To understand why the Young Irelanders were arrested and transported from Ireland it is necessary to comprehend ongoing British political oppression in Ireland since Tudor times. As one historian notes, 'Irish convicts must be examined against a background of political domination, economic exploitation, impoverishment, famine and social divisiveness'.1
After Henry II invaded rural Ireland in the twelfth century everything changed for the Irish people who were largely rural peasants subscribing to Catholicism. Ruled by Henry II, they became subjugated to foreign rule. Then, in the 1530s, when Henry VIII split with the Papacy, the Irish people became subjugated to a Protestant England, whose leaders constantly feared the ramifications of an Irish Catholic majority with the potential to join forces with England's Continental foes. This all-consuming fear produced a politico/religious situation that persisted well into the eighteenth-century, when harsh penal laws (or Popery laws) consolidated the political status quo by making the practice of Catholicism even more difficult for Irish Catholics.
Not only were the Irish discouraged from practising their faith but they also were denied the right to govern their own country and own land. From the sixteenth century they had been displaced in a series of plantations that favoured Irish Protestant landlords as well as by English colonists who 'identified Protestantism with their own racial ascendancy'.2 Irish Catholic peasants effectively thereafter became second-class citizens in their own land, economically enslaved to the cause of British Imperialism. That Ireland became a food basket for British markets while the Irish peasants themselves lived on a staple diet of potatoes was a major grievance for the Irish people. During the Great Famine, the ramifications of this policy proved to be a catalyst for much Young Ireland militancy.
By 1801, when the Union of Ireland and Great Britain was enacted, and the Irish Parliament was persuaded to vote itself out of existence by the Imperial British Crown, bitterness between the two religious denominations of Protestantism and Catholicism on the one hand and the political identities of Britishness and Irishness on the other had grown to considerable dimensions. Rigid class divisions between the nobility and the peasants and the lack of meritocratic advancement for the latter exacerbated this complexity. Fertile ground thus emerged for a rising young generation of nationalist intellectuals to resist the political status quo. In other European nations movements for self-determination were developing and revolution was rapidly filling the air.
This emotional climate made it difficult for politicians to address such difficult and complex issues peacefully. The great Irish liberator and pacifist Daniel O'Connell attempted to do so by dealing with two particularly significant Irish grievances. The first was Catholic emancipation and the second was the repeal of the Act of Union between Ireland and Great Britain. O'Connell achieved success with the first grievance by successfully lobbying for the Catholic Emancipation Bill, passed in 1829. The Bill's success meant that Catholics could sit in the British Parliament alongside their Protestant counterparts. Success with the second grievance was less than forthcoming.
As Britain's imperial status increased around the world, the British government was determined to hold onto Ireland's economic contribution to the British Empire. Both the government and British public opinion 'were largely united in their belief that repeal would fatally weaken the United Kingdom, and must be resisted at all costs'.3 Cognisant of British political intractability on this issue, O'Connell therefore committed his followers to a long-haul process of pragmatic accommodation and preferably nonviolent change. In a bid to lobby peacefully for the repeal of the 1801 Act of Union he set up the Repeal Association, the first meeting of which was held at the Corn Exchange in Dublin on 15 April 1840. Subsequently, under O'Connell's direction, reading rooms were set up around the country so that people could be educated about the Association's aims. It was, however, O'Connell's political strategies of negotiation and accommodation rather than force that eventually separated him from the more radical Young Irelanders who initially supported his Repeal Association.
In 1841, O'Connell became involved with three young Irish intellectuals, Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon. The following year, these three intellectuals established a newspaper called The Nation in Dublin. Through The Nation, the three espoused and promoted Irish nationalism and effectively became 'the nucleus’ of the group subsequently described as Young Ireland. Hence, The Nation supported O'Connell's Repeal Campaign by bolstering Irish pride and self-respect and upholding and elevating Irish nationhood, becoming 'almost a synonym' for Young Ireland.4 The first issue of The Nation appeared on 15 October 1842 and achieved almost immediate success. Some of Ireland's greatest literary talents contributed articles, poetry and songs. Prominent contemporary Young Irelander Michael Doheny wrote that 'all Dublin was startled by the originality, vigour and brilliance of its articles'.5
Inspired by The Nation's writings, William Smith O'Brien and John Mitchel joined O'Connell's Repeal Association in 1843 and John Martin in 1844. Upon the death of one of the original Young Irelanders and The Nation's editor, Thomas Davis, in 1845, Charles Gavan Duffy, the succeeding editor, invited Mitchel to become assistant editor. Impressed by Mitchel's obvious Irish patriotism as well as his considerable literary talent, Duffy effectively launched Mitchel's career as political activist.
