James Dunn

218

Dianne Jones on 21st March 2023

DEATH: From the Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July, 1922, p12: "CODY - July 13 at his residence, Innisfail, Pine-street, Randwick, Michael Cody, late of Redfern, aged 78 years. R.I.P. Interred at Waverley Cemetery on July 14. American papers please copy." (https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16013414) --0--

218

Dianne Jones on 21st March 2023

MORE ON THE LIFE OF MICHAEL CODY: 2021, 24 September: Anne-Maree Whitaker's research on Michael Cody was published on "People Australia", and is reproduced below: "Cody, Michael (Mick) (1844–1922) by Anne-Maree Whitaker Michael Cody, Fenian and hotel keeper, was born in Dublin in 1844 the son of John Cody, boilermaker of Denzille Lane, and Dora (née Byrne).[1] He followed his father into the trade of boilermaking, but also became deeply involved in the revolutionary Irish separatist movement known as Fenianism. At the age of 21 Cody was one of a group of deeply committed Fenians who concealed themselves in a loft in Dublin armed with revolvers and planning to kill two informers. He was described by his comrade John Devoy as ‘a low-sized but extremely powerful man of great determination’ who had ‘a weakness for punching policemen’. Devoy also commented that Cody had a face that was ‘a model for an artist’. Cody became the ‘centre’ (leader) of a Fenian group in Callan, Co Kilkenny, and later President of the Committee of Safety which police considered an ‘assassination circle’.[2] Cody was also reputed to have been in the Dublin militia and engaged in making pikes (spears). In December 1865 he was involved in the prison escape of the Fenian commander James Stephens which was masterminded by John Breslin. He also recruited British soldiers into the Fenians. Cody was arrested in March 1866 but released, and spent some time in England over succeeding months. On returning to Dublin he was re-arrested in April 1867, tried with John Flood and Edward Duffy, and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.[3] They were transported to Western Australia on the last convict ship, the Hougoumont, which arrived in 1868 carrying 62 Fenian prisoners. Among others on the ship were John Edward Kelly, who would figure in Cody’s continuing activism. Cody did not have to wait 20 years for his freedom, as he was pardoned under an amnesty in 1871 and immediately made his way to Sydney.[4] From there he travelled 300 kilometres north-west to the goldfields at Gulgong which were discovered the previous year. The district’s population had swelled by 10,000 in a few months, and continued to grow as more finds occurred. Cody became the Gulgong agent for the Irish Citizen newspaper founded by John Flood in Sydney.[5] Also in Gulgong were Dubliner John King and Clare-born Thomas McInerney, who were joint secretaries of an appeal for Irish nationalist John Mitchel in July 1874.[6] The Fenians in Sydney were still organising and discussing plans to rescue their last six comrades in custody in Fremantle, while a parallel plan was being hatched in the USA. The American rescue involved sailing a whaling bark, the Catalpa, a distance of 12,000 miles from New Bedford, Massachusetts all the way to Western Australia. Ahead of the ship John Breslin arrived in Sydney from San Francisco in search of allies, and his first contact was John Kelly who introduced him to John King and Thomas’s brother James McInerney, as well as summoning Cody back to Sydney from Gulgong. Cody then set off to New Zealand seeking donations to help fund the rescue while Breslin headed to Fremantle to rendezvous with the Catalpa.[7] Kelly later reported to O’Donovan Rossa that ‘the [Fenian] organisation has a comparatively powerful foothold in three goldfields in New South Wales, in the Middle Island of New Zealand, and in a Queensland goldfield. This is all owing to Mick C.’[8] Cody returned to Sydney from New Zealand in February 1876 with around $6-7,000 worth of gold, which King packed into a portmanteau and headed for Fremantle.[9] There on 17 April 1876, Easter Monday, the six Fenian prisoners managed to reach the Catalpa, which evaded pursuit by hoisting the US flag. The rescue became an international sensation and sparked a number of ballads celebrating the feat.[10] As a result of his organising efforts in the Catalpa rescue funding Cody was regarded by the American Fenians as the ‘head of the order in Australia’.