IRELAND.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 263, 21 May 1866, Page 3

IRELAND.

THE FENIAN MOVEMENT. The arrests for Fenianism still continue, but on a diminished scale. In Limerick, Mr Stephen B. Welsh, aged 24, a very respectable young man, "was brought in from Kilmalloek by the constabulary and lodged in the county gaol. The master of the Bathkeale workhouse is also a prisoner in the same gaol. In addition to these there have been committed — Thomas M'Donuell, slater, Ballingarry ; Mr Eichard Loane, weighmaster, Newcastle West; and John Sheahan, publican, Newcastle West. This man had been previously arrested, but was out on bail. The total number of Fenians now in the county of Limerick prison, 83. Thomas O ! Connell, of Abbeyfeale, recently •arrested, was stated to have been a captain in the Federal army, and an associate of G-eary, who shot Head-con-stable O'Sullivan in Newcastle. His friends assert that he did not occupy the rank of captain, and deny tiiathe had any acquaintance whatever with Geary. For three weeks previous to his arrest, O'ConaeU was confined to Un own house, under mtsfcl treatment. The calender for- theoQuntiycpntains th§ names Qi'32& r by Q'Q-»#, tta ty&^i ■Sflwwd pto'j

David Quade, John Sheehan, and Thomas Browne, who are to be tried under the Treason Felony Act. They stand charged with being members of the Fenian Brotherhood, and soliciting others to join the confederacy ; also for having treasonable documents in their possession.

In Cork, a young man named John O'Callaghan, holding a very respectable post in that city, has been arrested. Soon after his arrest the police proceeded to his residence, Fair-bill, and there instituted a vigorous search for arms and documents and they succeeded in gaining possession of several suspicious papers which it is said will very deeply implicate him in the present treasonable movement. It is also said that he holds as important a post as a " Centre " for the city. Four men were arrested in Waterford and five in Sligo on Feb. 27. There are 24 Fenians confined in the gaol of Mullingar, and 14 in that of Boscoinmon.

An important arrest has been made in the County Carlow. The Dublin 'Express' correspondent says : —

" After several months' searching, by night and day, John Morris, the famous Head Centre for Carlow, has been arrested at the house of his uncle, Ned Nolan, a larmer residing at Baknaglash, near Myshal. By the arrest of this outlaw the Fenian cause in this part of the country has got a very serious check, as there is reason to suppose that he was one of the most active agents engaged in the treasonable conspiracy.

£100 reward had been offered for his apprehension. The arrest was very cleverly effected.

Among the later arrests in the provinces are the cases of three drapers' assistants in Bantry ; seven young men, all strangers, in G-orey ; an English-Irish emissary in Athy; three publicans in Sligo ; and a tailor and his wife in Portstewart, the female fori having, and attempting to conceal, two small leather cases of documents ; 11 militiamen of the Mayo Regiment, and also two constabulary policemen in the county of Cork.

The muskets, fowling-pieces, and all sorts of fire-arms pawned in Dublin have been transferred to the stores in the Castle, which now contain a more extraordinary collection of miscellaneous weapons thanhas ever before been brought together in one place.

A Fenian proclamation posted in Tuam is remarkably different from former compositions of the sort. It is headed, " Grod save the Green," and runs : —

"Whereas in the year of the Irish Eeublic, 1866, certainpersons (enemies of said Kebpublic) styling themselves the Parliament of Great Britain, and who pretend or imagine they have authority over this Oppressed Nation, have ordered the arrest of all the loyal subjects of said Republic by the suspension of an Act which they call the Habeas Corpus. Now in order to let the usurpers see that the Irish Nations will have their independence, and in case the myrmidons of the so-called British law make any attempt on their liberty, it is Ordered that they do not allow it if possible. By order of the Executive Committee, Irish Eepublic. February 21, 1866.— G0d save the Green!"

