Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 7 October 1909, Page 1569

Current Topics

A Liberated Fenian

According to the poet, ' Time's gradual touch ' \ Has moulded into beauty many ,a tower, Which, when it frown' d with all its battlements, Was only terrible.'

There can be no doubt that, to the average English mind, Fenianism, in its earlier stages, ' was only terrible ' ; but ~ as the agitation developed it acquired a solemn and tragic . interest, and Englishmen in general began to look with ■ pity and with some sort of respect on a movement which -everywhere gave evidence that it had among its followers - men who, to quote the language of one of tlie most hostile of London newspapers, ' knew hoAV to die. 3 Under the mellowing influence of time popular feeling has rightly come to regard the Fenians as men who were driven into rebellion by a deep sense of injustice, and no one at all acquainted with the history of those times would now question the truth of Dr. O'Riordan's statement that ' many of the Young Irelanders and Fenians were men of strong character.' ' Had ' they/ turned the ability and constancy which they showed in • furthering those movements towards making their way in the world, some of them would unquestionably have achieved remarkable success; and they proved themselves men of strong character as much, and even more, ■in prison than when they were free and were forming plans for the realisation of their hopes.'

In the hurly-burly of 1867 a number of arrests were made in England, and many Fenians were sentenced to death; but a weighty petition, asking that consideration should be shown towards the prisoners and strongly condemning the brutality of the soldiery, was prepared by a number of eminent men, and signed by all who had a share in its preparation. The signatures included such names as those of Frederifc Harrison, Professor Beesly, Richard Congreve, J. M. Ludl<3w, and a number of others. The petition was taken charge of in the House of Commons by no less a man than Mr. John Bright, who not only presented it, but read it, and declared, in tones of measured and impressive calmness, that he _ entirely approved and adopted the sentiments which the petitioners expressed. The movement in favor of clemency increased in strength, and as a result many of the death sentences were commuted to imprisonment for life. Amongst those who reaped the benefit of an improved public opinion was one Patrick Lennon, who had been convicted at Manchester in February, 1868, and whose sentence of death was commuted to a life sentence ; and now the- cables of last week convey the news that after over forty years in durance vile Lennon has been released from his living tomb and restored to light and liberty. According to the cable, he was welcomed back to freedom by Mr. John Dillon, M.P., and 'thousands of the Manchester Irishmen.' In the course of a sympathetic reference to the episode, ,o,ur contemporary, the Dunedin Eveiiing Star, notes that in spite of the vast and numerous changes that these two score years have witnessed there has been no change in the Irish demand for "Justice, and no change in the attitude of Lennon's compatriots either towards himself or towards the cause. ' Yet, wonder of wonders,' remarks our contemporary, 'he finds there no new race of men, no callous indifference nor visible repulsion, but thousands of cheering human beings, who acclaim him as hero and martyr, even as did his own contemporaries and compatriots forty odd years ago. The last cries that rang in his ears ere the prison doors closed upon him were, in spirit and in words, the same as those that greeted him when, "over a generation later, he once ' more came forth into the light a free man. . . Others^ may forget their heroes and ignore their martyrs. Not so Ireland. Hence, when Patrick Lennon— a criminal who has been under sentence of death — leaves prison bars behind and enters a world, the very streets and cities and kingdoms and powers of which have passed like "the baseless fabric of this vision," • for him, at least, there fs no change. "God save Ireland" were the last words ..shouted at him as, bound and held, he passed from view, and^ "God save" Ireland " is the dry shouted from ten thousand throats ' that first greets him as- he comes back again forty years later.' And our contemporary pointedly and truly adds: ' There is a moral in the episode to ' which British statesmen would do well to take heed.'