Young Irelanders: Exiles in Paradise

Young Irelanders in Ireland

The original nucleus of the Young Ireland movement in Ireland comprised three Irish intellectuals, Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon. By 1848, when the movement's political activities were reaching fever pitch, Davis had already died (September 1845), Duffy was gaoled in Ireland where he remained until April 1849 and Dillon had escaped to America.  In New York Dillon set up a law practice and it can be speculated that he became a member of the New York Irish Directory that funded the escape attempts from Van Diemen's Land.

Patrick James Smyth was one of the Young Irelanders who evaded arrest in 1848 by escaping to America. Smyth, working as a journalist in New York, became involved with the Irish New York Directory—a group of Irish sympathisers who supported Irish freedom—and its plans to liberate the Young Irelanders from Van Diemen's Land.