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THE UNKNOWN POWER BEHIND 
 
 THE lEISH NATIONALIST 
 
 PARTY 
 
THE UNKNOWN POWER BEHIND 
 
 THE IRISH NATIONALIST 
 
 PARTY 
 
 ITS PRESENT WORK . 
 AND CRIMINAL HISTORY 
 
 BY THE EDITOR OF 
 
 " GRIEVANCES FROiVI IRELAxND 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LTD. 
 
 25 HIGH STKEET, BLOOMSBUEY, W.C. 
 
 OFFICES OF "GRIEVANCES FROM IRELAND" 
 
 Dudley House 
 
 36-38 Southampton Street 
 
 Steand, W.C. 
 
 1907 
 
HAUo 
 
 PRINTED AND BOUND BY 
 
 HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., 
 
 LONDON AND AYLESBDRY. 
 
 BOSTONCOLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 CHESTNUT HTa,MASa 
 
 231048 
 
PEEEACE 
 
 In the history of secret political and agrarian 
 societies the organisation described in the fol- 
 lowing pages merits a conspicuous place. It is 
 not a newly fledged body like the United Irish 
 League, but — so far as age goes — a venerable 
 institution which, under various aliases, has 
 existed for three centuries and a half. Until 
 a brief article on its history appeared in the 
 December, 1906, issue of Grie^oances from Ireland, 
 it was practically unknown, except as a name, 
 in the United Kingdom ; while in Ireland it 
 was generally looked on as a harmless Benefit 
 Society, affording sick relief and burial fees to 
 its members. To the world in general it ap- 
 peared in the lovely garb of an angel of light 
 and comfort, adopting for its motto, '' EriendshijD, 
 Unity, and True Christian Charity." But this 
 is not the real character of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians ; it is only an assumed one. As 
 the following pages amply prove, it was formed 
 for the purpose of driving the English Govern- 
 ment out of Ireland, and that is as much its 
 object to-day as ever it has been in the past. 
 It has, unfortunately, been more than disloyal, 
 down to about thirty years since. Eor the first 
 three centuries of its history its operations have 
 
Vi PEEFACE 
 
 been stained with outrages, murder, and blood. 
 It is not asserted that these crimes are committed 
 by it at the present time, yet we look in vain 
 for any official exj^ressions of regret for its past 
 offences, while we listen with amazement to its 
 modern leaders glorying in its traditions, without 
 any exceptions whatever ; and we look forward 
 to its future with well-grounded apprehension. 
 
 If the Ancient Order of Hibernians were a 
 small body we might look upon it with in- 
 difference. But it is not a small body. On 
 the contrary, as Mr. Michael Davitt boasted 
 in 1904, it is, perhaps, ''the most powerful 
 pro-Celtic organisation in the world." Some 
 of its officials stated in 1906 that it numbers 
 380,000 members. At a meeting reported by 
 The Freeman's Journal, October 9th, 1906, 
 Mr. John E. Eedmond, M.P., leader of the 
 Irish Nationalist Parliamentary Party, said : 
 
 '' I have always held the view that it 
 was a strength to the National Movement, 
 and not a weakness, that England should 
 realise that there was behind the men who 
 were conducting the Constitutional Move- 
 ment on the floor of the House of Commons, 
 a Great Unknown Powee, waiting for an 
 opportunity which might arise to have 
 recourse, if necessary, to other methods to 
 advance the cause of Ireland." 
 
 It is a pity that Mr. Pedmond has not given the 
 public further particulars concerning this '' Great 
 Unknown Power." Probably it would have been 
 indiscreet on his part to do so. He could certainly 
 
