clark Luby who swore in six of its citizens who afterwards took an active part in propagating the organisation throughout the town and surrounding district.

The Movement grew rapidly including both men and women they had their headquarters in the Weaver's Hall in Magdalene Street where during and under cover of the weaver's strike, secret drilling took place. The branch was composed of three circles, the centres or leaders were Patrick Leonard of Tullyallen, and better known as the 'Colonel' a title said to have been won in the American Civil War. Thomas Flynn a millwright and James Hart a miller in Morton’s Mill on the quays.

Arms and ammunition were acquired and hidden at various places in the town and district. For almost three years the movement progressed without undue notice from the authorities.

On the 15th of August. 1865 the 'Irish People' the Fenian paper was sized and suppressed in Dublin. During the raid many documents were discovered which led to the arrest and imprisonment of many members of the Drogheda movement. The police began searching for arms compelling the Fenians to seek out safer hiding places, this in turn led to a Franciscan lay brother Furlong a sympathiser concealing arms in the roof of the friary in Laurence Street (the arms were subsequently discovered when the roof sprang a leak in 1994 and are now on display in the Millmount Museum.).

Meanwhile, a countrywide insurrection was planed for early March 1867, the Drogheda members made their move on Shrove Tuesday the 5th. of March. The plan of action was to gather the three circles under their leaders at various locations and at the appointed time to gather at the Potato Market were arms would be distributed. One circle was to take the courthouse the others were to seize and disarm all the outlying police stations, return to the town and attack the main barracks. However, the plans went very wrong due to leaders not turning up and ammunition not arriving. The clamour of the manoeuvre in the Potato Market alerted the police who rushed to the scene in strength following the fracas a number of men were arrested. They were lodged in Drogheda Goal and taken to Dundalk Goal on March the 9th where they were remanded until trial.

They were finally tried before the Summer Assizes on the 13th of July 1867, four of them were convicted of Treason and sentenced to 5 years of penal servitude. They were Patrick Wall, Robert May, and the brothers John and Laurence Fulham. On sentence they were removed to Portland Prison in England on the 21st of September 1867, and finally transported to Western Australia in October 1867, the convicted felons arrived in Australia on the last convict ship the 'Hougomount' which dropped anchor in the Swan River near Freemantle on the 9th of January 1869.One of their fellow prisoners the famous patriot John Boyle O’ Reilly.