[11] After his fundraising success Cody had other preoccupations, and on St Patrick’s Day 1876 he was married to Bridget Curry at St Benedict’s Church in Sydney. The witnesses were Thomas McInerney and his wife Margaret. The church register named Cody’s parents as John Cody, Dublin boilermaker, and Dora née Byrne, while his wife’s parents were farmer Michael Curry and Bridget née Molloy of Limerick.[12] Soon after their wedding the Codys left for Charters Towers in Queensland, where their first four children were born between 1877 and 1884. Gold had been discovered in the district in 1871, leading to a population influx and rapid development. Cody made no attempt to conceal his identity, and in an election report the Northern Miner newspaper commented: ‘Captain Cody, we expect was not far off when this Fenian conspiracy was hatched’.[13] Thomas McInerney seems to have had some success prospecting in Gulgong as he acquired an extensive property portfolio and is shown as the licensee of the Bridge Hotel on Pyrmont Bridge Road, Sydney, by January 1877. However his wife died in 1886 and Thomas the following year, nominating John King and Michael Cody as his executors. Having returned to Sydney Cody ran the hotel until November 1887 when he turned publican on his own account, taking over the Clare Castle Hotel in George Street West (modern Broadway) which he ran from 1887 to 1890.[14] He then moved on to the Australian Eleven Hotel in Elizabeth Street, Redfern. In July 1891 the hotel was the venue for the formation meeting of the John Mitchel branch of the Irish National Foresters, one of the best-known friendly societies in Ireland which was beginning its expansion into New South Wales. In addition to providing health and unemployment insurance for members, they also were closely associated with Irish nationalism. As well as hosting the inaugural meeting Cody also represented the branch at the formation of the State Executive in 1892 when he was elected Sub High Chief Ranger (vice-president).[15] The Foresters provided the network which organised the visit to New South Wales in 1895 of veteran Irish nationalist campaigner Michael Davitt. As a Fenian ‘centre’ he was involved in the abortive raid on Chester Castle in England in 1867, but evaded capture until 1870 when he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Thereafter he achieved fame as a lecturer and political campaigner, founding the Land League in 1879 and serving several terms in the British parliament as well as in prison. His visit to Australia in 1895 was intended to be a fundraising lecture tour to boost his personal finances, but when a general election was called the funds were diverted to the election campaign.[16] Michael Cody served on the organising committee for the visit, and was selected to represent the Foresters (along with John Sheehy) in presenting a formal address of welcome to Davitt when he arrived in Sydney.[17] When Davitt reached Gympie in Queensland he stayed with their erstwhile comrade John Flood, who chaired his public lecture in the town.[18] Cody continued in his role as Sub High Chief Ranger of the NSW Executive of the Foresters until 1896. When he stood down from the position at the annual convention ‘a hearty vote of thanks was accorded by acclamation to Bro. Cody, who gratefully acknowledged it.’ The convention closed with the singing of ‘God Save Ireland’, a song commemorating the execution of three Fenians in Manchester, England in 1867.[19] The Australian Eleven Hotel, named in honour of the national cricket team, was located opposite Redfern Park and attracted harriers and election meetings as well as cricketers and locals. The old building, a two-storey weatherboard terrace, was condemned in 1902 and Cody built a new two-storey brick hotel next door, negotiating a 30-year lease with the landowner. He later claimed the new hotel cost £3000. In 1905 he joined the campaign against the Liquor Bill, alleging that the proposed reduction in hotel licenses would ruin those who had made investments such as his.[20] In 1908 he was one of five publicans nominated to the Hotel Club and Restaurant Employees Board as employer representatives.[21] In 1905 John Devoy wrote in his New York newspaper the Gaelic American that he, along with Michael Cody in Australia, were the last survivors of the Fenians who hid in the Dublin loft in 1865.