John Devoy
Encyclopedia
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
rebel
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
leader and exile.
Early life
Devoy was born near Kill, County KildareKill, County Kildare
Kill is a village and parish in County Kildare, Ireland near the county's border with Dublin beside the N7. Its population of 2,510 makes it the 13th largest town in County Kildare. Kill is the birthpace of the Fenian John Devoy, sometimes regarded as the "grandfather of the modern Irish state"...
. In 1861 he travelled to France with an introduction from T. D. Sullivan to John Mitchel
John Mitchel
John Mitchel was an Irish nationalist activist, solicitor and political journalist. Born in Camnish, near Dungiven, County Londonderry, Ireland he became a leading member of both Young Ireland and the Irish Confederation...
. Devoy joined the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
and served in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
for a year before returning to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to become a Fenian
Fenian
The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...
organiser in Naas
Naas
Naas is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. With a population of just over twenty thousand, it is also the largest town in the county. Naas is a major commuter suburb, with many people residing there and working in Dublin...
, County Kildare
County Kildare
County Kildare is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county...
.
Nationalist Leader
In 1865, when many FenianFenian
The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...
leaders were arrested, James Stephens
James Stephens (Irish nationalist)
James Stephens was an Irish Republican and the founding member of an originally unnamed revolutionary organisation in Dublin on 17 March 1858, later to become known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood , also referred to as the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by contemporaries.-Early...
, founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood
Irish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...
(IRB), appointed Devoy Chief Organiser of Fenians in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in Ireland. His duty was to enlist Irishmen in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
into the IRB.
In November 1865, Devoy orchestrated Stephens' escape from Richmond Prison, Dublin.
In February 1866, an IRB Council of War called for an immediate uprising, but Stephens refused, much to Devoy's annoyance as he calculated the Fenian force in the British Army to number 80,000. The British got wind of the plan through informer
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
s and moved the regiments abroad, replacing them with loyal regiments from Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. Devoy was arrested in February 1866 and interned in Mountjoy Gaol before being tried for treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
and sentenced to fifteen years penal servitude. In Portland
Isle of Portland
The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...
Prison, Devoy organised prison strike
Prison strike
A prison strike is a strike taking place inside a prison, involving either a hunger strike or a prison work strike. The California Code of Regulations states that "[p]articipation in a strike or work stoppage", "[r]efusal to perform work or participate in a program as ordered or assigned", and...
s and was moved to Millbank Prison.
In America
In January 1871, he was released and exiled to America as one of the "Cuba FiveCuba Five
The Cuba Five were a group of Irish rebels released from British prisons in 1871 on condition of not entering Britain until the expiration of their original sentences. They chose to accept exile in the United States, travelling on board the ship Cuba. The five men were John Devoy, Jeremiah...
", where he received an address of welcome from the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. Devoy became a journalist for the New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
and was active in Clan na Gael
Clan na Gael
The Clan na Gael was an Irish republican organization in the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries, successor to the Fenian Brotherhood and a sister organization to the Irish Republican Brotherhood...
. Under Devoy's leadership, the Clan na Gael became the most important Irish republican organization in the United States and Ireland. He aligned the organization with the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1877.
In 1875, Devoy and John Boyle O'Reilly
John Boyle O'Reilly
John Boyle O'Reilly was an Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer. As a youth in Ireland, he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenians, for which he was transported to Western Australia...
organised the escape of six Fenians from Fremantle Prison
Fremantle Prison
Fremantle Prison is a former Australian prison located in The Terrace, Fremantle, in Western Australia. The site includes the prison, gatehouse, perimeter walls, cottages, tunnels, and prisoner art...
in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
aboard the ship Catalpa
Catalpa rescue
The Catalpa rescue was the escape, in 1876, of six Irish Fenian prisoners from what was then the British penal colony of Western Australia.-Fenians and plans to escape:...
. In 1879, Devoy returned to Ireland to inspect Fenian centres and met Charles Kickham, John O'Leary and Michael Davitt
Michael Davitt
Michael Davitt was an Irish republican and nationalist agrarian agitator, a social campaigner, labour leader, journalist, Home Rule constitutional politician and Member of Parliament , who founded the Irish National Land League.- Early years :Michael Davitt was born in Straide, County Mayo,...
on route in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. It was on this trip that he convinced Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
to cooperate in the "New departure
New Departure (Ireland)
The term New Departure has been used to describe several initiatives in the late 19th century where Irish republicans, who were committed to independence from Britain through use of physical force, attempted to find a common ground for cooperation with groups committed to Irish Home Rule through...
" during the growing Land War
Land War
The Land War in Irish history was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. The agitation was led by the Irish National Land League and was dedicated to bettering the position of tenant farmers and ultimately to a redistribution of land to tenants from...
.
Secret War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
included attempts to assist the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
in 1916. In 1914, Padraig Pearse visited the elderly Devoy in America, and later the same year Roger Casement
Roger Casement
Roger David Casement —Sir Roger Casement CMG between 1911 and shortly before his execution for treason, when he was stripped of his British honours—was an Irish patriot, poet, revolutionary, and nationalist....
worked with Devoy in raising money for guns to arm the Irish Volunteers
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...
.
