Marguerite Moore who was born in
Waterford, Ireland on the 7th July, 1849 was an Irish patriot,
orator, social activists and suffragette. Her activism
spanned the Atlantic, initially in Ireland and afterwards in
the United States.
In
1880, Marguerite was one of the first women to respond to an
appeal by Anna Parnell, who had returned from the Unites
States, to set up a ladies branch of the Irish Land
League (ILL).
When Michael Davitt, Charles Stewart Parnell and other ILL
leaders were imprisoned in 1881 the Ladies' Land League (LLL)
took over their work.
The aim of
the LLL was 1) to stop the eviction of tenant
farmers from their holdings and 2) provide relief to those
tenant farmers already evicted. Marguerite traveled
extensively through Ireland,
England and Scotland informing large crowds of the plight of
the tenant farmers and the suffering endured by the victims
of landlord tyranny. After twelve
months of hard work she was arrested and sentenced to six
months' imprisonment in Tullamore prison for inciting
discontent.
Parnell and
other ILL leaders were released in 1882 on
conditions specified by the British in the infamous "Kilmainham
Treaty". The most notorious of these conditions was the
disbandment of the Ladies Land League. Parnell's acceptance
of that condition greatly upset the
women who, not only had kept the campaign going while the
men were imprisoned, but caused the British more trouble
than the men ever did.
Shortly
after the demise of the LLL Marguerite and her family of four girls
and two boys, emigrated to the United States,
In the United
States she took a
leading role in the suffrage movement. She also spoke out
against the oppression of workers and child labor during the
so-called Gilded Age. ---
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Ballykissane Monument, Killorglin, Co. Kerry
commemorates the deaths of
Conn Keating, Donal Sheahan and Charlie
Monaghan at Ballykissane pier on 21
April 1916 as they attempted to assist
the importation of arms on board the Aud
for the 1916 Rising.
They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think
that they have purchased half of us and intimidated
the other half. They think that they have foreseen
everything, think that they have provided against
everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! -
they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland
holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at
peace.
Padraic Pearse oration given at
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa's
funeral on Aug. 1, 1915
Hallowed Ground --The Fenian Graves at New York's Calvary Cemetery
†
Liam Ó Murchadha, do, scrí
The tragic lesson of An Gorta Mór, the
Great Hunger of mid-19th century Ireland
during which, as John Mitchel pointed out, the English
government encouraged and aggravated the Famine in
Ireland, for the purpose of thinning the population - An
Gorta Mór and the painful lessons of the 1848 “Young
Ireland” Rising, were as instructive to the Irish as the
Nazi-period and the Holocaust would later be to the
Jews. The population of Ireland was reduced by a half,
with half of those gone never living to see the bright
sun of Freedom, which shines upon America.
Consequent to 1848, the locus of Irish Revolutionary /
Republican activity shifted from Dublin to New York.
That conspiratorial élite of Irish exiles (including:
John O’Mahony, Michael Doheny and Michael Corcoran)
would initiate activities which would bring about the formation of
the 69th Regiment of New York, and other American militia units, not
only to be ready to defend the Liberty of the land which had given
them refuge, but also to prepare a cadre to assist in the future
liberation of Ireland.
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The "SS Cuba" was
a passenger steam ship that sailed the Atlantic from 1864 to 1873.
In 1871 five Fenians released from British prisons came to the
United States aboard the SS Cuba. The five,
collectively referred to as the 'Cuba Five", included John Devoy,Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa,Charles Underwood O'Connell,
Henry Mulleda, and John McClure arrived in New York to a rapturous welcome
from their fellow country men and women.
The United States
congress passed a resolution welcoming the 'Cuba Five' and their fellow Fenian prisoners to the nations capital. They were also received at the White House by President Ulysses S. Grant in a gesture of gratitude for the many Irish, including senior Fenians, who had served in his victorious Union Army.
Devoy and O'Donovan Rossa went on to become
two of the most outstanding members of the Fenian movement in the USA in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
The "SS Cuba" was
a passenger steam ship that sailed the Atlantic from 1864 to 1873.
In 1871 five Fenians released from British prisons came to the
United States aboard the SS Cuba. The five,
collectively referred to as the 'Cuba Five", included
