In 1938, Dr Mark Ryan, who had joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Lancashire in 1865, declared in the foreword to his book ‘Fenian Memories’, that ‘next to my religion, Fenianism has been the greatest thing in my life’. Not all Irish nationalists, however, who had enthusiastically embraced Fenianism as young men remained loyal to […]
Born in County Durham in 1895, John Joseph King served as secretary to Newcastle’s branch of the Irish Self-Determination League (ISDL) from early 1920, helped raise and then command ‘C’ Company of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the North East of England, was a sworn member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), and was […]
On Saturday afternoon 22 March 1908, Tom Kettle, Irish Parliamentary Party MP for East Tyrone, arrived at Shield Row station from Newcastle upon Tyne to be met by crowds of onlookers, a colliery brass band, local politicians and Catholic clergy, regalia-adorned members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and Monaghan-born Patrick Duffy, local builder, Stanley […]
In an earlier post to ‘Exiles in England’, that explored the support provided by Irish nationalist women in the North East of England to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the War of Independence, I wrote ‘Unfortunately, no one from any North East branch of Cumann na mBan applied in the 1930s to Dublin for […]
Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, died in Brixton prison on 25 October 1920 on the seventy-fourth day of his hunger strike, and was buried the following Sunday afternoon in his home city.[1] That same afternoon, in ‘scenes unparalleled in the history of Newcastle’, a symbolic funeral procession for the ‘Great Irish Patriot and Christian […]
One hundred and fifty years ago, rival Irish gangs of Fenians and Hibernians fought for supremacy in the village of Witton Park in County Durham. This post will explore the turbulent history of that time. On 21 November 1870, ‘two respectable-looking men’, John Walsh and Thomas Boucher, were arrested by police at Manchester’s Victoria railway […]
Gilbert Barrington, South Shields school teacher and IRA officer, has featured in several previous posts to this blog. Now it is time to tell the story of this key figure in the history of Irish republicanism in the North East of England. On 24 April 1922, South Shields Education Committee discussed a written request from […]
All but forgotten today, the National Brotherhood of St Patrick set the pattern for nationalist celebrations of St Patrick’s Day on Tyneside. But was it really a front for the Irish Republican Brotherhood rather than just a social club? This post will tell the story of this organisation and explore its relationship with the Fenians. […]
This post explores the background to a heated night in Newcastle upon Tyne in February 1884, when Michael Davitt, former Fenian gun-runner and ex-Dartmoor prisoner, came face to face with Tyneside Fenians opposed to the Irish Land League, the very cause that had defined his nationalism since 1879. The Amnesty Association was formed in Dublin […]
This post tells the remarkable story of Jarrow-born Joseph Connolly, who served in the British Army during the Great War, was made a prisoner of war, became an Irish republican, joined the IRA, smuggled guns to Ireland, was imprisoned in Dartmoor, and afterwards worked for the British Labour Party. ‘These things I have done I […]
exiles in england 