From 1845 to 1847 Mitchel worked assiduously to stimulate Irish nationalism and advance Irish liberation. However, as Ireland fell into the grip of its most destructive famine, Mitchel became increasingly disaffected with British rule. The unfolding devastation of the famine coupled with the impact of British intransigence on the issue of land reform stirred Mitchel into composing some of his most powerful prose. For him the situation was both intolerable and untenable. In his view, though there was enough food in Ireland to feed the people and assuage their widespread suffering, the British authorities were allowing meat and grain to be exported to British markets so that the money could be used to pay the landlords’ rents. Though widely differing opinions exist about these events many contemporary historians agree that at the very least English laissez-fire market economics (economic rationalism) greatly impeded an adequate government response to the famine.
For his part Mitchel responded with heartfelt emotion to the social ramifications of the crisis. He wrote with deep feeling about the appalling poverty, starvation and neediness of the Irish people. He observed that Daniel O'Connell had been unsuccessful in redressing the land situation and improving the lot of the small Irish landholders and peasants by peaceful means. As the famine wore on Mitchel and some of the other Young Irelanders became impatient with O'Connell's moderate attitude towards political change. In 1846 they split from O'Connell and the Repeal Association and subsequently set up a rival association, the Irish Confederation. Set on giving power back to the Irish people, they had tired of O'Connell's advocacy of moderate strategic policies.
Impatience among some Young Irelanders with O'Connell's views had been evident for some time before the split occurred in 1846. Thomas Davis, The Nation's editor, clashed with O'Connell in 1845, leaving the relationship between O'Connell and the Young Irelanders tenuous. The following year many Young Irelanders decided there were too many differences between the views of the Repeal Association and the Young Irelanders. Consequently, on 28 July 1846 the Young Irelanders seceded from the Repeal Association, formed the Irish Confederation, and held their first meeting on 13 January 1847.
William Smith O'Brien was prevailed upon to become the new association's unofficial leader. In this capacity he claimed that the new organisation was 'not founded in antagonism to the Repeal Association . . . [but] for the purpose of enabling those who found themselves unable to cooperate with the Repeal Association to aid in furthering the object which the Repeal Association professes to have in view.'6 Although various issues were cited as part of the reason for the split, many historians agree that the major grievance was O'Connell's commitment to nonviolent change. At the end of March 1848, after the French Revolution erupted in Paris, O'Brien and Meagher travelled there to 'express the solidarity of the Irish people with the French Republic'.7 They returned with a tri-colour Irish flag and O'Brien set himself 'on a course which would end in rebellion and conviction for high treason'.8
After O'Connell's death in Italy on 15 May 1847, Mitchel became increasingly disaffected with the lack of change in Ireland's political landscape. His writing became more and more inflammatory and he quarrelled with The Nation's chief editor, Charles Gavan Duffy, who advocated moderation in contrast to Mitchel's passionate advocacy of militant peasant rebellion. Taking the view that The Nation was too moderate, Mitchel resigned in December 1847 and established a new newspaper, the United Irishman. The first issue appeared on 12 February 1848. In this newspaper Mitchel wrote strident and seditious articles advocating the use of force to oppose British imperial policies that oppressed the Irish people.
The British authorities, nervous about such activity, knew that Mitchel was capable of inciting political violence even if they themselves doubted that the impoverished and depleted Irish peasantry were capable of staging a revolution such as the one that had just taken place in France. Consequently, they determined to rid themselves of this political danger by transporting him to the colonies. It was the safest way of eliminating Mitchel from the political landscape without rendering him a political martyr through capital punishment.
On 13 May 1848 Mitchel was arrested for treason–felony (seditious journalism) under the new Treason Felony Act. The court case was sensational with Mitchel accusing the authorities of 'packing' the jury. Two weeks later, on 27 May 1848, he was 'carried off from Dublin, in chains, as a convicted felon' sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation. The following day he started his celebrated Jail Journal, which detailed his incarceration as a political convict. The Journal became a vehicle for his anti-British sentiments and some considered it the greatest book produced by the Young Ireland movement.
On 1 June 1848 Mitchel, incarcerated on the Scourge, sailed out of Dublin Harbour bound for Bermuda. In Bermuda he was confined to the prison hulks, vessels that were no longer seaworthy but which were used as prisons. After eleven months languishing there in confined circumstances he became chronically ill. The tropical climate exacerbated his asthma and severely undermined his health. Fearing the worst, and not prepared to let him die as a political martyr, the authorities reassigned him to Van Diemen's Land where they believed the salubrious climate would effect a cure. By the time Mitchel arrived in Van Diemen's Land, towards the end of 1850 at the age of thirty-five, he had suffered greatly as a convict, which served only to consolidate his aversion to all things British.
Mitchel’s arrest served only to reinforce the ardour of the remaining Young Irelanders for changing the political circumstances of Ireland. When O'Brien and Meagher returned from Paris in March 1848, they, along with MacManus and O'Donohoe and others in the Irish Confederation, continued to advocate rebellion against British rule. O'Brien had hoped that the French revolution would shift the political climate in Britain towards liberalism rather than conservatism but this did not happen. By July 1848, Mitchel was en route to Bermuda, and Martin, O'Doherty and Charles Gavan Duffy all had been arrested for seditious journalism.