PREFACE Vll 
 
 not have meant the Clan-na-Gael, the successor 
 of the Fenian Brotherhood, for it is by no means 
 an "unknown " power, being very well known 
 indeed through the revelations made public 
 before the Parnell Commission. Besides, the 
 Clan-na-Gael is not ''behind" the so-called Con- 
 stitutional Movement of the Irish Nationalists, 
 headed by Mr. Eedmond ; on the contrary, it 
 is bitterly opposed to it, as any one may know 
 who will read The Gaelic American, the official 
 organ of the Clan, which is never tired of abusing 
 the Nationalist Parliamentary Party and the 
 United Irish League. We must therefore look 
 elsewhere for this '' Great Unknown Power." 
 After careful inquiry and research, we have 
 discovered it to be the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians, whose past history and present-day 
 work are described at length in the following 
 pages. No other organisation exists which 
 answers in every respect to the description 
 given by Mr. John Redmond. It is a rapidly 
 increasing power, especially during the past 
 two years, with branches in Ireland, England, 
 Scotland, the United States, Canada, Australia;, 
 and in many other parts of the British Empire, 
 and with secret passwords and proceedings. 
 Everywhere its members are required to be 
 Nationalists, at enmity with British rule in 
 Ireland. It has a religious basis. None but 
 Boman Catholics are allowed, under any cir- 
 cumstances, to join its ranks, and it is necessary 
 that every member shall attend regularly to 
 his or her religious duties. Everywhere it is 
 pledged to maintain the authority of the Church 
 
Vlll PREFACE 
 
 of Eome. But here comes in the strange fact 
 that, since its birth in the sixteenth century, it 
 has often been denounced by Etonian Catholic 
 Bishops in the strongest possible terms, and 
 only quite recently by the Scottish Boman 
 Catholic Bishops. On the other hand, as is 
 proved in the last chapter of this book, within 
 the last few years it has received the benediction 
 of Pope Pius X., and the approval of Cardinal 
 Logue, Cardinal Moran, Cardinal Gibbons, and 
 many Archbishops, Bishops, and priests in 
 England, Ireland, and America. While atten- 
 tion is necessarily directed in these pages to 
 this aspect of the case, the ordinary doctrinal 
 position of the Church of Bome is in no way 
 discussed. We have to deal here only with the 
 agrarian and political work of a powerful 
 organisation which has secured for itself the 
 support and approval of a considerable number 
 of the rulers of the Church of Bome. 
 
 No attempt has been made to exaggerate the 
 indictment of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. 
 Perhaps it would be almost impossible to exagger- 
 ate its atrocities, from its unhappy birth down to 
 the time when the Molly Maguires of Pennsyl- 
 vania (a branch of the Order) committed 
 wholesale murders in the coal regions, as late 
 as the year 1876, unrebuked by the parent body 
 from that day to this. It will be observed that 
 full proofs and references are given for every 
 statement in this book, and that in the over- 
 whelming majority of instances our authorities 
 are the friends of the Order. The italics in the 
 quotations are ours, with but few exceptions. 
 
PREFACE IX 
 
 We yenture respectfully to suggest that the 
 operations of this " Great UnknoAYn Power " — 
 for hitherto it may be truly said that its secret 
 operations hai^e been unknown to the outside 
 public — are worthy of the serious attention of 
 His Majesty's Government, and of all states- 
 men and politicians, and, in fact, of every real 
 well-wisher to Ireland, whatever his ordinary 
 political views may be. While this preface is 
 being written we are awaiting, with no little 
 anxiety, for the proposals of the Government, 
 by which they have promised to give an 
 instalment of Home Eule to the men in Ireland 
 who support this '' Great Unknown Power," and 
 to the United Irish League, as well as to the 
 loyal minority. Who will benefit by this instal- 
 ment of an increased political power ? The loyal 
 portion of the people reject it. Is it wise or safe 
 to give it to the members of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians, or to the United Irish League ? 
 It is certain that that increase of political power 
 will be used to augment the difficulties of 
 British rule in Ireland. The United Irish 
 League rules Ireland, and the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians, of evil history, apparently rules 
 the League. Should loyal subjects of King 
 Edward VII. grant to such bodies increased 
 facilities for carrying on their mischievous 
 operations ? It is not true wisdom to please 
 the disaffected, and terrorise the loyal and best 
 subjects of the Crown in Ireland. 
 
