The Manchester Martyrs

On 11 September 1867, six months after the Fenian Rising in Ireland, police in Manchester apprehended acting Fenian leader Colonel Thomas J. Kelly and his associate Captain Timothy Deasy.

On 18 September as Kelly and Deasy were being transported from court back to jail the prison van was stopped and the prisoners rescued. A police constable, Sergeant Brett was accidentally killed in the raid.

Twenty-eight men were arrested in connection with the incident. Five were charged with murder - Michael Larkin, William Allen, Edward Condon, Michael O'Brien and Thomas Maguire. Though no one could positively identify the man who fired the gun, the Attorney General would not reduce the charges to manslaughter, indicating that the British government desired to pursue a capital conviction.

From the dock William Allan declared: "I'll die as many thousands have died, for the sake of their beloved land and in defence of it. I will die proudly and triumphantly in defense of republican principles and the liberty of an oppressed and enslaved people."

On the fifth day of the trial, the jury returned their verdict - guilty in every case. Of 28 men accused, 12 were convicted: five for murder and seven for riot and assault. The five charged with murder, were sentence to hang but following protests on his behalf, Maguire was pardoned.

In late November, two days before the scheduled executions, Edward Condon, a naturalised American citizen, was reprieved after the American legation in London appealed on his behalf. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Requests were also made to release American Michael O'Brien, but they were unsuccessful for he had already been released from British custody in 1866. He joined William Allan and James Larkin on death row.

On the night before Friday, November 22, a crowd gathered at Salford Gaol in Manchester. Over 2,500 soldiers and policemen were there to prevent a rescue attempt.

Having each denied shooting Brett, the three men were hanged. Both Allan and O'Brien died quickly, but James Larkin lingered for 45 minutes. Later in the day, the bodies were cut down and buried in quicklime within the confines of the prison. There was no funeral.

There has been a long-running campaign to have the men's remains brought home to Ireland and many obstacles have been encountered along the way. Their burial place has remained a mystery for generations. However, when Sinn Féin Councillor John Desmond travelled over from Bandon to Manchester, an important leap forward in the investigation was made. He discovered that the remains were removed from their prison burial plot in 1991. They were cremated in Blackley Crematorium and re-interred. This was a mass burial in which dozens of prisoners' remains were buried together.

The caskets of the Manchester Martyrs remains need to be separated from others and brought back to Glasnevin cemetery where a cenotaph grave awaits them.