THE DYNAMITARDS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1222, 31 July 1885, Page 3

THE DYNAMITARDS.

The following information concern- : ing Bur.on and Cunningham, who were sentenced to peral servitude for life on 18th Mav, may be interesting to our readers. Cunningham is the son of a tenant farmer, who formerly ' had a small holding near Cork. His sister procured an assisted passage to , America, where she obtained employment. She corresponded with her 1 relations at home, and as the result ; the elder brother of Cunningham, ' another sister, and himself emigrated • to the United States. The brother for a time worked in New York, but subsequently he and the convict went i to Boston, where they obtained regular employment. It was not till the convict had reached the age of eighteen years that he had anything to do with the Fenian organisation. He had not risen to the positron of a “centre” when he was selected to take part in the winter campaign, it being his first mission to this country. Cunningham was then told off by Burton as one of two men fo commit the outrage at the tower. Cunningham’s assigned duty was not to place the expl isive nor to ignite it, hut simply to act as a “ cover” to the other man. The connection of Burton with the conspiracy is much more conspicuous, and he occupied a much higher position in the ranks of the Society. Of him it can be stated that no explosion in London, with the exception of that at London Bridge, has taken place without his knowledge, and generally under his direction. Burton was born in a small street called Greenside, off Brunswick Road, Liverpool, his father being a Scotchman and his mother being an Irishwoman. When 12 or 13 years of age, Barton was placed errand boy with a chemist, in Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, where he remained for about twelve months, at the expiration of which period he was apprenticed to a joiner and picture frame maker. Burton and his brother, who was by trade a carriage builder, left Liverpool in 1872 for New York, and shortly afterwards lefl’tlmt civy and went to Buffalo, where they separated, Burton proceeding to Philadelphia, where in 1875 joined one of the Irish Secret Societies. He soon became a prominent member, and was one of the delegates at a dynamite conference. For some considerable time he was the friend of O’Donovan Bossa and other prominent Notionalists, and, under the assumed name of James Feeney, was one of the most active propagators of sedition amongst the Irish residents of America. In 1880, Burt in quarrelled wth Bossa, and since that date the two men have been enemies. Burton joined the Society of “ Sons of Frees dom,” and was so.in promoted to one of the most important posts in the organisation ; in fact, at the time of his arrest there were only two persons his superiors in the organisation. He first came to England in 1833, and since that date has been no less than six times in this country, each time ' returning safely to America to continue his plots.—Home paper.