CONTENTS 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE AIMS AND OBJECTS OF THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Ancient Order of Hibernians — Its inner circles and 
 terrible oaths — A great political society — The United 
 Irish League not the leading disloyal organisation — The 
 Order formed to drive the English Government out of 
 Ireland — It supports the United Irish League, with 
 which its objects are identical — Destruction of British 
 rule the primary duty of its members — None but Roman 
 Catholics with jSTationalist sympathies admitted to the 
 Order — Its members bound to attend Mass regularly — 
 Cardinal Moran, Grand Chaplain of the Australian 
 section — Pope Pius X. said to be the most powerful 
 friend of the Order — Cardinal Logue and several Irish 
 Bishops support the Order^Pope Pius X. sends his 
 cordial blessing to the United States section — The secret 
 work of the Order — Members forbidden to make public 
 its proceedings — The ceremony of initiating a new 
 member— Founded in the reign of Queen Elizabeth — 
 Its various aliases — Known as Tories, Rapparees, De- 
 fenders, Whiteboys, Ribbonmen, etc 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 EABLY HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS 
 
 Tories, or Rapparees — The founder of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians — The head of a band of brigands and 
 guerillas — His character by " The Four Masters " — His 
 murderous work — The cruelties of his successor — The 
 horrible crimes of the Tories — The murder crusades of 
 the Rapparees — The Tories denounced by the Roman 
 Catholic Synod of Ardpatrick, in 1678, as "lawless 
 bandits " — The Tories try to assassinate Archbishop 
 Plunkett — Modern members of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians glory in its past history — Boast that the 
 Order has " always been right " 22 
 
XU CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE WHITEBOYS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians formerly known 
 as WMteboys — Testimony of President Cummings and 
 John Mitcliell — Secrecy of the Whiteboy Society — The 
 Oath taken by its members— Its chief work the organising 
 of agrarian outrages — Their horrible cruelty and crimes — 
 Denounced by the Roman Catholic Archbishop James 
 Butler as " a gang of wretches heaved out by hell," and 
 as " deluded victims of the devil " — The Roman Catholic 
 Archbishop Troy terms the Oaths of the WMteboys 
 " bonds of iniquity, wicked and damnable " ; and 
 declares that their " accumulated enormities call to 
 Heaven for vengeance" — Bishop Woodward describes 
 their attacks on the Protestant clergy — Mr. Michael 
 Davitt declares the social insurrection of the White- 
 boys was " necessary " — He sneers at the censure of the 
 WMteboys by Roman Catholic Bishops .... 34 
 
 CHAPTER lY 
 
 THE DEFENDEKS 
 
 The modern leaders of the Ancient Order of Hibernians boast 
 that the Order is identical with the Defenders — The 
 Defenders were the immediate successors of the WMte- 
 boys— Testimony of Mr. Michael Davitt— The Oath of 
 Secrecy taken by the Defenders — Rules of the Defenders 
 Society — Every member to provide a gun and bayonet 
 — Plowden says the Defenders " indulged in all sorts of 
 crimes" — Testimony of the Attorney-General — The 
 Defenders described by the Select Committee of the 
 Irish House of Lords — Testimony of Lord Chancellor 
 Clare — Their attacks on the houses of Protestants — 
 Lecky's character of the Defender Movement — The 
 Defenders as described by Mr. T. A. Emmet— Their 
 disloyal work — None but Roman Catholics admitted as 
 members — Its secret character — The wholesale murders 
 committed by the Defenders — Instances of their horrible 
 atrocities — Summary of Defender outrages in 1793 — The 
 Defenders join the United Irishmen — 615 Protestants 
 murdered in cold blood by the rebels of 1798 — The Oath 
 taken by the rebels to "murder all heretics, up to my 
 knees in blood " 47 
 
 CHAPTER y 
 
 THE KIBBONMEN 
 
 The Ribbonmen were the offspring of the Defenders — A 
 strictly secret society — Their special animosity to Pro- 
 testants — The Ribbon Society denounced by the Roman 
 