On 22 July, anticipating further activism by the Irish Confederation, the British government suspended the Habeas Corpus Act and issued a warrant for Smith O'Brien's arrest. The time seemed right for rebellion but in hindsight it could not have been more wrong. O'Brien, with his supporters, including Meagher, MacManus and ODonohoe, headed for the Irish countryside to muster support amongst the peasantry. Over a period of only days a band of around one thousand peasants followed O'Brien to rebellion.
The dénouement came on 29 July at a small town called Ballingarry in County Tipperary. A band of policemen, retreating from O'Brien's mob and fearing for their lives, barricaded themselves in what became famous as Widow McCormack’s Cottage. O'Brien, anxious to avert a bloodbath, attempted to negotiate with the police. Shots rang out and two people were killed. Subsequently the mob, losing heart, dispersed before police reinforcements could arrive. The uprising became an embarrassing debacle. Executed with insufficient planning, its pitiable failure has been the subject of much debate amongst historians of Ireland ever since. As its reluctant leader, O'Brien was much denigrated for the uprising's lack of success. Although he was harboured for some days afterwards O'Brien was then arrested on the railway station at Thurles on the way home, abandoned by most of the peasantry who had sworn to protect him.
MacManus, the only one of the Young Irelanders transported to Van Diemen's Land present with O'Brien at Ballingarry, managed to evade arrest at the scene but was captured shortly afterwards on board a vessel leaving Cork bound for the United States.
Meagher and O'Donohoe, who had followed O'Brien into the countryside, were not present at Ballingarry. They had gone to Slievenamon Mountain, County Tipperary, to raise support. They were arrested on 12 August 1848.
The upshot of the whole incident was clear: The insurrection had failed. This made it imperative for the leading Young Irelanders to escape the country before arrest. Some made their way to America and others to France. In October 1848 O'Brien, MacManus, Meagher and O'Donohoe as leaders of the rebellion all were arrested. They were subsequently tried at Clonmel for High Treason. Thereafter sentenced to death, a massive campaign for reprieve saw their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. Later, however, government correspondence revealed that authorities never intended to exact the death penalty. In July 1849, they were all despatched, as convicted felons, to Van Diemen's Land.
Just days before O'Brien, MacManus, Meagher and O'Donohoe’s departure for Van Diemen's Land, Martin and O'Doherty were also despatched to the penal colony. After Mitchel had been arrested in June 1848 and his United Irishman suppressed, friends and supporters of the cause of Young Ireland re-grouped to fill the gap left by Mitchel. Martin promptly established another newspaper, The Irish Felon, which was really a resurrection of the United Irishman. The Irish Felon had a short lifespan and was published only between 24 June and 22 July 1848. The last issue featured a letter by Martin exhorting the people of Ireland to overthrow their English oppressors 'at any risk, at any cost, at any sacrifice'.10
Given the political climate at the time it is not hard to understand why Martin was also convicted of treason felony. More determined than ever to crush such initiatives, the British government jumped on Martin and promptly arrested him. Like Mitchel, Martin was also charged with seditious journalism and subsequently sentenced to ten years’ transportation on 19 August 1848. He was transported to Van Diemen's Land on the Mountstewart Elphinstone with Kevin O'Doherty, aged thirty-seven.
O'Doherty shared the same fate because of his editorship of the Irish Tribune. Short-lived, like Martin's newspaper, the Irish Tribune was published only between 10 June and 8 July before O'Doherty’s arrest. He was tried with the other Young Irelanders at the Clonmel trials in October 1848, charged with treason-felony and sentenced to ten years’ transportation in Van Diemen's Land.11
Originally Martin and O'Doherty were to depart with O'Brien, Meagher, MacManus and O'Donohoe. Because of a delay in the transportation orders for these four, Martin and O'Doherty were despatched first. On 28 June Martin and O'Doherty set sail on the four-month trip to Van Diemen's Land.
J. Williams, 'Irish Convicts and Van Diemen's Land', Tasmanian Historical Research Association Papers and Proceedings, vol. 19, no. 3, September 1972, p. 100.
Williams, 'Irish Convicts and Van Diemen's Land', p. 101.
S.J. Connolly, The Oxford Companion to Irish History, Oxford, 1988, p. 481.
Richard Davis, The Young Ireland Movement, p. 2.
Michael Doheny, The Felon's Track, 1914, p. 17.
R. Davis, The Young Ireland Movement, p. 118.
Michael Bennett, '1848 in Ireland and Europe' in R. Davis & S. Petrow (eds.), Ireland & Tasmanian 1848: Sesquicentenary Papers, Sydney, 1998, p. 1.
Michael Bennett, '1848 in Ireland and Europe', p. 1.
See R. Davis, The Young Ireland Movement, p. 4.
Barker, 'Martin, John', DNB, p. 1171.
For a short biography of O'Doherty see G. Rude, 'O'Doherty, Kevin Izod (1823-1905)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, p. 355; Ross and Heather Patrick, Exiles Undaunted: The Irish Rebels Kevin and Eva O'Doherty, St. Lucia, 1989.