Calls to commemorate 150th anniversary of Fenians' Catalpa jailbreak

Tue, 30 Dec, 2025 - 17:10

Sean O’Riordan

The Government is being urged to organise a formal national commemoration to honour the 150th anniversary of “the largely forgotten” daring operation which led to the escape of Fenians from a British penal colony in Australia.

It will also be asked to recommend a posthumous presidential pardon for the six who were rescued from Fremantle in Western Australia in what became known as the Catalpa expedition, which was organised by John Devoy and John Boyle O’Reilly with finance raised by Irish-Americans.

The duo, who were prominent members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), helped raise money to buy the ship Catalpa and devise the plan to extract their fellow IRB members from the penal colony.

Fianna Fáil member of Cork County Council, Gearóid Murphy, won unanimous cross-party support to write to the Government urging it to act next year to commemorate the April 1876 event.

The rescued were prominent members of the IRB’s military wing and were among 62 Fenians transported to the penal colony on the convict ship Hougoumont. It was the last convict ship sent to Australia, arriving there in January 1868.

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“It's a fascinating piece of Irish history which was very prominent among the Irish independence movement at the time but has since been largely forgotten.

Catalpa raid funded by Irish-Americans

It concerns the rescue of six Fenian prisoners from Western Australia by a boat purchased by Fenians in America and financed by Irish-Americans. From there, they kitted out the boat and sailed it to what was then the convict establishment in Western Australia,” Mr Murphy said.

The six had been rounded up as Fenian activists as part of operations by the British administration against the IRB and sent for hard labour at the Australian camp.

“The Catalpa carried out a daring amphibious rescue of the prisoners on the beach. What was equally daring was the escape from Western Australia afterwards, as the Blue Squadron of the British Royal Navy [then the most powerful navy in the world], pursued them after the prisoners had been sprung from captivity but failed to seize the ship or the men,” Mr Murphy added.

It was widely acclaimed at the time and captured imaginations across Republican movements in Ireland and Irish America.

He said since our independence was won some years later, it has faded into obscurity.

“With the 150th anniversary approaching, I think the time's right for us to remember and commemorate this important piece of Irish and Irish-American history,” he said.

The Fenians rescued were James Wilson, Thomas Hassett, Michael Harrington, Thomas Darragh, Martin Hogan, and Robert Cranston.

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