CONTENTS XUl 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Catholic Bishop Doyle — He charges it with " establish- 
 ing a reign of terror throughout the country " — Eibbon- 
 men known by various names — Their Oaths to " wade 
 knee-deep in Orange blood" — They wished to expel the 
 Protestants from Ireland — A list of outrages comniitted 
 by Whitefeet Ribbonmen in Queen's County — Bishop 
 Doyle again denounces the Whitefeet Eibbonmen as 
 making war " like the savage of the desert " — The recent 
 official History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 terms the Ribbon organisation a "grand and noble 
 society " — The Ribbon Oath to owe no allegiance to a 
 Protestant Sovereign, to murder all Protestant landlords, 
 and destroy all Protestant places of worship — Another 
 form of the Ribbon Oath — Mr. Michael Davitt identi- 
 fies the Ribbon Oath to " wade knee-deep in Orange- 
 men's blood" — A general description of the Ribbon 
 system — Mr. A. M. Sullivan describes the Ribbon Society 
 as " a hideous organisation of outrage and murder " — 
 The Report from the Select Committee on Westmeath 
 Unlawful Combinations, in 1871— The Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians said to be the " inheritors of the glory " 
 of the Ribbonmen — Mr. Michael Davitt says the Order 
 is "the trans-Atlantic offspring of the Ribbonism of 
 Ireland" 70 
 
 CHAPTER yi 
 
 THE MOLLY MAGUIEES 
 
 The Fenian leader O'Leary asserts that the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians in America is " a Ribbon organisation " — 
 Birth of the Order in America — Known in the Penn- 
 sylvania coal region as " Molly Maguires " — Murders by 
 the Molly Maguires — List of murders, 1863-7 — Their 
 crimes described by Mr. F. B. Gowen — " Midnight 
 prowlers and cowardly assassins " — The detective 
 McParlan — His adventures amongst the Molly Maguires 
 — Joins the Mollies and discovers their secrets and mur- 
 ders — Description of his reception into the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians — The Oath of Secrecy — McParlan 
 denounced to the Molly Maguires as a detective — Whole- 
 sale arrests of the Molly Maguires — McParlan's evidence 
 in Court — He identifies the Molly Maguires with the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians— Declares that the Order 
 is a secret organisation — Sentence on seventy Molly 
 Maguires — Molly Maguire outrages and murders in 
 1877 and 1878— The attitude of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians towards the Molly Maguires — The Order said 
 to have spent 30,000 dollars defending the Mollies when 
 accused, and in paying assassins — Only one Lodge of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians out of 6,000 con- 
 demned the murders and outrages of the Molly 
 Maguires — Mr. Pinkerton asserts that the whole Order, 
 
XIV CONTENTS 
 
 " from root to branch, was rotten and corrupt " — Not 
 one word of repudiation by the Order of the " hellish 
 acts " of the Molly Maguires — The Order assists 
 murderers to escape — Seven Eoman Catholic priests 
 assert that " no faith is to be placed in the most solemn 
 promises or denials of the Ancient Order of Hibernians," 
 and that " murder is traceable to the Order " . . . 109 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE PRESENT-DAY WORK OF THE ANCIENT ORDER OF 
 HIBERNIANS 
 
 Schisms in the ranks of the Order — The American schism 
 healed in 1897 by Bishop McFaul — Relations of the 
 American section of the Order to the Irish Board of 
 Erin — The Australian section of the Order governed on 
 the same lines and principles as the Irish section — The 
 Revised Laws and Constitution of the American 
 Hibernians — None but practical Catholics and National- 
 ists admitted as members— Evidence of the secrecy of 
 the Order to-day 133 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 OPPOSITION TO AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND 
 AMERICA 
 
 Numbers and income of the American Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians — It seeks to promote bad blood between 
 America and England — What the President said on this 
 subject — Mischievous influence of the Massachusetts 
 Hibernians in this direction— Strong language of the 
 Missouri State Convention of Hibernians — Dangerous 
 political alliance between American Hibernians and 
 Germans in America 142 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 WORKING FOR IRISH INDEPENDENCE 
 
 The American Order of Hibernians working to entirely 
 separate Ireland from British rule— Mr. Michael Davitt 
 on the military organisations of the Order — Official 
 information concerning its regiments and officials — 
 " The final and complete independence of Ireland 
 will alone satisfy all Hibernians "—Statements of the 
 Hibernians' State Conventions of Minnesota, Massa- 
 chusetts, and Missouri 148 
 
