Rebel Tour of Dublin: The City That Fought an Empire.

05/07/2019

On this day (July 5th) 136 years ago James Carey boarded the steamer the Kinfauns Castle destined for the Cape of Good Hope. He travelled using the alias James Power and was hoping to start a new life in South Africa. Carey and his family had been given new identites after he had informed on his fellow Invincibles who were executed in Kilmainham Gaol on his evidence.

08/06/2019

19/05/2019

Daniel Curley executed May 18th 1883

17/05/2019

The Scottish revolutionary feminist was the only woman combatant wounded in action during the Easter Rising

05/05/2019

We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born. W.B. Yeats,

04/05/2019

On this evening 103 years ago these 1916 leaders were spending their last hours on earth. Joseph Plunkett famously married Grace Gifford. Willie Pearse had been brought the previous night to Kilmainham as the British wanted to shoot him alongside his brother Pádraig but his detail was late. Edward Daly from Limerick and Michael O'Hanrahan from Wexford were also executed on the 4th May 1916. Always remembered. R.I.P.

03/05/2019

Remember them today 100 years on and forever...

01/05/2019

24/04/2019

The National Graves Association will hold a commemoration for the Invincibles at the grave of James 'Skin the Goat' Fitzharris in Glasnevin Cemetery at mid day on Saturday May 18th. Meet at the main gate. Please show your support for the Invincibles Reinterment Campaign by liking, sharing and coming along on the 18th.

23/04/2019

Centenary of 1916 to the hour 24/04/16 Sinn Féin commemoration outside the GPO with the Cabra Historical Group.

29/01/2019

In 1968 a book by the English academic Tom Corfe was published, its title, ‘The Phoenix Park Murders’ created controversy leading to one Sunday Independent reader calling for the book to be banned in Ireland.

It was imperative to the late Dr Shane Kenna that the killing of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke should be referred to as assassinations and not murders.
THE INVINCIBLES, The Phoenix Park Assassinations and the Conspiracy That Shook an Empire by Dr Shane Kenna will be available in bookshops and online from February 25th 2019
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT 25th February 1968
“Sir – I must protest in the strongest possible terms to the way in which your correspondent, Des Hickey, branded the Irish National Invincibles as murderers in your issue of February 18th. I flatly reject out of hand that any such act as murder was committed in the Phoenix Park on May 6th, 1882.
At the worst the dispatch of Cavendish and Burke was nothing more than political assassination, carried out by patriotic Irishmen who saw no merit in compromise with the occupying power.
To say that a turning point for the better had been reached in 1882 in England’s attitude towards Ireland is not borne out by subsequent events.
Parnell dissociated himself from the actions of the Invincibles, yet a few years later the goodwill of England was nowhere to be seen when Parnell was blasted into political oblivion when the English Government of the day conveniently produced the trumped – up O’Shea scandal. No, Mr. Editor, Mr. Hickey can’t blame the Invincibles for the loss of good – will on the part of England, because it was never there in the first instance.
The method of attack chosen by the Invincibles may shock the sensitive mind. Admittedly it was rough and ready, but so too were the English pitchcappings and floggings of 1798. Just take a look at the ordeal of William Farrell – a refinement in the English art of torture. And what about the blowing of sepoys from the muzzles of English field guns during the Indian Mutiny. Come down to our own time and witness another inhuman act on the part of Old Mother England when the wounded Connolly was taken out and shot.
Despite the many efforts down the years to blacken the motives of the Irish National Invincibles, their memory lives on. I understand that the Kilmainham Jail Restoration Committee is having the scene of their ex*****ons suitably marked inside the Jail grounds, and I have no doubt that many Irish men and women will visit this scene in the years ahead.
Finally, there is only one pressing need to attend to now and this is for immediate action from our Government to prevent Tom Corfe’s book from being circulated in this country under what is very definitely an objectionable title” – John J. Kelly, Phoenix Park, Dublin 8.

15/12/2018

30/09/2018

As the great grandson of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa and director of I endorse this effort. The work of the NGA to help bring Rossa’s legacy back to life through renewing his grave and putting a plaque on the bridge in Dublin has been incredible. The late Shane Kenna was crucial in our efforts making the film and his book on Rossa was amazing. In his memory and in the memory of all the Fenians who struggled in the early phases of revolution this effort must come to fruition. The fact that the remains of these men are still in the jail where they were executed is sad. All actions leading up to the Easter Rising were part of the continuum of the struggle for independence and that should not be forgotten. Thank you. Williams Rossa Cole

Williams is currently working on a short documentary about the remarkable Mary Jane (Irwin) O'Donovan Rossa http://www.rossafilm.com/mary-jane-odonovan-rossa-project/

09/09/2018

“Daly deserves credit for embedding the Irish language in multiple scenes throughout the film, helping to reinforce the cultural and class gap between the occupying British forces and their downtrodden Irish subjects.” – Oisín McCann

07/09/2018

Pearse had three main aims for his school: to provide a comprehensive education, not simply preparation for exams; instruction through the medium of Irish; a truly Irish education for pupils who would be active citizens.

25/08/2018

We often like to highlight key individuals associated with the five executed Invincibles on this page. Here, we detail the story of Thomas Brennan.

Thomas Brennan was born in county Meath in 1853. He was an active Fenian during the 1870’s and became secretary of the Land League when it was founded in 1879. He was arrested and imprisoned several times between 1879 and 1882. He was released from prison on May 2nd 1882 under the terms of the Kilmainham agreement with the Gladstone government. Four days later Cavendish and Burke were assassinated in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. During the trial of Invincible Patrick Delaney accused of involvement in the assassinations Delaney named senior Land League figures Patrick Egan and Thomas Brennan as key figures in the Irish National Invincibles.

Brennan fled Ireland in 1883 eventually settling in Nebraska, he continued to give lectures on the question of Irish Independence to the Irish community in the United States. He was often compared to Thomas Francis Meagher for his eloquent speeches. Brennan was visited frequently by his former Land League colleague Michael Davitt, he started a defence fund for Parnell in 1889 when The Times Newspaper accused Parnell of complicity in the Phoenix Park assassinations.

Brennan was frequently ill during the last few years of his life. He died on December 19th 1912 and is buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Omaha, Nebraska in what is still today an unmarked grave. As with many Irish nationalists, Brennan was a member of the Emmett Monument Association. One of his final requests, it was said later, was that his grave remain unmarked “until Ireland was free”.

04/08/2018

This weekend clubs across Ireland are asked to honour the brave men and women who gathered in uprising against their oppressors.

02/06/2018

On this day, 135 years ago, Thomas Caffrey of the Irish National Invincibles was executed for his part in the Phoenix Park assassinations. He was the fourth of the Invincibles to be executed for the assassination of Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke in the Phoenix Park on May 6th 1882. Below is an extract from a letter he sent to his mother before his ex*****on:

'Dear Mother I am writing just after receiving the Holy Sacrament of confirmation and I am quite prepared with the help of God, to go before the judgement seat of justice. Make sure to mind your religion yourself, and the child, and I hope to meet you one day in Heaven, where there will be no more parting for all eternity, and there in the company of our Blessed Mother and all the saints we will praise our blessed Redeemer for evermore. Tell all inquiring friends that I hope no one will ever throw a slur on my child or anyone belonging to me for the death I had to suffer...'

Thomas Caffrey was hanged in Kilmainham Gaol on June 2nd 1883 and is still buried there along with his four comrades in an unmarked grave in the same yard where they were executed.