10 November 1861 Terence Bellew McManus
The funeral of Terence Bellew McManus in Dublin on 10 November 1861, when over 100,000 people followed the funeral cortege to Glasnevin proved to be a defining moment in the Fenian movement copper fasting support for the fledgling organisation.
Born in county Fermanagh in 1811 Terence Bellew MacManus, a member of the Repeal party and the Young Irelanders, took part in the ill-fated 1848 uprising in Ballingarry, county Tipperary. He was sentenced to death for his part in the Rising, but this was later commuted to transportation for life. Sent to Van Diemens Land, Tasmania, McManus escaped two years later and made his way to America, where he remained in San Francisco for the remainder of his life.
When he died in January 1861 the Fenian Brotherhood in San Francisco seized the moment and decided that McManus should be repatriated to Ireland and plans were put in place for his remains to be brought to Glasnevin cemetery for burial. It was a major coup for the Fenians and allowed them to drum up support all across the USA, Britain and Ireland as the funeral plans were put in place. Despite intense opposition from the Catholic Church in Ireland, the funeral provided the Fenian movement with its first public spectacle.
Archbishop Paul Cullen refused to allow the remains to lie in state in any church in his diocese, except for the funeral mass, so the ceremony took place from the Mechanics Institute on Abbey Street Lower. Passing through the streets of Dublin, thousands of Fenians in uniform paraded past the sites associated with Robert Emmet, Wolfe Tone and Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Described as the ‘greatest spectacle’ ever witnessed in Dublin the funeral had the effect of reawakening nationalist sentiment in Ireland which was said to have been dormant following the devastation of the Great Famine.
Source newspaper: www.irishnewsarchives.com
Download below : Connaught Telegraph 13.November.1861 & Kerry Star 16.November.1861:
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