CONTENTS XV 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE CLAN-NA-GAEL AND THE ANCIENT ORDER OF 
 HIBERNIANS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The bond of sympatliy between tlie Clan-na-Gael and 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians— The United Irish 
 American Societies working together for a common 
 cause — Prominent American members of _ the Order 
 support the Clan-na-Gael— ^^e Catholic Citizen on the 
 similarity of the two organisations — Secret plot for the 
 capture of the Order by the Clan-na-Gael — Monsignor 
 Charles McCready asserts that the administration of the 
 Order in New York has been transferred to the Clan- 
 na-Gael — The Ancient Order of Hibernians in Canada — 
 50,000 members of the Order in Montreal . . .153 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 PRESENT-DAY WORK IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 No expressions of regret for the past criminal history of 
 the Order — The Secret Inner Circle — Mr. James Nugent 
 praises O'Donovan Piossa — Modern leaders of the 
 Order praise its past history without exception — 
 Testimony of The Northern Star and the Monaghan 
 Division of the Order — The Order has ever been dis- 
 loyal to England — A recruiting-ground for the Fenians 
 — Gave birth to the Fenians— Remarkable statement 
 by a leading Fenian — The disloyal work of the Order 
 in Ireland — The National Treasurer asserts that the 
 Order was formed to "drive the English Government 
 and garrison " out of Ireland — The National Secretary 
 of the Order says that the " one supreme movement " 
 in Ireland is that of the Ancient Order of Hibernians — 
 He further declares that the Order aims at " making 
 every nation hate and destroy the power of England " — 
 A National V^ice-President of the Order affirms that it 
 wall not give up the struggle " till the last bit of British 
 rule is exterminated in Ireland " — A County Vice- 
 President of the Order says that " no man connected 
 with the English Government could be allowed into 
 its ranks " — Opposed to young men joining the British 
 Army 158 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE UNITED IRISH LEAGUE AND THE ANOIENT 
 ORDER OF HIBERNIANS 
 
 The Order is the " Great Unknown Power " behind the 
 United Irish League — Remarkable statement of 
 Mr. John E. Redmond, M.P. — Remarkable statements 
 
Xvi CONTENTS 
 
 of Mr. William O'Brien, M.P.— Says that a "secret 
 Ribbon Lodge " dictates the policy of the United Irish 
 League — Representatives of the Order are present at 
 the Election Conventions of the League — The Northern 
 Star asserts that the Order is " a valuable auxiliary to 
 the United League " — The Order said to be " the head, 
 shoulders, and body of the United Irish League "—The 
 Shercock Division, and the Wallsend-on-Tyne Division 
 of the Order refuse to admit any one as a member who 
 is not first a member of the League— Schism in the 
 Irish ranks of the Order — The Scottish Section of the 
 Order under the Ban of the Scottish Roman Catholic 
 Bishops — Said to have a connection with the Clan-na- 
 Gael and the Fenians — The whole strength of the Irish 
 Nationalist Party given to the Order in Scotland- 
 Blessed by Pope Pius X.— Supported in Ireland by many 
 Roman Catholic Bishops— The Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians exists in England, Scotland, Ireland, United States 
 of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South 
 Africa, South America, Mexico, Honolulu, and the 
 Philippine Islands — Concluding observations . .170 
 
CHAPTEE I 
 
 THE AIMS AND OBJECTS OE THE UNKNOWN 
 POWER 
 
 The Ancient Order of Hibernians — Its inner circles and terrible 
 oaths— A great political society— The United Irish League 
 not the leading disloyal organisation — The Order formed 
 to drive the English Government out of Ireland — It 
 supports the United Irish League, with which its objects 
 are identical — Destruction of British rule the primary duty 
 of its members — None but Roman Catholics with Nationalist 
 sympathies admitted to the Order — Its members bound to 
 attend Mass regularly — Cardinal ^Moran, Grand Chaplain of 
 the Australian section — Pope Pius X. said to be the most 
 powerful friend of the Order — Cardinal Logue and several 
 Irish bishops support the Order — Pope Pius X. sends his 
 cordial blessing to the United States section — The secret 
 w^ork of the Order — Members forbidden to make public its 
 proceedings — The ceremony of initiating a new member — 
 Founded in the reign of Queen Elizabeth—Its various 
 aliases — Known as Tories, Rapparees, Defenders, Whiteboys, 
 Ribbonmen, etc. 
 