The arrests reported on March 5 include, at Belfast, nine persons, two taken on Lord-Lieutenant's warrants ; at Newry, a man who had the usual amount of Fenian ammunition, with moulds for rifle ballets, and seditious songs ; , at JSTenagh, a harness-maker, a carpenter, a shoemaker, and two others ; at Templemore, a farmer and a small land-agent in tolerably good circumstances, who ranks among the most active members of the conspiracy (according to the police account) ; at Carrick-on-Sair, five persons, a comfortable farmer, a local political agitator, a clerk, and two Irish- Americans. The clerk is a person said, on the occasion of a late regatta in the river, to have stood up in a boat supporting a Fenian flag, having on it two crossed pikes and the words, " United we stand, divided we fall," —

Another secret meeting of Fenians is reported from Sligo, where they were observed in numbers in a field; two arrests were effected. One of the latest captures in Cork is that of a young man named Doheny, son of Michael Doheny, of 1848, who was one of the most fanatical of the young Irelanders of that period, and the real originator of American Fenianism. Doheny, senior, died some time ago in America.

A court-martial was opened at Enniskillen on Feb. 26, for the trial of Privates O'Brien, Egan, and Buckley, of the 86th Uegunent, charged with singing a seditious and traitorous song known as "The Green Flag." Private O'Brien was first put on trial. He was undefended. Private John Corrigan, 86th Kegiment, deposed that on the evening of 6th of January last he went into John Martin's public-house, Townhall-street, where a number of civilians were sitting on the left hand side, and a number of soldiers sitting on the opposite side. One of the prisoners, William Egan, was asked to sing a song. He replied he could not sing ; with some pressing from other soldiers, he (William Egan) commenced to sing a song named " The G-reen Flag." There was a chorus to it. To the best of his opinion it was " Up with the G-reen Flag, and down with all flags." Prisoner O'Brien joined in with the chorus. The civilians did not join with the soldiers at all. The following is a part of the song : —

THE GEEEN Plu». Boys, fill your glasses, Each hour that passes, Still it may be our last night's cheer ) The day soon shall come, boys, With fife and drum, bojflj Breaking shrill on the soldier's ear. Drink the iaithfrl hearts that love us, Mid to-morrow's thiokeetjight, While thus our green fiag floats above U3. Green is not the national color of the flag of Great Britain, I always saw the Union Jack hoisted for England, The cpurt thea adj owned, M the cQurt-TOartial ftt Owk on

charged with being a member of the Fenian Brotherhood, the prisoner put in a lengthened written defence. He observed that if, with his 14 years' service, he had joined such a society as the Fenian Brotherhood, as falsely sworn he did, be would be more fitted for a lunatic asylum than a prison. He contended that the informer Warner had not been corroborated, and that he was an habitual perjurer, whose statements could not be relied on. He analysed the evidence given by Warner and the two soldiers examined for the prosecution for the purpose of showing that it was untrustworthy, and, in conclusion, appealed to his long service in Africa and in China, and to the high character he bore in his regiment, as proofs that he was loyal to his sovereign, and could not be guilty of the charge brought against him. He then called several in his defence, and at the conclusion of their evidence the court rose.

The court-martial on Drum-Major Butler, of the 2nd regiment, closed on March 8, in Cork. The finding is not known. The chief evidence, as in -the case against Darragh, is that of "Warner the approver, who states that he* swore in as Fenians five soldiers in Cork, Butler being one of them, and that he himself joined the Fenian society with the deliberate intention of betraying its secrets. The defendant made a very effective ddefence, and produced many witnesses, military and civilian, who testified to his abhorrence and disgust of Fenianism. His defence is considered exculpatory.

The first of the soldiers tried before the recent court-martial at Cork was Private Eose, of the 20th Eegiment, who was charged with having said in the hearing of Detective Carson, "I am an Irishman from the county of Clare, and a Fenian. All the soldiers are the same, and if they are called on they will never fire upon the people." Eose denied having used such language ; but the finding of the court was that the charge had been proven. This finding has, however, been annulled and Eose acquitted by the War-office, from the want of evidence to corroborate the testimony of Carson. There is a probbility, as there were other soldiers with Eose at the time that the detective brought the charge against the wrong man. — The Pall Mall Gazette, commenting on the above, says it affords " a salient instance of this inefficiency, not to say iniquity, of the existing system of trials by court martial. The prisoner was found guilty and sentenced to two years' imprisonment; on the recommendation of the commander-in-chief, the Queen directs the sentence not to be carried out, and the prisoner has consequently returned to his regiment. What are the army and the public to infer from this — that the court-martial convicted an innocent man, or that the commander-in-chief sympathies with Fenianism ? Two years' imprisonment is a sore punishment, which ought not to be lightly or carelessly awarded. We hope that some member of Parliament will ask for a further explanation of this matter."

