Re-internment of ‘Invincibles’ sought

Cavan County Council is to ask the Office of Public Works (OPW) to recover the remains five men sentenced to death for their part in the infamous Phoenix Park assassinations.

The request, on foot of a motion jointly-proposed by Fianna Fáil's Aiden Fitzpatrick and John Paul Feeley, is to have bodies of Joseph Brady, whose parents are believed to be from Laragh; Daniel Curley, Michael Fagan, Thomas Caffrey and Tim Kelly, exhumed from Kilmainham Gaol and re-interred at Glasnevin Cemetery.

Cllr Fitzpatrick explained that the bodies of the five men, who went on to become known as the 'Irish National Invincibles', are today buried beneath paving slabs in the yard in which they were executed. It has become known as the 'Invincibles' Yard'.

The five men were members of a splinter group attached to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, active with intent to kill authorities in Dublin Castle.

The first assassination in the park was committed by Joe Brady, who attacked the Permanent Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke with a 12-inch knife.

This was followed shortly after by Kelly, who knifed the newly installed Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish.

The five men were hanged by William Marwood in Kilmainham Gaol in May and June of 1883 for the killings.

The principle witness was the informer James Carey, who was given passage to South Africa, but was shot on board ship by Donegal man Patrick O'Donnell.

O'Donnell was later brought back to England and hanged in December 1883.

Cllr Feeley went on to state that the treatment Brady's body received after death was “bizarre”, and added that a “dignified” burial at Glasnevin all these years later was what the families deserved.

Their motion was supported by Sinn Féin's Paddy McDonald, Independent Cllr Shane P O'Reilly and Aontú's Sarah O'Reilly.