|
Patrick Donohoe (1806 - 1854)
Young Irelander, "a Felon of Our Land," a
Van Diemen’s Land Exile,
a
Writer and Publisher and, a Penal Colony Escapee.
Under normal
circumstances Patrick Donohoe would have led his life in relative obscurity despite
having participated in the 1848 Young Ireland Rising. What changed that
probability was a meeting with the Rising's
Confederate leadership in Tipperary
where he was sent to
brief them of the situation back in Dublin. That task, together with his presence
at subsequent leadership meetings and his participation in
an attempt to start a Rising in Waterford
with Thomas Francis Meagher, sealed his
fate. As a consequence, he has the dubious honor of being categorized as
one of the seven Young Ireland leaders exiled to Van Diemen's Land and
immortalized as a "Felon of our Land" alongside the luminaries of the
Young Ireland movement.
 Growing up a subject of British Imperialism
Patrick Donohoe also known as Patrick O'Donoghue
was born in Clonegal, Co. Carlow in 1806. Little is known of his early
life or adolescence, that is to say, who his parents were, what they did
for a living, if he had siblings, or where he received his education.
Some accounts of his early years state that he attended Trinity College
in Dublin and that his father, Michael Donohoe, was a schoolteacher.
Whether or not these accounts are accurate, it’s obvious that he
received a first-class education based on the skills he possessed to
function as a law clerk and later as a writer and newspaper publisher
while in forced exile in Van Diemen's Land, Australia.
In the dawn of the 19th century, at the time of Donohoe's birth, Ireland
was still in a state of trauma resulting from the quelling of the 1798
and 1803 Risings. The systemic brutality of the British army and their
yeomanry cohorts who reveled in inflicting unimaginable cruelty on
captured
croppies
and innocent civilians upon whom they chanced was by any measure eerily
inhumane. As if the awful conditions that caused the captive Irish to
rebel in the first place were not enough to render them permanently
predisposed to servility, the brutality of the overlord’s response to
the Risings, the Act of Union of 1801, and the lingering remnants of the
Penal Laws were all stark reminders that the British considered
bountiful Ireland to be theirs, to do with as they pleased.
Despite the iron fist that hovered over the vanquished Irish people, the
spirit of freedom that inspired
Wolfe Tone,
Napper Tandy,
Robert Emmet, Thomas Russell, Sarah Curran, and the McCracken
brothers and their sister Mary lived on. Their sacrifices and those of
the countless thousands of others who died for Ireland's freedom were
not in vain as they inspired successive generations to rise against the
scourge of imperialism.
By the mid-1840s, Donohoe was living in Dublin with his wife and
daughter and working as a law clerk with W. McGrath in Gardiner Street.
His initial involvement in political activism was as a member of the
Repeal Association which was established in 1830 by Daniel O'Connell to
campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union of 1801 between Great
Britain and Ireland and to restore the Irish parliament.
The Repeal Association and Young Ireland
O'Connell was a Kerry native and a member of the British Parliament who
believed that he could achieve repeal through constitutional means by
supporting the liberal Whig Party which held power in England through
most of the 1830s. That all changed in the General Election of 1841 when
the conservative Tories ousted
the Whigs and Robert Peel became prime minister. Historically, the
Tories were dismissive of the Irish and their Members of Parliament
(MPs) and were not about to restore the Irish parliament or entertain
O'Connell's entreaties.
In 1842, some of the younger members of the Repeal Association launched
The Nation, a nationalist newspaper that initially supported the
Repeal Association and its campaign. The newspaper and its founders
Charles Gavan Duffy,
Thomas Osborne Davis, and
John Blake Dillon were described by
the historian T. F. O’Sullivan as
follows:
“There has never been published in this, or any other country, a
journal, which was imbued with higher ideals of nationality, which
attracted such a brilliant band of writers in prose and verse, which
inspired such widespread enthusiasm, or which exercised a greater
influence over all classes of its readers, which after a time included
every section of the community".
Having declared 1843 to be "The Repeal Year," O'Connell began organizing
monster meetings across the country. At one such meeting on the Hill of
Tara on August 15, 1843, the crowd size was estimated to be close to
three quarters of a million by The Times newspaper. The
next monster meeting which was planned for October 8 in Clontarf was
banned by Dublin Castle, aka the British government's seat of power in
Ireland. Playing by British rules, O'Connell acquiesced to the ban by
calling off the meeting as tens of thousands were on their way to
Clontarf. To further humiliate O'Connell,
apparatchiks in
Dublin Castle charged him with conspiracy and sentenced him to twelve
months in prison. He was released after three months.