Several alleged deserters from the army were on March 12 brought before Mr "Wyse, at the head police-office, Dublin: Two of these, named Kelly and Tierney, were identified by SergeantMajor John Chamberlain as being deserters from his company in the 87th Eegiment. . They had been absent since the 31st of January. Kelly joined the regiment in India in 1854, and Tierney in Dublin in 1859. They were committed as deserters. Three others, named Kane, Troddee, and Campbell, were remanded. The first battalion of the 60th Eifles, which recently left Dublia for Malta, is said to have suffered more from desertions then any other regiment, and to have been deeply leavened with Fenianism. O'Brien and Egan, of the 86th Eegiment, and Buckley, of the 15th, who were tried by court-martial, at Snniskillen, for singing disloyal songs, have been convicted. The two latter were sentenced to two years' impi'isonment. O'Brien, a very young man, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment and to receive 50 lashes, 25 of which have been inflicted.

Between 7 and 8 o'clock on the night of March 6, no less then 27 persons were arrested in a public-house in Crok-hill, Dublin, who assembled there, as is alleged, for the purpose of holding a meeting in furtherance of the Fenian conspiracy. Among those on the premises at the time, and who wers taken into custody, were John Slattery and Thomas Slattery, the proprietors of the establishment, and William Slattery, their brother. Several of those arrested were in the tap-room at the time of the entrance of the police, and were engaged playing cards, while others were in front of the shop counter. Some resistance, or rather an attempt to escape, was made on the part of one or two of the prisoners, but without success. The Brethren assembled were all artisans of rather the more respectable class, brassfounders, printers, machinists, carpenters, and others. There was but one in the grade of labourer. The most significant arrest were those of the deserters, and there are believed to be four or five, if not more, among the group. Three are known, one being a deserter from the 61st Bigeinent and another from the 10th Hussars. The apparent leader at the conclave was a man uamed M'Cann^a private of the 60th Bifles, who was in uniform. On the same evening, a man named John Quinn, stated to be a prisoner from the 60th Eifles, was also arrested. — On March 7, eight .arrests were made in Skibbereen. Mr. Nelson Underwood was arrested in Strabane, and sent under a strong escort to Omagh ; papers, including directions for pike drilling, were found with him. l On the Bth, a man. named Tracey, who had eluded pursuit fo:? some time, was arrested in Dublin, He was on© of the principle arm.ou.rera qf the conspiracy in *ha Irish metropolis and had been,

servitude as a Fenian. Tracey was the person who escaped from the hands of the police when they seized the Fenian factory at Blackhall-row in Dublin, some six weeks ago. Lieut.-Colonel Byrne, of the Federal service, a returned Irishman, was also arrested in Dublin. 320 greenback dollars and 20 dollars in gold were found with him. On the same day the constabulary made seven arrests in Skibbereen, one of the party, named O' Sullivan, being a late captain in the Federal army. The whole seven prisoners rejoice in the Celtic prefix " G " to their names. A respectable man named Daly, brother to a hotel proprietor of Tuam, has been arrested on a Fenian charge. The respectable inhabitants of the county of Limerick complain that, in consequence of that county not having been proclaimed, numbers of very bad characters roam about armed, and keep the. farmers in a state of apprehension. Several arrests have been made in the county of Tipperary of persons who sang a seditious song on the public road, or shouted, " Hurrah for Stephens !"

G-unner and Driver Flood, of the GBattery, 9th Brigade Royal Artillery, who has been branded with "8.C.," drummed out of the service, and ordered to be imprisoned for two years, on being conducted out of Portobello Barracks, after parade, cheered lustily for the Fenian Brotherhood and the Irish Republic.

A general order of the army in Ireland, issued by Sir Hugh Ease, attributes the spread of Fenianism among the soldiers to agents who have given bribes and drink to young and thoughtless men. Their infamous designs have, however, failed ; not a taint of conspiracy rests on the army except in the case of a few deluded men, placed in its ranks purposely to seduce soldiers. " The Fenians," says Sir Hugh, " have doomed the owners of the land to massacre and assassination ;" two men on furlough haive murderously attacked loyal soldiers in Kilkenny for bringing a Fenian to justice, but Sir Hugh Bose will have the culprits speedily punished.