Michael Moore

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 25th February 2023

1867, 27 June: From The Cork Examiner, p3: THE FENIAN CONVICTS IN ENGLISH PRISONS—REPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSION. We have received from our London correspondent a copy of the report presented to Parliament by Messrs. Knox and Pollock, the commissioners appointed to inquire into the treatment of the Fenian convicts confined in the English prisons. The document extends over 25 large pages. The inquiry was limited to the cases of the twenty-nine persons convicted at the Dublin and Cork special commissions in 1865, to whom the allegations in the Irish newspapers exclusively applied. The Commissioners first opened communication with the chairman of the Board of Convict Prisons, of whom they inquired what orders he had received with regard to the treatment of these convicts, and what orders he had given to his subordinate officers. ‘His reply was that had been directed by the Secretary of State to treat them as ordinary convicts, and that he had given directions in the same sense to his subordinate officers. He added that they had been treated in point of fact with all humanity and consideration; that they had been, when at Pentonville, kept in separate confinement; and when at Portland in a class apart, save in two instances, where two had been associated for very brief term with the ordinary convicts as punishment for gross insubordination, and in two other cases where two of the number had been associated at their own request with the ordinary convicts. The names of the two last mentioned are MICHAEL MOORE [my emphasis] and John Haltigan. He added that not only had they been treated with exceptional kindness in the important particular of non-association with the ordinary convicts, but that on mere grounds of humanity their term of separate confinement at Pentonville had been shortened many months; that at Portland a less amount of work had been required of them than from other convicts; and, finally, that they had not been subjected to the same severity of punishment as ordinary convicts for infringement of the rules and regulations of the prison…’ ‘CONCLUSION-- In speaking of the treatment of convicts in general, we have neither the right nor the wish exceed the bounds of our Commission. As convicts we found them, and as convicts we have thought of them and spoken of them throughout. Viewed in this light, we are satisfied that they have been treated with exceptional kindness and forbearance. There is not the smallest foundation for the charges of severity and cruelty which have been brought against the convict authorities. The very reverse of this is the truth. Save in the case a very few who are labouring under chronic infirmities, for which they are receiving the most careful treatment, the treason-felony convicts are men in rude robust health, and this after a confinement of one year and a half in English convict prisons’….” (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000425/18670627/025/0003) --0—

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 25th February 2023

1865, 27 December: From The Cork Examiner, p4: “REMOVAL OF FENIAN CONVICTS. At half-past four o'clock on Saturday morning the police van drove up to Mountjoy Convict Prison where it was met by an escort of cavalry and mounted police. Thos. Clarke Luby, John O'Leary, Jeremiah O'Donovan (Rossa), MICHAEL MOORE [my emphasis], and John Haltigan were immediately aroused from their beds, and, having been dressed in the prison uniform, were placed in the van, and conveyed to Kingstown. At Kingstown they were transferred to the Holyhead steamer for conveyance en route to Dartmoor. [Note: Moore, Luby, O’Leary, O’Donovan Rossa and Haltigan were all sent to Pentonville, not Dartmoor.] The night mail from Cork conveyed Charles Underwood O'Connell, Jeremiah Donovan, Lynch, Dillon, and Duggan to Dublin. On arrival they were received by a body of metropolitan police, and placed in a van, which was in attendance, along with the Dublin convicts. (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000425/18651227/029/0004) --0--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 25th February 2023

JAILS: 1865, 23 December: Michael Moore was sent from Mountjoy prison and admitted to Pentonville prison, Caledonian Road, London. Listed as inmate #3409, blacksmith, 24, married, literate, Roman Catholic; convicted at the Special Commission, Dublin City, on 9 December, 1865, and sentenced to 10 years PS (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for Michael Moore; Pentonville Prison, Register of Prisoners, 1864-1866). --00--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 23rd February 2023

