GLASNEVIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 108, 22 May 1875, Page 14

GLASNEVIN.

TOMBS OF THE ILLTTSTEIOUS DEAD.

[From the Dublin ' Nation.'] THE MARTYRS' CROSS — ALLEN, LARXIN, AND O'BRIEN — "GOD SAVB

IRELAND." | But a few paces away from this point is a small but neat cross, which, next to the O'Connell monument, is evidently regarded as the most interesting object in the cemetery. On Sundays, when the visitors are most numerous, groups are usually to be seen reverently gazing on it. As you approach them you are sure to hear a murmured prayer for the souls of those to whose memory it has been erected, and you may notice that few pass it by without respectfully uncovering their heads. It is the cross erected to the memory of the three Irishmen executed at Manchester on the 23rd of November, 1867, for participation in 1 the rescue of two political prisoners, on which occasion a policeman was accidentally killed. The bodies of those sufferers for the Irish cause rest in the jailyard at Salf ord, but Irish love for their patriotism and courage has caused this memorial of them to be erected in one of the most prominent spots in this beautiful cemetery. Similar memorials were erected shortly after the execution in several burial grounds in various parts of Ireland, but the police in many instances illegally tore them down. This one, however, stands, and will long stand to remind Irishmen of a triple execution which the fairminded have never regarded as just, and which the Irish people will always consider to have been dictated simply by a feeling of vengeance. Those who desire to acquaint themselves fully with the details of the Manchester rescue, trial, and execution, will find all the facts in a little volume entitled " Speeches in the Dock," published at the office of the ' Nation.' The cross in Glasnevin was erected, and the ground on which it stands purchased, by Mr. John Martin, M.P., at his own expense ; but a portion of the cost was afterwards repaid to him by public subscription. To show with what loving care the spot continues to be regarded, although the relics of the patriot dead, do not rest beneath, we may mention that so lately as within the v last few days a handsome iron railing has been erected by some patriotic men of Dublin around the grave-plot. On the cross itself many tokens of the public feeling may usually to be seen ; " immortelles " are hung upon it, green leaves and flowers are twined through the arms of the cross ; little pictures of the Crucifixion, of the Sacred Heart, or of the Blessed Virgin, are attached to it, usually with bits of green ribbon; medals also of various devotions, and sometimes little cards with printed prayers, are fastened on. to it. And so it will be in all probability while centuries roll away, for the pious Irish race, with this memorial before them, will never prove unmindful of those humble but faithful-hearted men, whose patriotism brought them to so untimely an end, and whose spirit, at once devout and brave, in the very darkest hour of their fortunes, gave to the Irish people the noble exclamation which is a prayer and a rallying cry, fit for peace or war, suitable under all circumstances, and good for all time — " God Save Ireland." THI GRAVE OP ANNE DEVLIN. Proceeding' eastward along the walk from the Manchester cross we reach a very humble headstone which many visitors might pass unnoted, but that it, too, is usually decorated with some little tokens of popular remembrance. It bears the fdllowing inscription :—: — " To the memory of 'Anne Devlin (Campbell), the 'faithful servant of Robert Emmet, who possessed some rare and many noble qualities, who lived in obscurity and poverty, and so died on the 18th day of December, 1851, aged 70 years. May she rest in peace." Well may the author of the foregoing inscription say of Anne Devlin that she was a faithful servant of Eobert Emmet, and that she possessed many noble qualities. After the failure of the young patriot's insurrectionary attempt, while the bloodhounds of the law were in. eager search, for him, she resisted both the terrorism that was practised on her, and the bribes that were proffered her to induce her to reveal his place of concealment. One of those scenes is thus related by Dr. Madden, in his " Lives of^ the United Irishmen " : "Major Sirr had positive information of Eobert Emmet's place of concealment at Harold's Cross. He 'was directed to give a single rap at the door, and was informed that he jwould find Mr. Emmet in the parlour A troop of yeomen came with a magistrate and searched the house. Every place was ransacked from top to bottom. As for Anne Devlin, she was seized on when they first rushed in, as if they were going to tear down the house. She was kept below by three or four of the yeomen, with their fixed bayonets pointed at her, and so close to her body that she could feel their points. When the others came down she was examined. . . . The magistrate pressed her to tell the truth, he threatened her with death if she did not tell. She persisted in asserting her total ignorance of Mr. Ellis's acts and movements, and of those of all the other gentlemen. At length the magistrate gave the "word to hang her, and she was dragged into the courtyard to be executed. There was a common car there ; they tilted up the shafts and fixed a rope from the back band that goes across the shafts, and while these preparations were making for- her' execution, the yeomen kept her standing against the wall of the house, prodding her with their bayonets in the arms and shoulders till she was all covered with blood, and saying to her at every thrust of the bayonet, ' Will you. confess now ? will you tell now where is Mr. Ellis ? ' (This was the name assumed at that time by Emmefc, to avoid detection.) Her constant answer was, ' I have nothing to tell ; I will tell nothing ! ' " The rope was at length put about her neck ; she was dragged to the place where the car was converted into a gallows; she was placed under it, and the end of the rope was passed over the bac

band. The question was put to her for the last time, ' Will you confess where Mr. Ellis is ? ' Her answer -was, ' You may murder me, you villains, but not one word about him will you ever get from me/ She had just time to say, ' The Lord Jesus have mercy on my soul ! ' when a tremendous shout was raised by the yeomen — the rope was pulled by all of them except those who held down the back part of the car, and in an instant she was suspended by the neck. After she had been thus suspended for two or three minutes, her feet touched the ground, and a savage yell of laughter recalled her to her senses. The rope round her neck was loosened, and her life was spared ; she waß let off with half hanging. She was then sent to town and brought before Major Sirr." As terrorism and torture and imminent death did not avail to shake her fortitude, the Major now tried what .virtue there might be in gold. He offered her — a poor young woman of twenty-six years of — a sum of ,£SQO if one would only say one word that would let him know where he might lay hands on .Robert Emmet. But she spurned the bribe. She was kept a close prisoner in Kilmainham for a couple of years, where she was subjected to great cruelty, and was only released when several of the state prisoners were being sent out of the country by the Government. So she lived and died, as the inscription on her tombstone Btates, in obscurity and poverty. But this humble woman was an honor to her country and her sex. Thank Heaven, that fidelity to the cause of Ireland, and its champions which she so brilliantly displayed, and which is indeed a noble quality, is not a rare one among the women of Ireland. Many remarkable instances of it have occurred in our own day. But that lowly tombstone which stands over the grave of Anne Devlin ought surely to be to Irishwomen an object of special regard. To decorate that grave with tokens of loving remembrance ought to be for such of them as have an opportunity of visiting- it an act of loving duty ; it is one which the highest lady in the land might be proud to perform.