[22] John Flood, although not one of that small group, was among the last survivors of the Hougoumont Fenian exiles, and it was his death in Queensland in 1909 which inspired Cody’s last recorded public utterance. An appeal was launched to build a memorial on Flood’s grave, and the Sydney committee elected Michael Cody as Vice-President. At the meeting called to establish the appeal Cody, ‘a popular and honoured citizen of Sydney’, reminisced: He said it was close on fifty years since he first became acquainted with John Flood, and for very many years he was closely identified with him in political matters, from that time until they had attained their liberty in Western Australia in 1871. He had known the late John Flood, in England, Ireland, and Australia, well and intimately, and how he had laboured in the cause of his country. He knew his excellent qualities, and he was fairly staggered when he heard of his death. No one in Australia knew him longer or better than himself, or regretted his death more than he did. He was very pleased to see some steps were being taken to honour his memory.[23] Cody gave up the license of the Australian Eleven hotel in early 1912 at the age of 68, and moved to a house he named ‘Innisfail’ in Pine Street, Randwick, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.[24] On Christmas Eve that year his wife Bridget died at the age of 61 and was buried in Waverley Cemetery.[25] Michael survived another 10 years before succumbing to senile decay and cardiac dilation on 13 July 1922 at the age of 78.[26] His death notice requested ‘American papers please copy’ but his grave remains unmarked." [1] Michael was baptised in Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) on 6 June 1844: Catholic parish registers, National Library of Ireland, microfilm 09071/03, entry no 4397. [2] Keith Amos, The Fenians in Australia 1865-1880, Sydney, 1988, pp 84-85. [3] P J Stephenson, ‘Fenian Dublin 1865-67’, Dublin Historical Record, vol 1, no 4 (March 1939), pp 123-124. [4] ‘The Amnestied’, Freeman’s Journal, 17 June 1871, p 10. [5] ‘Agents for the Irish Citizen’, Irish Citizen, various dates from April 1872 including 31 August 1872, p 7. [6] ‘Mitchel Fund Subscription List’, Freeman’s Journal, 11 July 1874, p 13. [7] ‘John King’s Narrative’, The Gaelic American, 8 Oct 1904, p 1. King may have named the wrong brother in his account written decades later, as Thomas was much more involved in Fenian circles than James. [8] Kelly to O’Donovan Rossa, 8 April 1876, Rossa Papers, Catholic University of America (Washington DC), p 6. [9] ‘John King’s Narrative’, The Gaelic American, 8 Oct 1904, p 1. [10] Amos, The Fenians in Australia, pp 227-257. [11] Carroll to Mahon, 12 June 1876, John Devoy Papers, National Library of Ireland. [12] NSW marriage certificate, 00217/1876. [13] ‘The Election’, Northern Miner, 10 July 1880, p 3. [14] ‘Municipal elections Forest Lodge Ward’, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 January 1877, p 2; Probate packet 3/14727, NSW State Records and Archives; NSW death certificates 4014/1886 and 3163/1887; Daily Telegraph, 30 November 1887, p 3; 21 December 1887, p 6; 11 June 1890, p 6. [15] Anne-Maree Whitaker, ‘John Sheehy: an Irishman and a sterling Catholic’, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, vol 41 (2020), pp 146-147; ‘Irish National Foresters’, Freeman’s Journal, 16 August 1934, p 26; ‘Irish National Foresters. Story of the John Mitchel Branch’, Freeman’s Journal, 22 November 1934, p 17. [16] Noel McLachlan, ‘Davitt, Michael’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, https://www.dib.ie/biography/davitt-michael-a2437. [17] ‘Arrival of Mr Michael Davitt’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 July 1895, p 3. [18] ‘Mr Davitt’s Lecture’, Gympie Times, 10 August 1895, p 4. [19] ‘Irish N.F.B. Society’, Australian Star, 3 March 1896, p 3. [20] ‘“If I Lost my License” What the Publicans Say’, Evening News, 30 August 1905, p 6. [21] Sydney Morning Herald, 1 September 1908, p 6. [22] ‘Sam Cavanagh, Old Dublin Fenian, Dead’, Gaelic American, 6 January 1906, p 8. [23] ‘A Hero of “’67” The Late Mr John Flood, movement to commemorate him’, Freeman’s Journal, 18 November 1909, p 24. [24] ‘Hotels Transferred’, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 February 1912, p 5. [25] Sydney Morning Herald, 26 December 1912, p 6. [26] NSW death certificate 12457/1922. SOURCE: Anne-Maree Whitaker, 'Cody, Michael (Mick) (1844–1922)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/cody-michael-mick-32078/text39641, accessed 21 March 2023. --00--