...3/ Day 2 contd: Mr. Justice Keogh charged the jury, and while cautioning them to give the prisoner the benefit of any doubt they might entertain in the whole of the evidence, showed that there were really no grounds for entertaining any doubt at all. His lordship recapitulated the evidence against the prisoner, his connection with O'Mahony and Pagan O'Leary, the letters inviting him to attend a meeting of a Fenian circle at New York, and speaking of his coming home to be present at the "Grand job," to be in at the "first blood," &c., his contract with Stephens for the manufacture of pikes, the ten orders for pikes, signed " J. P." found with him, the enrolment cards, the rifle found in his house—which, if unexplained, put it beyond question that the prisoner was engaged in the conspiracy. The jury retired at four o'clock, at which hour the Grand Jury came into court with true bills against a number of the accused, amongst them being O'Connell O'Callaghan, C U. O'Connell, John O'Cloghessy, Brophy, Duffy, and Gillis. The bill against a person named Kelly was ignored. O'Donovan Rossa was then put forward for trial. On entering the dock he complained that a letter important to the purposes of his defence had been kept from him from the 2nd December, when it arrived at the Richmond Prison, until this morning. He was proceeding to make some observations upon Judge Fitzgerald's charge in O'Leary' case, but was stopped by the bench. Mr. Butt based an application for adjournment of the case upon the complaint the prisoner had made with respect to the letter. Butt said that this letter informed him that witnesses essential to the defence could be had in Cork, that he had written for them and would have an answer in the morning when he would be prepared to go on with the case or to ask for a definite postponement of it. Although the Attorney General had no other case ready for trial, he assented to the application, and the case was permitted to stand over. The Attorney General said that to prevent any inconvenience arising in the event of O'Donovan Rossa not being prepared for trial to-morrow he would take case of Haltigan, which would be short one, first in the morning. At this time the jury in the case of Moore returned into court with a verdict of guilty. The prisoner seemed a good deal affected by the announcement, and spoke in a husky voice when he addressed the court, denied that he was guilty of the charge laid against him, and appealed to those who came after him to say whether a man was to be convicted of treason for simply earning money at his trade. In passing sentence on the prisoner, Mr. Justice Keogh pointed out to him that he had been convicted not alone because he had made pikes for the confederates, but because he had been an active member of the Fenian Brotherhood. The sentence passed upon the prisoner was ten years' penal servitude. He was removed from the Courthouse to Mountjoy Prison at one o'clock, guarded by a formidable escort of hussars, dragoons and horse police. (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000425/18651208/007/0002) --00--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 23rd February 2023

