The Invincibles: The Phoenix Park Assassinations and the Conspiracy that Shook an Empire

‘Britain in Ireland is a beast exceeding terrible; his feet and claws are of iron,’ The Invincibles

In an Ireland still reeling from years of famine, with tenant farmers being evicted and left to starve for their inability to pay exorbitant rents, revolutionary fervour was growing. An inner circle of the IRB was formed, a secret assassination squad within a secret society – the Irish National Invincibles. Their mission was to strike at the heart of British Imperial power, to kill the figureheads of Ireland’s oppressors.

On their way home from a triumphal parade through the city, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, two of the heads of the establishment, were set upon and stabbed to death in the Phoenix Park. These killings would shake the Empire to its core, and shape the following decades of Irish history.

Table of Contents

Remembering Dr Shane Kenna – Liz Gillis page 9

Introduction – Dr Ruan O’Donnell 11

1 Background to the Invincibles 15

2 The Genesis of the Invincibles 47

3 The Phoenix Park Assassinations 66

4 The Investigation 78

5 Cracks in the Conspiracy 118

THE TRIALS

5 Joe Brady 160

6 Daniel Curley 173

7 Timothy Kelly 181

8 Michael Fagan 187

9 ‘Skin the Goat’ – James Fitzharris 195

10 Thomas Caffrey & Patrick Delaney 202

11 Edward O’Brien & Peter Doyle 208

12 James Mullet, William Moroney & Laurence Hanlon 210

13 Timothy Kelly 214

14 Joseph Mullet 230

The Executions

15 Joe Brady 242

16 Daniel Curley 248

17 Michael Fagan 254

18 Thomas Caffrey 258

19 Timothy Kelly 262

THE Aftermath

20 Carey’s Flight 270

21 The Reaction 281

22 The Execution of Patrick O’Donnell 299

Afterword – Aidan Lambert 307

Editor’s Note 309

Endnotes 311

Acknowledgements 323

Index 325