 The Ancient Order of Hibernians is an 
 organisation whose very name is unknoAvn to 
 the great majority of Englishmen, while to 
 those outsiders who haye heard of its 
 existence it is hut little more than a name. 
 It is time that this ignorance should be removed, 
 for a society of such vast dimensions, which 
 boasts a history running back to the time of 
 Queen Elizabeth, is worthy of the careful study 
 of the statesman and politician. Mr. Michael 
 Davitt, writing in 190 4^, affirms that it is now 
 '' perhaps the most poAverful pro-Celtic organisa- 
 tion in the world." ^ 
 
 ^ The Fall of Feiidalism in Ireland^ by ^[ichael Davitt, p. 42. 
 
 1 
 
2 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 A Nationalist paper which supports the 
 Order, The Roscommon Herald, of April 15th, 
 1905, asserts : ''In the United States the 
 members are over a quarter of a million strong,^ 
 in the north of Ireland they are 50,000, and in 
 the north of England and Scotland they can 
 muster 10,000." The Northern Star, a Belfast 
 paper in sympathy with the Order, estimates, in 
 its issue for May 6th, 1905, the number of 
 members in Ulster as 80,000. The members of 
 the Order in Australia numbered, in 1904, 
 25,000.' A '' County Delegate " of the Order 
 asserts that the total membership in 1906 was 
 380,000.^ An organisation of such magnitude 
 must be powerful for good or evil. 
 
 The Ancient Order of Hibernians professes 
 to be a charitable society ; it assists its members 
 when out of work, provides them with sick pay, 
 and contributes towards the expenses of their 
 funerals. In all this there is everything worthy 
 of praise. Its motto is excellent, viz. '' Priend- 
 ship. Unity, and True Christian Charity." 
 
 If this were all, there would be no need for 
 criticism ; but it is not all. The Order has 
 a political and an agrarian side in its opera- 
 tions, which is far more important than its 
 social and benevolent aspects. While it claims 
 sympathy and approval as an ''Angel of Light," 
 it has an evil history behind it, stained with 
 treason, rebellion, and crimes of the darkest 
 dye. Mr. Charles W. Heckethorn, who has 
 made Secret Societies a special study, writes : 
 
 " This Order is widely diffused through- 
 out the United States, where it numbers 
 
 ^ This is not quite accurate. The official organ of the Order 
 in America, The National Hibernian, of November 15th, 1906, 
 gives the number in the United States as 185,000. 
 
 - Northern Star, Sept. 2nd, 1905. 
 
 3 Ulster Herald, April 21st, 1906. 
 
BOUND BY TERRIBLE OATHS 3 
 
 about 6,000 lodges. It is divided into two 
 degrees, in the first of which, counting 
 most members, no oath is exacted, and no 
 secrets are communicated. But the second 
 consists of the initiated, hound together hy 
 terrible oaths/' ^ 
 
 We do not, of course, hokl the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians responsible for its past history, 
 during more than three hundred years ; yet it 
 cannot be denied that its leaders of the present 
 day frequently express their pride in that 
 history, and are not heard to express regret for 
 anything it has done during its career. In a 
 letter written by Dr. Clancy, Roman Catholic 
 Bishop of Elphin, addressed to the President 
 of the Sligo Branch of the Order, he tells him 
 that the Pope has entrusted to him '' a beauti- 
 fully chased silver water-croft and goblet as a 
 prize for our approaching Temperance Bazaar," 
 and then he added these words : ''To you I 
 now transfer my trust over this attractive and 
 valuable gift, believing, as I do, that your 
 ancient Order, with its glorious origin and hal- 
 lowed t7Yiditions, is the most worthy custodian 
 of the Pope's own special prize." ^ 
 
 The Northern Star, in a leading article on 
 the Order, which appeared in its issue for 
 September 2nd, 1905, declares : '' To-day the 
 organisation is banded together throughout the 
 ivorld for the same purpose for ivhich the society 
 was originally founded,^'' 
 
 Pather M'Kinley, National Chaplain for Ire- 
 land, reminds the members that " we have 
 in the history of the Order a noble and glorious 
 heritage to maintain ^ ^ 
 
