MASSEY AND CORYDON, THE FENIAN INFORMERS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 256, 3 September 1867, Page 3

MASSEY AND CORYDON, THE FENIAN INFORMERS.

General Godfrey Massey was the appointed head of the insurrection for the south of Ireland. He was scarcely , on the table when a question arose as to his real name. During some portion of his career he had been giving it as Patrick Cbndon, and during other portions as Godfrey Massey. Before his examination was done, the fact came out that his father's name was Massey, but that his mother was not entitled to call herself by that name. For his own part, he was 'known in his childhood by his mother's name, Condon; subsequently he was called Godfrey Massey, and in later times he oscillated betfvfleh both. The Massey family, from which he ia descended on the father's side, are well known people of the class of landed gentry in the- county of Tipperary. t This precious youth entered the land transport service of the British army during the Crimean campaign. In the year 1856 he went to America. On the breaking out of .the civil war he joined the 2nd Texas Eegiment of the Confederate Army, ancl served under Kirby Smith. A short time after the close of the war he joined the Fenian Brotherhood, and he swears that he served the organisation faithfully up "to the time of his. arrest at the Limerick Junction on- the night before the rising. * j i ■■

■■■.-• ■ i A few days after his capture, finding that he' himself had been betrayed by one of his subordinates, and yielding to the persuasions of his wife, he pi'oposed to give information to the Government, 'land, of course, his offer was gladly accepted. So it came tcFpass that the. Colonel :_ Condon of the. Confederate Army, the: General Massey of the Feiiian Brotherhood, appeared in Green street Court House in the very unenviable position of an informer, swearing away the lives of brave men who had-trusteel him, and , brave men who would have gone at his bidding to the cannon's mouth. In the course of his evidence, he stated that some nights before that which he. had appointed for the rising he had been furnished with accurate returns of the available insurrectionary force in Dublin, and in Cork county, as well us of i)ie extent to which the men /ware armed. Those returns convict him iffifdl those connected with him of criminal rashness in having ordered a rising at all ; for the Fenian force was almost completely destitute of. arms, and in that condition it was folly to suppose they could do any fighting against the Queen's troops. In Dublin tlie men numbered from 14,000 to 18,000, and the arms of all sorts among them numbered 3000! Probably the rifles possessed by the entire force did not number 500. How on earth could a party of men, armed and unarmed in such proportions, be expected to keep their ground as insurrectionists for a single day ? In Cork the proportions were still more preposterous — being 1500 weapons to 20,000 men ! And of these 1500 the vast majority were pikes. Surely, after this, there is no need to 1 ask. why the Fenian movement failed, or why the insurrectionary parties were unable to stand their ground against the police and soldiers. Massey appears to have been acting bona fide for the Fenians up to the time of his arrest, when he lost heart utterly and succumbed. But another of the Irish-American party proved a traitor of a deeper dye. He is a young fellow who gives his name as John Joseph Cory don, and says he was a lieutenant in the Federal army. He has been giving information to the authorities since September last, continuing all the time to be a trusted military officer of the Fenian Brotherhood, and receiving at once the pay of the Brotherhood and the Government. It is his information to th^-authorities that has been blowing up ancl breaking up the Fenian. . movement for the pust six months. It was he who, by timely notice given to the police, frustrated the movement on Chester. It was he who made known to the authorities the mode adopted by M'Afferty to reach Dublin, and thereby insured his arrest; and it was he who got Massey captured at the Limerick Junction. This double-dyed villian gave his evidence with great coolness, but yet without any bravado, on the witness table. I noticed that he corrected his words at one time, where they were slightly ungraramatical. He is a meanlookiug fellow, of cadavei'ous. aspect, without a trace of blood in his face. His hair is red, and he wears a moustache, but no beard or whiskers. He says he is a native of Deny. Heaven help the fellow if the Fenians can lay hold of him any one of the^e days ! '