218

Dianne Jones on 21st March 2023

AFTER 1871: Both Tom Keneally and Peter FitzSimons credit Michael Cody (James Dunn) with a key role in raising funds to assist in the escape of the six military Fenians -- still held in Fremantle jail -- aboard the Catalpa in 1876. From Peter FitzSimons, p194: "... another Dublin Fenian, Michael Cody -- the one-time notable on the Hougoumont, beloved for his renditions of 'Our Irish Flag', ... had been released in the second amnesty. He has come down [to Sydney] from his Queensland mining town upon receipt of [Edward] Kelly's carefully worded telegram. Together with Kelly [now in Sydney] and [John] King [then working at Petersham Quarry], Cody goes about raising funds carefully, quietly, contacting fellow Fenians and, without ever going into specifics, making it clear that a blow is about to be struck for Ireland, and money is needed." From Tom Keneally, p620: "A former Fenian prisoner who would live to achieve some retribution against the penal settlement of Western Australia was Michael Cody, who went gold-seeking in the bush [in Queensland] and then settled in Sydney as a hotel keeper. He became organiser and fund raiser of the Fenians in New South Wales, an administrative task which only partially suited his man-of-action temperament." -- FitzSimons, P. (2019), "The Catalpa rescue", Hachette, Australia. Keneally, T. (1998), “The great shame and the triumph of the Irish in the English-speaking world”, Random House, New York. --0--

218

Dianne Jones on 25th July 2021

1871, 15 March: JAMES DUNN received a Conditional Pardon. Shortly after, on 30 May, he embarked at Albany and sailed for Sydney aboard the Rangoon (see Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; General Register for Nos 9059 - 9598 cont., 9599 - 10128 (R15 - R16)).