--0-- 1865, 8 December: From The Cork Examiner, p2 -- Day 2: THE FENIAN TRIALS. [From our correspondent.] Dublin, Wednesday. — The trial of Michael Moore, the blacksmith, who is alleged to have been principal armourer of the Fenian society, was continued this morning and lasted during the day. The greater part of the evidence given in support of the prosecution was precisely similar that on which [Thomas] Luby and O'Leary were convicted. [Pierce] Nagle, the informer, was produced at the sitting of the court, and told for the third time since the opening of this commission and for the tenth or fifteenth time (the iteration is rapidly getting past calculation) the old story, half mournful, half absurd, of this formidable attempt to overturn the English empire by means of a newspaper and a few blunt pikes. Nagle tells this story rather glibly now—he ought to have it by rote—and as nearly as possible in the same words. The cross-examination, like the direct, goes over the same subjects in nearly the same order each time the witness is produced, and the repetition of the one unvarying tale is becoming intolerably dull. There is nevertheless a sort of languid melancholy interest attaching to each trial—a regretful feeling when, one after another, the delusions the prisoners cherished so dearly, are disclosed by the letters and newspaper extracts which form the larger portion of the evidence the case. There are many qualities in the prisoners themselves which win for them some sympathy, even from those who most strongly disapprove of their opinions. Mr. Luby, a blind enthusiast, a man whom it would be impossible to convince that every misfortune which has from the earliest time befallen this country was not directly attributable to English rule—is yet manly, candid and generous, loves his country after his fashion, is ready to make large sacrifices for what he conceives to be right and will endure the heavy sentence which was inevitable, if the British government were not to become fellow-conspirators with him, with the patience and fortitude of a political martyr. Mr. O'Leary, passionate, distrustful and animated by a fierce hatred of English supremacy, is at least sincere, brave, and faithful to his convictions. Even the prisoner who occupied an humble position in life, though the Crown Counsel regarded him as having been an important personage of the conspiracy, is apparently an intelligent and respectable artisan, just the very stamp of a man that might have been a useful, respectable member of society. It is a pity to find such men as these belonging to different classes, yet similar in the possession of many good qualities, consigned by their own folly to a fate which everyone must deplore. But it is more a pity to observe that even what has taken place has not been sufficient to convince them of the utter fatuity—the palpable absurdity—as well as the complete hopelessness of the designs they contemplate. It is stated almost universally here that the belief exists, with at least a large number of those who share the opinions of the prisoners, that their imprisonment will be of short duration. It is believed amongst that class that the prisoners will assuredly be rescued before many months elapse, and even that the attempt is only deferred until all the prisoners shall have been convicted. This conviction is no doubt strengthened by the needless display of military force which is being made by the authorities. The prisoners are escorted to and from the court house by a troop of cavalry and a large body of mounted police. On the first day of last week a company of infantry and some artillery were kept near the court house, and were objects of admiration and wonder to the few idle carmen, strolling servant girls, and somewhat satirical juveniles who represented the turbulent populace it was necessary to overawe. Crowds of police surrounded the court house—on the first days of the commission every second person in the court was a constable. As each prisoner is convicted he is borne off with as much display and bustle as possible. Officious policemen dash frantically at a very moderate crowd to keep them back. A troop of cavalry, gleaming in scarlet and gold, and flashiug sabres, gallop [sic] up. The big, ugly, black prisoners' van is brought furtively to the door from which the prisoner is to issue. The policemen prepare to defend their charge with their lives, the superintendents look anxious, the soldiers, perceiving some of the comicality of the situation, look foolish. A little blue crowd hurry for the door to the van; the prisoner who can scarcely be seen is hustled in. Half-a-dozen of the most juvenile members of the crowd, to whom one would say, with Beranger— Chers enfins chantez, dansez, Votre age echappo l'orage, venture to raise a shrill and piercing cheer, and are fiercely and instantaneously suppressed by the Government of the country. ("Larcom and the police.") The cavalcade forms — splendid cavalry in front, determined sabreurs in blue behind, more splendid cavalry bringing up the rear, dangerous, political prisoner in the centre, small crowds grouping everywhere and off the procession sets at a rapid pace through the busy, and, let me say, perfectly indifferent streets. This may seem to some merely absurd—to others it may have a significant aspect. It is just what would be done if the Government was afraid of its subjects, an admission which any government should be slow to allow the dangerous zeal of a few indiscreet officials to impose upon it. The evidence principally inculpating the prisoner, Michael Moore, was that of Nagle and Power, the approvers, who stated that they received 50 pikeheads from Moore on an order from James Stephens, a few days before the arrests were made. There was the corroborative evidence of documents found with the prisoner, to show that he had been engaged for a considerable time in making pikeheads, and had fabricated a large number of these weapons; and there was an abundance of evidence to show that the prisoner had been an active member of the conspiracy both in America and England. A letter was produced in which the prisoner was recommended by John O'Mahony to the Brotherhood in Ireland as an obedient and faithful subordinate. Letters of the prisoner and of a person who was known to his associates as "Pagan O'Leary," contained frequent references to the conspiracy; and enrolment cards shewing that he was connected with seven "companies," were found at his residence at the time of his arrest. The greater part of the evidence was directed to proving the foregone conclusion, the existence of the conspiracy. Every step in the Crown case was fiercely disputed by the counsel for the prisoner. Mr. Butt threw all the resources of unbounded ingenuity, all the power and weight of colossal intellect, into the effort to overawe and overwhelm the approvers and the detectives. Mr. Dowse plied them with dexterous and insidious questions, and used every wily art to catch them in small contradictions, irritating them with jibes and sarcasms, touching now upon one sore place now on another, with an amount of success which badly rewarded the quantity of human wit expended on it. Proof after proof was adduced, disputed and received, and the legal network was wound slowly but surely around the prisoner. The case for the Crown closed at one o'clock, and Mr. Butt stated the defence. He, in the first place, submitted that the prisoner should be acquitted on all the counts in the indictment based on the publications in the Irish People, with which the prisoner had in no way been connected. The Court concurred in this view, and, in charging the jury subsequently, Judge Keogh told the jury that they should confine their attention to fourteen counts—disregarding the remaining counts, in which the publications in the Irish People were charged as overt acts. Mr. Butt then addressed the jury, resting his defence upon two grounds. The first was that no evidence had been given to show that the prisoner had committed an unequivocal overt act of treason—in fact, the same ground as that on which the defence in the previous cases was based. Mr. Butt said that the prisoner was charged with having made pikes for the members of the Fenian Society. That, he submitted, might be true, and yet not be an overt act of treason; for if the prisoner made the pikes as an ordinary trade of transaction, even if he made them knowing their destination but not being himself actively engaged in the conspiracy, that would not be sufficient to support the indictment. But the crown contended that the prisoner had been engaged in the conspiracy, and relied on the documents found with him to prove that fact. But, counsel urged, these documents might have been placed in the prisoner's residence by the informers or by any person for the purpose of getting up a case against the prisoner, and therefore, the case being one of suspicion, but not of certainty, the jury ought lean to the side of liberty, protecting the prisoner against the power of the Crown, and ought return a verdict of acquittal. The Solicitor General replied for the Crown, showing that there were no grounds whatever for the supposition that the documents had been placed in the prisoner's home, and that there was overwhelming evidence to prove that he was a prominent member of the conspiracy. Contd/...3 --0--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 19th February 2023

