15 May 1997 Edition
Remembering the Past: Remarkable Fenian
Ricard O'Sullivan Burke, described by John Devoy as one of the most remarkable and able men the Fenian movement produced, was born at Dunmanway, County Cork in January 1838.
From an early age he showed military leanings, and when the Crimean War broke out in 1853, he joined the Cork Militia in the hope of fighting in the Crimea.
At the end of the war, in 1856, when his regiment was disbanded, he went to sea, where he learned several languages as he travelled around the world. At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1863, he enrolled in the Northern Army and soon afterwards joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Through his own ability and qualities of leadership, he rose to the rank of colonel, where he used his position to organise Fenian `circles' in the army.
On leaving the army at the end of the Civil War, in 1865, Colonel Thomas J Kelly, the head of the Fenians in America, recommended him to James Stephens `the Fenian Chief', as an arms purchaser for the IRB in Ireland. Using the pseudonym `Edward C. Winslow', Burke built up contacts with Birmingham small arms manufacturers and imported Lee Enfield rifles from America until he had over 2,000 stored in Liverpool.
He was sent to Ireland to take charge of the Waterford area during the 1867 Rising, but after its failure, and the abortive attempt to land arms from the Erin's Hope at Sligo Bay the following May, he returned to England to resume his work in obtaining arms for another rising the following year.
As head of the IRB in England, he organised and took part in the successful rescue of Colonel Kelly and Captain Timothy Deasy in September 1867. Betrayed by the Fenian informer, John J Corydon, he was arrested and held in the Clerkenwell House of detention in London, from which a Fenian rescue party attempted to free him the following December.
Sentenced to 15 years penal servitude, Burke was subjected to appalling deprivation and ill-treatment, narrowly escaping an effort by the prison doctor to poison him while in Woking Prison. But his own ingenuity and indomitable will triumphed and after his release in the amnesty of 1872, he continued for many years, as a member of Clan na Gael, to serve the republican cause in America.
In 1915 he returned to Ireland and spoke along with Pádraig Pearse at the funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, thus making a direct link between the Fenians of 1867 and the leaders of the 1916 Rising.
Ricard O'Sullivan Burke, died in Chicago on 11 May 1922, 75 years ago this week.
From an early age he showed military leanings, and when the Crimean War broke out in 1853, he joined the Cork Militia in the hope of fighting in the Crimea.
At the end of the war, in 1856, when his regiment was disbanded, he went to sea, where he learned several languages as he travelled around the world. At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1863, he enrolled in the Northern Army and soon afterwards joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Through his own ability and qualities of leadership, he rose to the rank of colonel, where he used his position to organise Fenian `circles' in the army.
On leaving the army at the end of the Civil War, in 1865, Colonel Thomas J Kelly, the head of the Fenians in America, recommended him to James Stephens `the Fenian Chief', as an arms purchaser for the IRB in Ireland. Using the pseudonym `Edward C. Winslow', Burke built up contacts with Birmingham small arms manufacturers and imported Lee Enfield rifles from America until he had over 2,000 stored in Liverpool.
He was sent to Ireland to take charge of the Waterford area during the 1867 Rising, but after its failure, and the abortive attempt to land arms from the Erin's Hope at Sligo Bay the following May, he returned to England to resume his work in obtaining arms for another rising the following year.
As head of the IRB in England, he organised and took part in the successful rescue of Colonel Kelly and Captain Timothy Deasy in September 1867. Betrayed by the Fenian informer, John J Corydon, he was arrested and held in the Clerkenwell House of detention in London, from which a Fenian rescue party attempted to free him the following December.
Sentenced to 15 years penal servitude, Burke was subjected to appalling deprivation and ill-treatment, narrowly escaping an effort by the prison doctor to poison him while in Woking Prison. But his own ingenuity and indomitable will triumphed and after his release in the amnesty of 1872, he continued for many years, as a member of Clan na Gael, to serve the republican cause in America.
In 1915 he returned to Ireland and spoke along with Pádraig Pearse at the funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, thus making a direct link between the Fenians of 1867 and the leaders of the 1916 Rising.
Ricard O'Sullivan Burke, died in Chicago on 11 May 1922, 75 years ago this week.