218

Dianne Jones on 25th July 2021

James Dunn (called Michael Cody below) is named in this republished letter, from one of the Fenians who was given a free pardon and who went to America per the Baringa in 1879 (see the Freeman’s Journal, Sydney, Sat 2 Jul 1870, p13): NEWS OF THE RELEASED IRISH POLITICAL PRISONERS. The Boston Pilot — per favour of Mr. John Boyle O’Reilly, the military political prisoner who escaped from Western Australia — publishes the following letter received by that gentleman. We regret the want of success which met those [15 men who went there aboard the Baringa] who expected to find happy homes in California: “34, Minna street, between 1st and 2nd streets, San Francisco, Cal., March 9, 1870. MY DEAR O’REILLY,— It was more by chance than good luck I happened to hear of your being in New York, and so I write to be one of the first to congratulate you on your escape from Western Australia. Of course we were aware of your escape, but did not know in what quarter of the world you were. The majority of us thought you were soldiering down in South America, but I am very glad to find you are better off. Before we left Western Australia we visited the boys in prison; they all seemed to be in pretty good health — that is as far as health in a prison goes — and spirits. I give you, on the other side, the names of those here with me, those in prison in Fremantle, those gone home, those free in Western Australia, and of our soldier friends still prisoners in bush parties, and out on a ticket- of -leave. I am afraid there is but very little chance of their getting out. On the road up from Perth to King George's Sound we met a few of our military friends, stationed in different bush parties on the road; they all seemed to be in good health and spirits, except [James] Wilson. He looked like a man that had to put up with a great deal of annoyance, as I believe he has, from his warder, who is continually reporting him for the slightest cause. Martin Hogan is up in the Champion Bay district. I did not see [Patrick] Keating, neither do I know where he is; but I heard that he and [Patrick] Killeen were working in different parties on the York road. [Michael] Harrington is somewhere about Northam; Keeley [James Keily/Kiely] is in some other quarter. With the exception of those, I have seen all the others. Although we had a police escort, we managed to speak to the boys ‘for a’ that.’ We had rather hard times after getting out of prison; some of us had to go miles away into the infernal bush, where I suppose we would be now, only for the noble-hearted Irishmen and women in the Australian colonies. You would not believe how kind they were to us. I could not find words enough in the dictionary to express their goodness; where-ever we went we found them the same… Had we stayed in Sydney we would have all got first-class situations from the wealthy Irishmen there; but like fools, as we were, nothing would do us only to come out to this place, where we are loafing about for the last six or seven weeks, and can't get employment. Were it not for the money we got in Australia we would be 'hard up' indeed; some of us would be off soldiering for Uncle Sam — perhaps down in Arizona, or some other place — by this time. There are only five or six out of the fifteen of us at work. Since I made out the list, I have learned from a letter received by Denis Hennessy from Western Australia, that Hugh F. Brophy was to start for home the following mail, and that James Flood was about going to New Zealand. That is all the news from that benighted land. Send all the news from home, as I have not had a letter from any one since last August. We do not know how the wind blows in that quarter. Letter from M. Cody yesterday. Father Lynch gone home to Ireland for twelve months. Father McCabe, of Bunbury, in his place. Hoping soon to hear from you, I am yours, very sincerely, JOHN B. WALSH.” LIST… In San Francisco, California: John Keneally, Patrick Doran, Denis B. Cashman, Patrick Dunne, Denis Hennessy, Thomas Fogarty, Eugene Geary, David Cummins, Michael Moore, David Joyce, Patrick Leahy, John Sheehan, Maurice Fitzgibbon, John B. Walsh, Patrick Wall. In Prison in Fremantle, West Australia: John Flood, 15 years, Corn. D Keane, 10 years, J. Edward Kelly, life imprisonment, Daniel J. Bradley, 10 years, MICHAEL CODY, 20 years, Thos. Baines, 10 years, Thos. Fennell, 10 years, James Kearney, 7 years, Geo. Connelly, 15 years. Gone Back to Ireland: Thomas Daly, Morgan McSwiney, Jeremiah O’Donovan, Michael Noonan, John S. Casey, Thomas Cullinane (alias Bowler) Eugene Lombard, Patrick Riordon, Simon Downey, Robert May. Free in Western Australia: Hugh F. Brophy, Cornelius O'Mahony, Joseph Noonan, Jeremiah Aher, James O’Reilly, John Goulding, Thomas Duggan, Laurence Fulham, James Flood, Luke Fulham. Our Military Friends Prisoners in different Bush Parties, and on Ticket of Leave in Western Australia: Sergeant Major [Thomas] Darragh, life, 11th Regiment. James Wilson, life, 5th Dragoon Guards. Martin Hogan, life, 6th Dragoon Guards. James Mecoy, 15 years, 61st Regiment. Patrick Keating, life, 5th Dragoon Guards. Thomas Delaney, 15 years, 5th Dragoon Guards John Foley, 7 years, Royal Horse Artillery. Thos. Hassett, life, 24th Regiment. J. [John] Shine, 20 years, 60th Rifles. Patrick Killeen, 7 years, Royal Horse Artillery. Michael Harrington, life, 61st Regiment. Robert Cranston, life, 61st Regiment. — Keely [James M. Kiely], life, 53rd Regiment. On Ticket-of Leave: William Foley, 5th Dragoon Guards. John Lynch, 5th Dragoon Guards. John Donoughue, 24th Regiment.

