Donegal County Council passed a motion this week calling for the excavation of the remains of five members of The Irish National Invincibles from Kilmainham Gaol.
Proposed by Councillor Michéal Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig, the motion calls on the Office of Public Works to recover the remains of Joseph Brady, Daniel Curley, Michael Fagan, Thomas Caffrey and Timothy Kelly.
The five men were convicted for their part in the Phoenix Park Murders in which two of the most senior political figures in the country, Thomas Burke and Lord Cavendish, were stabbed to death in May 1882. The convicts were hanged at Kilmainham Gaol in 1883 and remain buried at what is commonly called the Invincibles Yard.
The Invincibles Yard
Now, the men’s families are campaigning for their relative’s remains be exhumed and re-interred in Glasnevin Cemetery.
Councillors supported the motion on Monday, and the Council is now set to write to the Office of Public Works.
Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig highlighted the Donegal connection to the events to the council.
The leader of the Invincibles, James Carey, turned informer after Phoenix Park murders to avoid conviction himself. He gave the evidence against his colleagues which led to their execution at Kilmainham.
Carey was then murdered by Donegal man Patrick O’Donnell, from Min An Chladaigh Gaoth Dobhair. O’Donnell, a labourer, stood trial for the murder and was hanged in London in December 1883. According to history reports, O’Donnell’s death secured his immediate status as a national hero at home and abroad and he was celebrated as an Irishman who had died for Ireland.
Two large Celtic crosses were erected to commemorate O’Donnell, one in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, the second in his native Gweedore, where a public event in his honour is still celebrated annually.
Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig at the Gaoth Dobhair cross commemorating Patrick O’Donnell