CRIME: Treason 1865, 7 December: From the Cork Examiner, p2 -- Day 1: "THE FENIAN TRIALS. [From our correspondent.] Dublin, Wednesday... The case of Michael Moore was then taken up. He is charged with having made pikes for the purpose of arming the persons connected with the conspiracy. The principal evidence against him is the testimony of Nagle and Power and the written order James Stephens gave to Power to get 50 rods from the prisoner, which order was found with several others of the same kind, signed " J.P.," in the prisoner's house at the time of his arrest. Several enrolment cards were found with the prisoner, showing that he was connected in some way with seven Fenian companies. Books were also found with the prisoner containing accounts of the rods he had made. There is besides mention of his name in Stephens' letter to O'Leary, in proof that he was paid sums of money on Stephens' account for making pikes. Proof that the prisoner was known to John O'Mahony and that he was connected with American Fenians was afforded by a letter in which O'Mahony recommended him to the Confederates as a faithful, active member of the Brotherhood, who might be depended upon to obey orders, and to be always available when he was wanted. Evidence will be produced connecting the prisoner with one Pagan O'Leary, now suffering penal servitude for attempting to seduce soldiers from their allegiance. Letters from this person to "Citizen Moore," seriously compromising the latter, were read by the Attorney-General. Some other documents, compromising the prisoner, were found with him on his arrest. He had a rifle in his possession at the time. Moore is a blacksmith, and has the appearance of a respectable and intelligent man. Some delay occurred in obtaining jury in the case in consequence of the number of challenges made by the prisoner. When the jury had been sworn and the prisoner arraigned, a plea in abatement was handed in for the prisoner, was demurred to by the Attorney-General, and was overruled. The Attorney-General then stated the case for the Crown, which embraced precisely the same evidence as that given in the cases of Luby and O'Leary. At the conclusion of the learned gentleman's statement, Detective Clarke was called, and identified the documents and weapons found with the prisoner on his arrest. Sub Inspector Graves was next examined, and gave evidence as to the arrest of C.U. O'Connell at Queenstown, and the documents found with him. This went to establish the existence of the confederacy. At the conclusion this evidence, the Court adjourned to to-morrow (this) morning." (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000425/18651207/011/0002) --0--