218

Dianne Jones on 25th July 2021

From his Fremantle Jail record: DUNN, James; #9721, arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Alias: CODY Michael Date of Birth: 1842 Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Boiler maker Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: Dublin Crime: Treason Sentence Period: 20 years Conditional Pardon Date: 15 Mar 1871 Comments: One of 62 Fenians transported on the Hougoumont, the last convict ship sent to Australia. Its arrival at Fremantle on 9 Jan 1868 signalled the end of transportation to this country. Used alias James DUNN on police and court records, Convict Register & Conditional Pardon, real name Michael CODY. To New South Wales per Rangoon, 1871 (see https://fremantleprison.com.au/). --00-- 1869, 5 February: Thirty four Fenians who had been transported to Western Australia (as well as others imprisoned in Great Britain) were given Free Pardons / “unconditionally discharged” by the House of Commons. JAMES DUNN / MICHAELCODY was not one of them. For a full list, see the Melbourne Advocate, 22 May 1869, p4, at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169267360?. --0-- 1869, 19 June: From the Freeman's Journal, p6: "THE POLITICAL PRISONERS. The correspondent of the 'Evening Post', writing from London on Monday evening, says: — A return has been issued to-day of the names of the Fenian convicts NOT [my emphasis] proposed to be released, stating what portion of their sentences is unexpired... Those confined in Australia are: — Edward John Kelly, for the remainder of his life; JAMES DUNNE, alias CODY [my emphasis], for the remainder of twenty years, from 8th April, 1867; John Flood, fifteen years, from 8th April, 1867; Cornelius Dwyer Kane, ten years, from 17th February, 1866; Thomas Baines, ten years, from 17th February, 1867; David Bradley, ten years, from llth June, 1867; Thomas Fennell, ten years, from 15th July, 1867; George Francis Connolly, seven years from 8th April, 1867; and James Kearney, five years, from 2nd May, 1867..."

218

Dianne Jones on 25th July 2021

1867, 30 September: JAMES DUNN and 13 other “Government prisoners” (Fenians) in Millbank were removed for transportation aboard the Hougoumont (see UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison Register of Prisoners, 1867-1868). --00-- 1868, 10 January: On arrival in WA, JAMES DUNN was listed as #9721, 25 years old, and a boilermaker; single, with no children (see Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department Registers (128/40 - 43)). This record also contains his physical description. Next of kin - father, John Dunn, of Denzil Street, Dublin (see Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; General Register for Nos 9059 - 9598 cont., 9599 - 10128 (R15 - R16)).