That was the beginning of the end of the Repeal Committee. Lacking
direction and effective leadership and brewing dissension within its
ranks, the Repeal Association gradually faded away. The death knell was
dealt by 23-year-old
Thomas Francis Meagher
on July 20, 1846, in Conciliation Hall in Dublin during O'Connell's
"Peace Resolutions" debates wherein he proposed an alliance with the
Whigs and a commitment by Committee members to renounce military force
to combat oppression. After Charles Gavan Duffy dealt with the absurdity
of the proposed Whig pact, Meagher delivered his
"Abhor the Sword"
speech in defense of militarism. After Meagher was interrupted by
O'Connell's son John, he left the hall with his "Young Ireland" cohorts.
"Young Ireland" was a term coined by O'Connell to denigrate the young
members of the Repeal Association who disagreed with his policies
that cast Ireland as a
dependent of England who must play by its rules to subsist.
Young, educated, and ambitious, the Young Irelanders were the brains of
the Repeal Association. They believed that Ireland was capable of much
more if free from the shackles of imperialism maintained by military
might, landlordism, sectarianism, and religious dogma. To that end they
labored with the voice of reason, the power of the written word, the
belief in inherent humanity, and the notion that right would trump evil.
At the same time, they understood the prevailing evil that drove the
United Irishmen to rebellion was the same entity the Repeal Association
was trying to reason with.
As
best as can be determined, Donohoe was not a very active member of the
Repeal Association during its existence, other than being a member,
paying his dues, and attending meetings. Some accounts suggest that he
contributed copy to The Nation newspaper using a non de plume as
a self-protection measure. However, after the "Peace Resolutions"
debacle, he left Conciliation Hall with his younger companions, a
fateful act that changed the course of his life, exposing him to the
tentacles of Dublin Castle and barbaric imperial laws.
The Great Hunger and the Irish Confederation
While all that was playing out, the Great Hunger of 1845 - 1852
had taken a foothold in Ireland and was laying waste to the western
areas of the country. By 1846, the potato crop had completely failed
across the entire country, resulting in widespread starvation and the
onset of mass coffinless graves dotting the Irish countryside and coffin
ships plying the Atlantic with human cargoes fleeing the calamity. The
laissez-faire response
of the British government to the unfolding disaster, plus the
ineptitude of the Irish MPs in Westminster, portended a calamity of
unimaginable proportions.
John Mitchel
described the Great Hunger in the following excerpt taken from one of
his many articles on the subject.
"Further, I have called it an artificial famine: that is to say, it was
a famine which desolated a rich and fertile island, that produced every
year abundance and superabundance to sustain all her people and many
more. The English, indeed, call that famine a ‘dispensation of
Providence;’ and ascribe it entirely to the blight of the potatoes. But
potatoes failed in like manner all over Europe; yet there was no famine
save in Ireland. The British account of the matter, then, is first, a
fraud - second, a blasphemy. The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato
blight, but the English created the famine."
On January 13, 1847,
Mitchel, Meagher,
William Smith O’Brien, Gavan Duffy,
and other Young Irelanders, including Donohoe, founded the Irish
Confederation. Donohoe was given a seat on its Executive Council.
Confederate Clubs were set
up in Dublin and in a number of provincial towns to allow the people to
participate and have their voices heard. To further accommodate
their members, the Clubs
held meetings, set up libraries and reading rooms, sponsored lectures,
and disseminated news and information alerting people to the worsening
food shortages and attendant diseases spreading throughout the country.
Initially the aims of the Irish Confederation were no different from
those of the Repeal Association. Their focus was on achieving Repeal
without succumbing to the Anglicization of Ireland or to the patronage
and corruption that beset the Repeal Association. However, by 1848 the
worsening situation in Ireland and the lack of an effective British
response was reinforcing the belief espoused by John Mitchel that
Ireland must break free of England by any means possible to end the
incessant cycle of starvation and disease. Having exhausted all
peaceful means to bring about change, the leaders of the Irish
Confederation concluded that force was the only viable option open to
them, and thenceforth set about planning for an insurrection. Whatever
qualms they may have had were assuaged by news of
revolutions throughout
Europe against absolutist regimes by young intellectuals evoking the
doctrine of natural rights and the "rights of man" rooted in the ideals
of the Enlightenment. The situation in Ireland was catastrophic. The
death toll was climbing exponentially from starvation and diseases. That
was happening at the same time that ships laden with wheat, barley,
oats, and livestock were leaving Irish ports for English to ensure that
the people there were well provisioned to withstand the effects of the
same blight that was devastating Ireland. They reasoned that if such a
situation did not warrant the use of force, what would?