At the declaration of war between Britain and Germany on August 14, 1914, Sir Roger Casement and John Devoy arranged a meeting in New York between the Western Hemisphere’s top-ranking German diplomat, Count von Bernstorff, http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/bernstorff.htm and a delegation of Clan-na-Gael men. The Clan delegates proposed a mutually beneficial plan: if Germany would sell guns to the Irish rebels and provide military leaders, the rebels would stage a revolt against Britain, diverting troops and attention from the war with Germany. Von Bernstorff listened with evident sympathy and promised to relay the proposal to Berlin. Devoy decided to communicate directly with Berlin himself . At the time, Britain held control of the seas and furthermore, within days of the start of the war, had cut the transatlantic cable. It would be necessary to send an envoy to deliver the message personally[8].
John Kenny
John Kenny (Clan-na-Gael)
John Kenny long-time member and multi-term president of the Clan-na-Gael in New York, which supplied support to the rebels in Ireland, culminating in the Easter Rising. Under the cover of personal and business trips, he served as liaison between the "Home Office" and the New York Clan-na-Gael...
, president of the New York Clan-na-Gael, was sent. After meeting the German ambassador in Rome and personally presenting Devoy's plan, Kenny met in Germany with Count von Bulow. He then traveled to Dublin where he told Tom Clarke and other members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood of the arrangement, and carried back to Devoy the I.R.B.'s wishlist for guns, money, and military leaders. The details of Kenny's mission were later published in the Gaelic American.
Though he was skeptical of the endeavor, Devoy financed and supported Casement's expedition to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to enlist German aid in the struggle to free Ireland from British rule, including Casement's "Irish Brigade". Nervous of Casement's companion Adler Christensen whom he discovered was a fraudster and his decision to put the Irish Brigade at the Germans' disposal in Turkey, Devoy advised Casement to return to the USA, advice which was ignored.
In 1916 he played an important role in the formation of the Clan-dominated Friends of Irish Freedom
Friends of Irish Freedom
The Friends of Irish Freedom was an Irish-American Republican organisation founded at the third Irish Race Convention held in New York . Supported by the United Irish League, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and other leading Irish-American organisations...
at the third Irish Race Convention
Irish Race Conventions
The Irish Race Conventions were a disconnected series of conventions held in Europe and America between 1881 and 1994. None was concerned in defining the Irish as an ethnic race, but they were arranged to discuss some pressing or emerging political issues at the time concerning Irish Nationalism....
, a propaganda organization whose membership totaled at one point 275,000. The Friends supported Woodrow Wilson for the presidency in 1916 because of his policy of American neutrality in the world war. Fearful of accusations of disloyalty for their cooperation with Germans and opposition to the United States' entering the war on the side of Great Britain, the Friends significantly lowered their profile after April 1917 when America entered the war.
With the end of the war, Devoy played a key role in the Friends' advocacy for self-determination for Ireland, in line with Wilson's "Fourteen Points
Fourteen Points
The Fourteen Points was a speech given by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe...
", as distinct from recognition by the United States of the sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
of the new Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
. Wilson did not guarantee recognition of the Republic as declared in 1916 and reaffirmed in the popular election in 1918. American-Irish republicans challenged the Friends' refusal to campaign for American recognition of the Irish Republic. Not surprisingly, Devoy and the Friends' Daniel F. Cohalan
Daniel F. Cohalan
Daniel Cohalan was an Irish-American leader and judge of the Supreme Court of New York State .Born in Middletown, New York where he joined and became a prominent member of the Democratic Party and later involved in the leadership of the Tammany Society .In 1912, Cohalan was appointed a Judge of...
became the key players in a trans-Atlantic dispute with de facto Irish president Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
, touring the United States in 1919 and 1920 in hopes of gaining U.S. recognition of the Republic and American funds. Believing that the Americans should follow Irish policy, de Valera formed the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic in 1920 with help from the Philadelphia Clan na Gael. Diplomatic recognition was not forthcoming and Irish-American groups refused to support Wilson in the United States presidential election, 1920
United States presidential election, 1920
The United States presidential election of 1920 was dominated by the aftermath of World War I and a hostile response to certain policies of Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic president. The wartime economic boom had collapsed. Politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's...
, but $5.5m was raised.
Later life
He later supported the 1921 Anglo-Irish TreatyAnglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
and the formative Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
during the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
, and was an honoured guest of the new state in 1924. Devoy was editor of the Gaelic American
Gaelic American
The Gaelic American was an Irish Catholic newspaper published in the United States that was, along with the Irish Nation, owned by John Devoy. A weekly publication of the Sinn Féin, it was amongst the foremost Irish ethnic newspapers till the Great Depression when its readership declined. It had at...
from 1903 until his death in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on September 29, 1928. His body was returned to Ireland and buried in Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery , officially known as Prospect Cemetery, is the largest non-denominational cemetery in Ireland with an estimated 1.5 million burials...
. A large memorial to him stands on the road between his native Kill and Johnstown
Johnstown, County Kildare
Johnstown , historically known as Freaghillan , is a village in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland. It is located 2 km north of Naas just off the N7 at junction 8. It is approximately 25 km from Dublin City Centre, and is a home for commuters working in Dublin and Naas...
.
Resources
- Devoy, John. John Devoy's Catalpa Expedition (ISBN 0-8147-2748-4)
- Devoy, John. 1929. Recollections of an Irish rebel. New York: Chase D. Young Company.
- Irish Rebel: John Devoy and America's Fight for Ireland's Freedom, by Terry Golway, St. Martin's Griffin, 1999 (ISBN 0-312-19903-1).
- Kenny, Kevin. The Irish in America: A History, (New York: Person Education Ltd., 2000), p. 173
- Miller, Kerby. Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 542–543