One hundred and thirty-five years ago in the latter part of September 1890, two Nationalist
leaders, Mallow born William O’Brien and Dublin native John Dillon, were arrested for their
‘Plan of Campaign’ that attempted to prevent evictions and improve rural living conditions
through the Land League. Both were members of parliament along with their party leader
Charles Stewart Parnell. However, the two men were no strangers to court appearances and
serving prison sentences.
O’Brien had been arrested in Roche’s Hotel, Glengarriff and conveyed to Cork and then onto
Tipperary while his MP colleague was arrested at his home in Ballybrack, Dublin and taken
under escort to Tipperary accompanied by a large British military force. They were charged
under the Coercion Act with ‘conspiracy to induce tenants of the Smith Barry estate not to
pay their rents.
Both men were however ‘given their liberty when released on bail’. The arrests came as news
emerged that the two men had booked passage to the United States to conduct a fund-raising
drive for the Land League and the Irish Parliamentary Party led by Stewart Parnell and this
was seen as a Governmental way of preventing their departure. The recently married O’Brien
along with fellow detainee John Cullinane hatched a new plan. In June 1890 he married Paris
resident Sophie Raffalovich, sister of the poet Marc Andre Sebastian Rafffalovich and the
daughter of the Russian Jewish banker. Following his release Dillon returned to Dublin by
train and was collected at Kingsbridge Station (how Heuston Station) by the Lord Mayor in
his carriage and a number of pipe and drum bands. On the steps of his house on North Great
Georges Street he announced his intention to go to Swinford the following Sunday to deliver
a speech. O’Brien despite the rumour that he was traveling on the train with Dillon to Dublin,
in fact went back to Cork.
John Murphy and his wife Mary Anne lived at 19 Thorncastle Street, Ringsend with the rear
of their home backing onto the River Dodder. His family were all involved in the local
fishing industry and boat repairs. He owned the trawler ‘St. Patrick’ named after the church
in Ringsend that he and his family attended. As darkness fell on Sunday October 4th, the
fishing trawler left Ringsend. On board were skipper John Murphy, William and John Junior,
his sons, Thomas McDonnell his son-in-law and Harry Blake. The trawler, its sails hoisted,
headed out into the River Liffey and onto Dublin Bay where he headed towards Bullock
Harbour in Dalkey. The ostensible reason given to the crew was that there were two
gentlemen coming on board about to enjoy a cruise on the trawler while she pursued her
ordinary fishing work. Then John senior explained to his crew the real reason for their sea
journey when O’Brien and Dillon boarded the boat along with the organiser of the escape,
John Cullinane. Cullinane was a publican from Bansha in County Tipperary and as a result of
his involvement would lose his pub licence.
Once on board Cullinane produced two pistols from inside his coat pockets and declared,
‘It is well we are not interfered with this night.’
As they rounded Lands’ End, the St Patrick became engulfed in calm seas. John Dillon,
instead of dining, kept watch on the bow to hear nearby vessels and raise the alarm if needed.
They arrived at Cherbourg, O’Brien’s new wife providing them with a contact when they
arrived. Cullinane retuned to Ireland on board the St. Patrick. On November 2nd the two men
reached New York, thanks to the men from Ringsend.
The two men were in the United States when the scandal about Parnell’s affair with Kitty
O’Shea broke as Parnell was named in the divorce case. They returned to France for a
summit with Parnell in Boulogne which eventually would see the demise of the Irish
Parliamentary Party. Their departure on December 13th from New York to Cherbourg was
announced in Indianapolis Journal. They said that following a cable from London they would
be departing the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago. In a sense of resignation as to the scandal
engulfing Irish politics, O’Brien told reporters in the hotel lobby,
‘In a short time, my movements will be altogether guided by a gentleman named
Andrews,"
Andrews was the governor of Clonmel jail. Dillon smiled grimly but said nothing.
O’Brien now with his wife travelled to Le Harve, while his colleague Dillon crossed back
over the Atlantic in early 1891. When the talks broke down in France with Parnell, O’Brien
and Dillon sailed across the English Channel to Folkestone on February 12 th and surrendered
to the police. They were returned to Ireland an imprisoned to serve the six months sentence
that was imposed on them in abstensia. In October 1891 Parnell passed away. O’Brien died
suddenly in London in 1928, while his fellow escapee, John Dillon died a year earlier, both
men sidelined by the events of 1916 and subsequent War of Independence.
When John Murphy died in 1919, five years after the death of Mary Anne in August 1914.
The news of his death was carried in Australian newspapers, and they reflected the time of
the ‘heroic escape.’ The Sydney based Freemans Journal reported,
‘In the meantime, much speculation and uneasiness troubled the people of Ringsend
especially the families of the men as to the absence of the St. Patrick. Three weeks,
however, elapsed before the trawler returned to the Liffey and the skipper was
congratulating himself on the secrecy with which the expedition was carried out.’
In October 1890, the Irish Times published an account of the escape under the title ‘The
Channel Voyage of The Trawler’ however to protect the identity of Murphy, his crew and his
boat, the newspaper article referred to the skipper as ‘Mr Clancy’ and the boat as ‘The New
Tipperary’. They lavished praise on Murphy by stating,
‘But for his daring, coolness, and skill, the cause might on the occasion have Davy
Jones or the Mermaids. He is known as an excellent seaman, and when the country
has a fleet of her own. which some day she is sure to have, there will be no difficulty
in finding the Lord High Admiral.’
John Murphy was interred in Glasnevin Cemetery.