The Young Ireland Rising of 1848; Capture, Trial and Exile
Despite the depiction of the 1848 Rising as a skirmish at a farmhouse
in Co. Tipperary, it was much more than that description would suggest.
What
took place during the abortive Rising in July of 1848 has a history of
its own that bears witness to the desperation and courage of a band of
young Irishmen willing to challenge the might of the British juggernaut
to bring relief to their dying countrymen and women. Although they
failed, they nonetheless left a marker in the annals of modern Irish
history that inspired successive generations to carry on the fight,
always against the overwhelming odds, irrespective of the consequences.
The role Donohoe played during that
tumultuous time is loosely
documented in the accounts of other participants, including Michael
Doheny. In his book The Felon's Track, Doheny explains how
Donohoe became involved in the insurrectionary activities in Co.
Tipperary in July 1848. The following are excerpts from The Felon's
Track.
“He (Donohoe) was much relied on by his friends in the Confederation and
was entrusted with the dispatches to Mr. O’Brien. He proceeded on his
mission to Kilkenny, and there applied to one of the clubs. He was known
to none of the members and became at once the object of suspicion. It
was, accordingly, determined to send him for the rest of the journey,
under arrest, and Stephens and another member were appointed to that
duty. They proceeded in execution of their duty to Cashel, where Mr.
O’Donoghue was warmly welcomed by Mr. O’Brien, whose fate he thenceforth
determined to share. Mr. Stephens came to the same resolution.
With Messrs. Stephens and O’Donoghue, their very desperation acted as
the most ennobling and irresistible inducement. They clung to him to the
last with a fidelity the more untiring in proportion as his
circumstances portended imminent disaster and ruin.”
O’Donoghue was present at the meeting in Ballingarry on the 28th of July
with O’Brien, Dillon, Stephens, James Cantwell, Meagher, Leyne, Devin,
Reilly, John O’Mahony, Doheny, MacManus, John Cavanagh, J.D. Wright, and
D.P. Cunningham.
At that meeting they decided to split up and head to other locations in
hopes of rallying local Confederate members to rise up. Donohoe,
Meagher, and Maurice Leyne headed for the Comeragh mountains in Co.
Waterford where Meagher hoped to make a stand with local Confederate
members. In the meanwhile, contingents of British soldiers and police
were scouring the countryside looking for the Confederate leaders.
Donohoe, Meagher, and Leyne managed to evade capture until August 13
when they were captured near Clonoulty. They were held in Kilmainham
jail until transported to Clonmel in Co. Tipperary in late September to
stand trial on treason-felony charges. Donohoe was tried on October 13
and found guilty by a packed jury. Together with Meagher and
Terence Bellew MacManus, the
death sentence was handed down as follows:
"That sentence is, that you Terence Bellew MacManus, you Patrick
O'Donohoe, and you Thomas Francis Meagher, be taken hence to the place
from whence you came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle to the place of
execution; that each of you be there hanged by the neck until you are
dead, and that afterward the head of each of you shall be severed from
the body, and the body of each divided into four quarters, to be
disposed of as her Majesty may think fit. And may Almighty God have
mercy upon your souls".
To
avoid international condemnation such as occurred after the massacres at
Gibbet Rath
and New Ross in the aftermath of the 1798 Rising, the British government
commuted the death sentences of the Confederate leaders to
transportation to Van Diemen's Land for life. On July 9, 1849, the
Swift set sail for the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land conveying
the "Felons of Our Land" Donohoe, MacManus, Meagher, and
Kevin Izod O'Doherty into exile.
During the voyage Donohoe penned the ruminations of his companions that
were later published in The Nation newspaper. For the ensuing
five years, Donohoe had the unique distinction of being one of the eight
Confederate (Young Ireland) leaders forced into exile for their roles as
leaders of the attempted Rising of 1848. The other seven with whom he
shared that distinction were John Mitchel, William Smith O'Brien, Thomas
Francis Meagher, Terence Bellew MacManus,
John Martin, Kevin Izod O'Doherty,
and William Paul Dowling.