218

Dianne Jones on 25th July 2021

1867, 13 July: Reports in several newspapers in the colonies covered the arrest and conviction of James Dunne, alias Michael Cody on the charge of treason-felony. The first, concerning his arrest, is from the Sydney Morning Herald, p1: "On May 4, in the evening, a policeman attempted to arrest a man, named [Michael] Cody, or [James] Dunne, in Grafton-street, Dublin, for disorderly conduct, when the man drew a seven chambered revolver, and threatened to shoot him through the head. The constable caught hold of him, and endeavoured to get possession of the weapon. The man struggled desperately, and got away from the constable, throwing a dagger out of his jacket as he passed along. Another policeman endeavoured to arrest him. The desperado again presented the revolver, but fortunately it did not go off. The constable, after a sharp struggle, succeeded in wresting the revolver from his grasp, and struck him with it on the face. He was subsequently secured, but found to be so seriously injured that he had to be taken to Mercer's Hospital. In addition to the revolver and dagger, 38 rounds of ball cartridge were found on his person. The Times correspondent says that on the person of Cody, alias Dunne, was found a printed document, containing the names and addresses of the Judges now presiding at the Special Commission, together with lists of the names and addresses of the Crown counsel, of the jurors who tried [Thomas F.] Burke and [Patrick] Doran, and of the witnesses produced for the prosecution. The document is in pencil. The handwriting corresponds with that upon an envelope found with the prisoner and addressed "Mr. Michael Cody". A terrible significance is given to this discovery by facts connected with the prisoner's career. He is reputed to be the Fenian Centre for Callan, county of Kilkenny. Up to a late period of the autumn of last year he was confined in Mountjoy Convict Prison under the Lord Lieutenant's warrant. He was liberated on condition of going to England, and was escorted by the police, from the prison to the North Wall, and was seen off by the Liverpool steamer. He again returned to this country for the purpose of joining in the insurrectionary movement. The circumstances of his first arrest, on the 18th of April, 1866, are as follows: Private Maher, of the 8th Foot, gave information that Dunne and a man named Thomas Baines [also sent to WA on the Hougoumont], who was sentenced to penal servitude, at the last commission, were in the habit of seducing soldiers from their allegiance, and that on the night of Saturday, the 13th of April, a meeting would be held for that purpose in a house in Leeson-lane. The police were communicated with, and detective officers Entwistle and Rotheray proceeded to the place. Colonel Fielding and a party of the Coldstream Guards also proceeded to Leeson-lane. On entering the house a number of arrests were made, and Entwistle apprehended Dunne. The prisoner made violent efforts to escape, and also endeavoured to reach one of two revolvers which were placed in a belt worn around his body. The officer, however, by main force succeeded in effecting the capture. As Dunne was put into cab he observed to some person in the crowd, which had by this time assembled, 'I am glad Pat was not here,' and when he was entering the police station he said -- 'If I were to wait for twenty years I'll have revenge for this. I know who the loyal man was who informed on us.' On the following Saturday, April 20, Private Maher was shot at in a public house in Bonham-street. The person alluded to by the prisoner as 'Pat' is believed to have keen Patrick Kearney, who was arrested on the 1st of May following, in a house in Tighe-street, by detective officer Clarke, after a struggle in which Kearney attempted to shoot the officer with a revolver. On May 13th the Lord-Lieutenant sent a special messenger to Kilmainham prison, with a communication to the governor informing him that the sentence of death passed on Patrick Doran, convicted at the Special Commission for high treason, had keen commuted to penal servitude for life." --0-- The second story, from the Hobart Mercury, p3, covers James Dunne's trial: "On May 15th John Flood, Edward Duffy, and James Dunne, alias Cody, were put on their trial for treason-felony. Flood was arrested with McCafferty, and was charged with having taken part in the Chester affair. Duffy was arrested in company with Stephens, and was liberated on the ground of ill health, and it is said subsequently endeavored to promulgate Fenianism in Connaught. Cody was arrested a few days previously, as stated below, in Grafton-street, where he attempted to shoot a policeman. The Attorney-General stated that this individual was the chief of an assassination committee formed to assassinate informers, &o. The prisoners were found guilty, and on May 21st were sentenced -- the first two to 15 years' penal servitude each, and the latter 20. They made short addresses to the Court. Flood alleged he had been convicted on false testimony, and denied that he had any knowledge of the assassination committee. No true Irishman would have anything to do with it. The Attorney-General had called him a wretched man, and if loving his country made him wretched, he was so. Duffy, Stephen's secretary, declared he had been actuated throughout by the strongest sense of duty, and a man's duty to his country was part of his duty to God. For the recent outbreak he was not responsible, knowing how foolish it was in the present circumstances. He had tried to prevent it. Stephens was not for peace. He sent men to Ireland to fight, but when the time came he went to Paris to see the Exhibition. He was now a lost man-lost to honour, lost to the country. Cody [James Dunne] said the charge of an assassination committee was utterly false." --00--

218

Dianne Jones on 25th July 2021

1867, 4 May: James Dunne, alias Michael Cody, was arrested in Dublin. 1867, 6 May: He was admitted to Kilmainham jail, listed as #5341 James Dunne, alias Michael Cody, alias Michael Byrne, and awaiting trial on a charge of treason - felony. The jail record says he was a carpenter, 25 years old, born in Marlboro Street, Dublin, and of no fixed residence. He was 5'7" tall with dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a fair complexion. A Roman Catholic, he could read and write (see Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924; Dublin, Kilmainham 1850-1871). 1867, 21 May: James Dunne was transferred to Mountjoy jail, in Dublin, following his conviction by the Special Commission in Dublin and sentence of 20 years' penal servitude. 1867, 4 July: He was received at Millbank jail at Westminster in London, which served as a holding facility for convicted prisoners before they were transported to Australia. At Millbank, he was listed as 25, single, able to read and write imperfectly, a Roman Catholic and a carpenter. By this time, according to jail records, he had spent 2.25 months behind bars (see UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners 1867-1868). —00—