Richard Jones

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Tim Flynn on 28th April 2016

In June 1840 , A Dublin court sentenced a corn merchant’s clerk, Richard Jones to seven years transportation to the prison colony of Van Diemen’s Land for membership of the Ribbon-Men. Jones was the General Secretary of the Ribbon Men. The Crown first charged him with the murder of an Andrew Ganly but he secured an acquittal. However, it was clear that Dublin Castle “had it in” for Jones and he was charged with, and found guilty of, membership of the Ribbon men. This was an agrarian secret society for Catholics that was established to prevent landlords from changing or evicting their tenants. The name came from a green ribbon worn as a badge in a buttonhole by the members. It had a series of quasi-Masonic codes and signs and it inspired awe in the Irish peasant classes. Jones nearly succeeded in taking over his prison ship the “Isabella Watson” after persuading the British Army guards, who were mostly Irishmen to urinate in their muskets and thus render them ineffective. However, Jones was betrayed by a fellow Irish convict, Thomas Gorman. Jones then beat a charge of Piracy in a Hobart Court by a clever strategy of subpoenaing the ship’s crew, just as the “Isabella Watson” was leaving Hobart harbor. When the crew failed to show up at court the Crown was unable to proceed and Jones and his mates were acquitted. Jones was then dispatched under his original sentence to Port Arthur Prison and led a successful strike of one hundred and sixty five of his fellow prisoners. He inspired them to refuse to attend Protestant Services, and this forced the authorities to appoint Catholic prison chaplains. Jones was punished savagely for leading the strike and spent four terms in solitary confinement and a savage flogging with a cat o’ nine tails. At this point Jones disappeared from history but he is featured in the recently released novel “Part an Irishman” author, T.S.Flynn suspects that Jones made it to New York after his release and helped to plan the escapes of Civil War General Thomas Meagher, John Mitchell and the Catalpa rescue. This novel represents the first installment of the “Regiment” trilogy and is based on records and newspaper articles from the time. The book’s for adults as it contains sex and violence. How the Story Came About. "John Turner Flinn" dropped into my lap one Christmas holiday in the Northern Territory of Australia. It was too hot to do anything but watch videos and we became engrossed in a crime series set in the 1920’s. My girlfriend’s granddad was a gangster in Melbourne in that era so we looked him up on “Trove”. After seeing his press cuttings, we decided to dig into earlier generations and uncovered an array of London thieves, Swing Rioters, ships’ captains, a Chinese gold miner and a swag of wayward women. I became jealous as my own family tree yielded a rather boring collection of Lancashire refugees from the “Great Hunger” of ‘47. Envy led to a series of “jokes” about “checking change” and “watching pockets”; the response went from polite smiles to “probably a lot of your bloody relatives were sent here as well!” I decided to check this and the first “Flynn” I saw on a convict website became my hero; John Turner Flinn. His convict record revealed he’d been an “officer and gentleman” in the Navy and contained a strange reference to the “Regiment” so I “Googled” further and found : • His case was in the “Newgate Calendar” and his trial was big news. • He gave evidence at Queen Caroline’s trial for adultery in 1820. The trial was example of public crucifixion of another “People’s Princess”. • He was a “spook” in the Napoleonic War; and then • The coup de grace; there were rumors that his wife, Edwardina Kent was the secret daughter of Queen Caroline and the Prince Regent. If true, this gave her a better claim on the throne than Queen Victoria. With material like this, I felt a duty to finish this novel; hope you enjoy reading it.” The novel traces Flinn’s progress through the Tasmanian Prison system of the1840’s and is based upon records from the time. T.S. Flynn is the nom de plume of Tim Flynn. Tim has a distinguished record of service with the British and Australian Governments and a number of humanitarian organizations. He has served in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Mozambique, The Solomon Islands and the Australian outback.