In
1850, the Young Ireland eight were joined by the
Cappoquin seven,
Confederate members who attacked the Cappoquin Police Barracks in
Waterford in September 1849. The attack was organized by
James Fintan Lalor and led by
Joseph Brenan. Brenan, unlike the
others, escaped capture after the attack and managed to make his way to
the United States. The names of the exiled Cappoquin seven are: Richard
Bryan, James Casey, Thomas Donovan, James Lyon, Edward Tobin, Thomas
Wall, and John Walsh.
Donohoe endured more hardship than any of the other exiles due to his
belligerent attitude and defiance of the rules and limitations that came
with his ticket-of-leave (a permit given to a convict to move about and
to get work subject to certain specific conditions). One condition of
his ticket-of-leave was that he had to live and stay within the
boundaries of Hobart in Tasmania. Unable to secure employment as a law
clerk, he started a weekly newspaper titled The Irish Exile
with the help of Irish-born free settlers. The first edition was
published in January of 1850. In short order, Donohoe ran foul on the
governor Sir William Denison who did not appreciate Donohoe's accounts
of the dire economic and political situation in Ireland and the British
government's culpability. He also got in trouble with Denison when he
crossed the restriction
boundary on a clandestine to visit William Smith O'Brien. His
punishment was three months hard labor at
Port Arthur probation
station. After his release he was reassigned to Oatlands in the
interior where supposedly he could not cause any more trouble.
In October of 1850, John Donnellan Balfe arrived in
Van Diemen's Land to the
bewilderment of the exiled Young Irelanders. Balfe, who was a member of
the Irish Confederation, was also a British informer who kept Dublin
Castle abreast of the Confederation's plans for the Rising in 1848.
Needless to say, his presence on the island enraged the Young Irelanders,
none more so than Donohoe. The only way he could extract his revenge
without his newspaper was to out Balfe by telling everyone he met who
Balfe was and how he doomed the Rising and destroyed the lives of so
many brave patriots. In August of 1851, Donohoe was sent back to Port
Arthur to serve another three months of hard labor for having outed
Balfe. Having had enough of Denison's extreme punishment
regimes, he decided to escape when released.
Escape and Freedom
On the way back to Oatlands after completing his sentence, Donohoe gave
the slip to his escorts and made his way
to
Launceston where he hid out with settlers who were Young Ireland
supporters. He lay low for most of 1852 while awaiting his chance to
escape from Van Diemen's Land. In December he was
surreptitiously
placed on board the steamer Yarra Yarra and transported to
Melbourne without detection. From there he travelled to Sydney, Tahiti,
and finally San Francisco, arriving there in June 1853. From San
Francisco he travelled to New York where he received a cool reception
from Meagher and Mitchel for having escaped without withdrawing his
ticket-of-leave, an ironic turn of events considering that Meagher may
very well have had a head start on his way to freedom in New York by the
time his withdrawal notice reached the governor. They, Meagher, and
Mitchel, were still acting in accordance with a peculiar British custom
that benefited the jailer to the detriment of the victim. However,
Donohoe being a working man was not forsworn to British gentlemanly
customs, certainly not the timely issuance of a notice to his jailers
that he was about to take his leave.
Patrick Donohoe was born into subjugation as were 8 million of his
countrymen and women. For almost all of his life he was subjected to
the laws of imperialism and the wiles of its
beneficiaries and enforcers in
Ireland. Although born on Irish soil he was denied his birthright to be
an Irish citizen by a usurper whose greed and cruelty had no bounds. As
an adult he aspired to be free and when the opportunity presented
itself, engaged in the struggle. The freedom he was denied in his
homeland he found in America. Unfortunately, it was short lived for he
passed away within a year of landing on America's shores. He died
suddenly on January 22, 1854, in New York before his wife and daughter
arrived to join him. He is buried in
Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY
Contributed by
Tomás Ó Coısdealbha
CEMETERY
Name:
Greenwood
Cemetery
ADDRESS:
500 25th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215-1755
SECTION
116, LOT 4173, GRAVE 261
HEADSTONE
Photo Source ---
Patrick
O'Donoghue (died 1854) (igp-web.com)
Carlow County - Ireland Genealogical Projects (IGP TM)
|
