DEATH OF A NOTORIOUS FENIAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 286, 4 December 1886, Page 4

DEATH OF A NOTORIOUS FENIAN.

A notorious Fenian Ims just died in Liverpool Workhouse, in thg person of William Bropliy. Brophy was well known to the police in connection with Fenian plots nearly 20 years ago, and was arrested, but acquitted, on an alibi, for rescuing the prisoners from a police van in Sulferd, wheu Sergeant Brett was assassinated, and for which Allan parkin and O'Brien fiiffored death. Brophy, with other Fenians, on the night of the murder were arrested in a Liverpool beerhouse. The prisoners, who were armed, were so completaly surprised by the police that tbey offered litilo or no resistance, and were taken to Manchester for trial. Although thore was direct evidence of identification as to the part Brophy took in the attack on the van, Mrs Bo?:iter, the beorhou»e-keeper, swore that he was in her house at the time it was made, and bo was set at liberty. Brophy himself, however, upon receiving hia discharge, did not deny the part he took in this and other Fenian outrages, but rather, especially when in drink, boasted of the exploit. Brophy, who occasionally went to sea as a fireman, became delirious from drink, and was taken to Brownlowhill Hospital, but his system was so completely destroyed by alcohol that; ie was impossible to cave hia life, and ho died in the presence of a priest,