Terence Bellew Mcmanus

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greg petersen on 16th September 2017

A native of Tempo, County Fermanagh, Ireland. He moved to Liverpool and became a successful shipping agent. In 1848 he returned to Ireland to join the Irish Confederation, a group of Irish rebels who tried to overturn the Act of Union with Great Britain in what became known as the Young Irelander Rebellion in Ballingarry, County Tipperary. After the revolution failed McManus was tried at Clonmel on the 22nd October 1848 for High Treason and sentenced to be hanged drawn and quartered together with three other co-conspirators: William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher and Patrick O'Donoghue. Due to public pressure the sentences were commuted to life transportation in 1849 to Van Diemen's Land, Tasmania on board the Swift. Also aboard the ship were the other co-conspirators: O'Brien, Meagher and O'Donoghue. In 1852 MacManus and Meagher escaped from Van Diemen's Land making their way to San Francisco, California, where MacManus settled. O'Brien's attempt at escape was thwarted, then in 1854, he was released on the condition of exile from Ireland, he lived in Brussels for two years then finally in 1856, O'Brien was pardoned and returned to Ireland, dying on the 18th June in 1864. O'Donoghue became a thorn in the side of the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir William Denison, publishing a newspaper describing his life and punishments in great detail. He was twice sent to the chain gang for his actions before he too escaped, first to Port Phillip in 1851 aboard the Yarra Yarra and from there he joined the others in America, dying in 1854 on the 22nd January in New York City.