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Show I HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT. IS---------- ---- - A VETERAN FENIAN. Patrick McGrath of San Francisco, One of Gen. O'Neill's Raiders. In these days of strenuous life, of vast and rapid changes in public af-rairs, af-rairs, men are apt to forget, or at least to pass over with but little interest the great movements and the heroic men who have made a stand to change the worlds h.story, and to restore nationality nation-ality to a people. It is said that republics repub-lics are not ungrateful; yet if this as- j TCr!Ln u e true U I'ows as an equal ' ttuth that a people who cherish thej hope of founding a republic will not! prove ungrateful to those who mak! the effort in their behalf. I fear however, how-ever, that in the light of history this assertion of gratefulness will be found to be wanting. However, there are exceptions ex-ceptions to all rules, and the object of this sketch is a Jiving proof of the exception. ex-ception. y Patrick McGrath, the sergeant-alarms of the St. Patrick's day convention, conven-tion, and a veteran member of Division 1 A. O. H., is one of the heroes of a movement that had for its aim the I freedom of Ireland, a freedom to be' gained by wresting Canada from Brit ish control and thus enable its workers I to be in a position to compel England I to treat with the Irish Republican leaders lead-ers for terms. The terms that the leaders lead-ers had in view were the restoring of Canada to England for the recognition of Ireland as a separate and distinct nation. Born in Ireland, he worked in England Eng-land first as a stevedore and subsequently subse-quently as a boss stevedore, then came to this country in I860, and at the outbreak out-break of the civil war, like manv others oth-ers of his young countrymen, lie entered en-tered the service of Uncle Sam. It was while in the service that he became a member of the Fenian Brotherhood, joining in New York. He was identified with what was known as the Roberts wing of the Brotherhood, and it was this wing that decided to invade Cana- I j da from the frontiers of New York, i Pennsylvania and Michigan. At Buf-I Buf-I falo over 10,000 men had gathered for the purpose of invasion, under command com-mand of General O'Neil. On Friday morning. June 1. 1866, McGrath, who ; was known as "the Blackbird." owing to his complexion, with 500 others, were ordered to the Canadian side. On crossing cross-ing the border, this intrepid band was met by and soon were in conflict with the Queen's Own of Toronto, and several sev-eral thousand British regulars. There was several casualties, and the attack resulted in the defeat of the Irishmen, who were expecting reinforcements from the American side, but which did not arrive in time. McGrath and many others were taken tak-en prisoners, some of whom were released re-leased without trial, owing to the fact that they could not be sufficiently identified iden-tified to warrant holding them. McGrath Mc-Grath and twenty-six others, however. "ne iieiu, u ing io neing laentmea by one of the queen's liveried Irish, a British soldier named Sullivan, who was also the principal witness against j this band when the trial took place at : Toronto. They were tried and convict- ed of levying war on her majesty. ! i Upon conviction the twenty-seven were sentenced to be hanged, but this sen-. sen-. fence was subsequently commuted to : twenty-one years' imprisonment, owing ; to the officials of the United States us- 1 ing their influence in behalf of the j prisoners. , They were removed to the provincial penitentiary at Kingston, where they I I entered upon their duties as convicts j I at nara laoor. Uhat their lives here was not a bed of roses may easily be j imagined when it is known that the deputy warden was an Irish Orange-j Orange-j man named Flannagan, who did all in . his power to make the lives of his Fe-I Fe-I nian prisoners as miserable as possible No two of the Fenians were allowed to be employed together; speaking, ex-I ex-I cept to an officer of the prison, was absolutely prohibited, and infractions, no matter how slight, of the rules, were punishable by flogging or the dark cell , with a bread and water diet. So severe se-vere was this strain upon the consti-i consti-i tutions of the Fenians, that the ma-jority ma-jority succumbed to disease, or to death shortly aftr dieborp-n. One young fellow, Cooney, became insane and was con lined in the prison asylum. McGrath served in this. pris- i on until he was pardoned in the early part of 1872, when he again entered the United States. During his early days in the Fenian 1 movement ne was me iriena anu associate asso-ciate of Father McMahon of Indiana, Kyle, Burke, Gallagher and Cooney, who also became his fellow prisoners, and all of whom have passed away long ere this. After his pardon he was the friend and associate in New York and Chicago of the leading men in the Irish movements, such men as General Roberts, John Stephens, O'Donovan Kossa, General .O'Neil, who subsequently subse-quently became one of the wealthiest citizens of Nebraska, and of the well known Fenian soldiers. Colonels Glee-son Glee-son and Sweeney, and Patrick Ford. All of "these but Rossa. and Ford have .now passed the divide, and as both are well advanced in years, their stay owncrct iic i.-ill not bi t-cri- Ir.ntr though we hope that they may be spared to see Ireland a nation. McGrath. never a- very loquacious person, is so reticent about the Fenian matter that it is hard to obtain a full account from him of his record in the a.Tair. But to the Irish cause he gave j five long years of his life just when he was at his prime, and had it not been so, it is more than likely that he would today be in the enjoyment of a competency to lighten the toil of his declining years. Let Irishmen of today be friendly toward to-ward one of the few that is left of the active men In the Canadian raid and always accord to him that respect we naturally feel for a hero. Among those who suffered imprisonment impris-onment with McGrath for the cause I of Ireland were: Father McMahon, j Hickey, Burke, Kennedy, Quinn, Maxwell, Max-well, Gallagher. Cooney, Rogan, Madden, Mad-den, Crowley. O'Neil, Colonel Lynch, Slevin, Dunn, Norton, who was wounded wound-ed and lost an eye in the engagement with the British forces; Whalen, Kyle and Purtell, who also received wounds in the same battle. The Nation. |