From "The Graphic" - April 28, 1883. I can only upload five images at a time so I have had to spread these over two blog entries.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The Dynamite Plot of 1883
From "The Graphic" - April 28, 1883. I can only upload five images at a time so I have had to spread these over two blog entries.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Dynamite Plot of 1883
My great grandfather Adam Mackie was a police inspector. He was one of the arresting officers in the Dynamite Plot. Described by some contemporary newspapers as "The Fenian Plot to Destroy London". I found a full transcript of the trial here.
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?path=sessionsPapers%2F18830528.xml
It is the section beginning Reference Number: t18830528-620
There are some choice, if rather understated, quotes in the evidence of some police officers (not Adam)
I can't say if I said, "If you do not be very civil here you will get a rough Handling"—I had to request you to be civil, and I said it was a pity you did not know how to be more civil—I did not say, "I will have no d—d Yankee nonsense here"—I did say, "You must remember you are in England now and not in America," when I requested you to be more civil
I asked him a second time to give me an account of himself—I pressed him, and said that if he did not he would probably be put to inconvenience
A number of contemporary newspaper accounts of the trial can be found online - Google the words dynamite Gallagher Whitehead Curtin Wilson.
Later newspaper accounts suggest that those convicted were not well treated in prison. Here is an example from the New York Times of September 5, 1896, describing the return of Dr Thomas Gallagher to the USA on his release.
DR. GALLAGHER'S RETURN; HOME FROM HIS ENGLISH PRISON A RAVING MANIAC. Repulsed His Sister and Kicked His Brother -- Force Needed to Restrain Him -- Doctors Say He Bears Evidence of Inhuman Treatment -- A Wreck Physically as Well as Mentally -- To be Sent to an Institution.
Read the full text here. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B05E7DA1E31E033A25756C0A96F9C94679ED7CF
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?path=sessionsPapers%2F18830528.xml
It is the section beginning Reference Number: t18830528-620
There are some choice, if rather understated, quotes in the evidence of some police officers (not Adam)
I can't say if I said, "If you do not be very civil here you will get a rough Handling"—I had to request you to be civil, and I said it was a pity you did not know how to be more civil—I did not say, "I will have no d—d Yankee nonsense here"—I did say, "You must remember you are in England now and not in America," when I requested you to be more civil
I asked him a second time to give me an account of himself—I pressed him, and said that if he did not he would probably be put to inconvenience
A number of contemporary newspaper accounts of the trial can be found online - Google the words dynamite Gallagher Whitehead Curtin Wilson.
Later newspaper accounts suggest that those convicted were not well treated in prison. Here is an example from the New York Times of September 5, 1896, describing the return of Dr Thomas Gallagher to the USA on his release.
DR. GALLAGHER'S RETURN; HOME FROM HIS ENGLISH PRISON A RAVING MANIAC. Repulsed His Sister and Kicked His Brother -- Force Needed to Restrain Him -- Doctors Say He Bears Evidence of Inhuman Treatment -- A Wreck Physically as Well as Mentally -- To be Sent to an Institution.
Read the full text here. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B05E7DA1E31E033A25756C0A96F9C94679ED7CF
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