 ^ Heckethorn's Secret Societies of all Ages, vol. ii., p. 275, 
 edition 1897. 
 2 Northern Star, August 12th, 1905. 
 2 Irish Neivs, July 3rd, 1906, 
 
4 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 The Ancient Order of Hibernians is a great 
 political society — more political, we believe, 
 than either charitable or benevolent. In a 
 lawsuit which its main body had to defend in 
 Dublin, on September 20th, 1905, its counsel, 
 Mr. O'Connor, K.C., said: "This society had 
 branches not only in Ireland, England, and 
 Scotland, but in every State of America, and 
 in every part of Australia. It was a great 
 religious society, and in some respects a great 
 political society .'' ^ 
 
 And what have been, and what still are, its 
 politics ? There is not, and never has been, in 
 them one atom of loyalty to the British Throne. 
 It is still, and always has been, a disloyal 
 organisation, and the bitter foe of British rule 
 in Ireland. At a meeting of the Order at Moy, 
 on April 16th, 1906, Mr. Hugh Byrne, one of 
 its officials, affirmed that : '' The organisation 
 was formed for the purpose of driving the 
 British Government and garrison out of this 
 old land of ours." ^ 
 
 The British public are under the impression 
 that the leading disloyal organisation of the 
 present time is the United Irish League; but 
 this is quite a mistake. The leading political 
 society is still, and has been for three centuries 
 and a half, the Ancient Order of Hibernians. 
 
 In an address to the Branches of the Order, 
 dated October, 1905, and signed by the President 
 and National Trustees, it is stated : 
 
 " The recent National Convention of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, held in 
 Dublin, has resulted in the country at large 
 being awakened to a full realisation of the 
 aims and objects of that glorious Order, 
 
 1 Freeman^s Journal, Sept. 21st, 1905. 
 
 2 Irish News, April 17th, 1906. 
 
THE ORDER AND THE UNITED IRLSH LEAGUE 5 
 
 founded by Eory Oge O'More, which has 
 proved in the past such a strong bulwark 
 in defence of Irish Catholic principles, and 
 which is indubitably/ bound in the future to 
 become one of the most powerful means any 
 country ever had at its disposal for the 
 7'edress of civil and religious disabilities. . . . 
 and ivhose pi^iceless inheritance from its 
 founders is the proud privilege of safe- 
 guarding and protecting National ideals 
 and aspirations.'' ^ 
 
 If we take into account the vast number of 
 members of this Order at the present time, and 
 the fact that its leaders are pushing its cause 
 with unw^onted energy, the boast of its officers 
 that it will '' become one of the most powerful " 
 political and religious means for redressing 
 alleged civil and religious disabilities is not 
 a vain one. The boast is to us a call to make 
 its work and history more widely known than 
 it has been hitherto. With its past traitorous 
 and criminal history we shall deal presently; 
 it may suffice here to assert that at the present 
 time the chief energies of the Order, both in 
 the British Empire and the United States, are 
 directed to the support of the United Irish 
 League, and the Nationalist Party in Parliament. 
 The General Secretary of the United Irish 
 League, Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P., is also 
 President of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.^ 
 
 The Eev. Pather M'Kinley, National Chaplain 
 of the Order in Ireland, said at a meeting of 
 its members in Belfast on March 4ith, 1906, that 
 Hibernians in the past— 
 
 '^joined in every constitutional move- 
 ment from the days of Butt to Parnell, 
 
 ^ Irish Netvs, Oct. 9th, 1905. 
 - Ibid., March 5th, 1906. 
 
6 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 from Parnell to the E;edmond of to-day. 
 They helped in the agitation that had home 
 so much fruit, and whenever and Avherever 
 a large demonstration of Catholic and 
 Nationalist power was to he for demanding 
 their rights as Irishmen, the men to he 
 depended on had heen the men of the 
 Ancient Order of Hihernians. Individuals 
 might have gone wrong, hut as a body they 
 had always been right. At the back of 
 Parnell's United Party they stood, and just 
 so at the hack of a United Party led 
 by John Eedmond did they stand to-day, 
 encouraging them with the cry, as they 
 did in days gone by — 
 
 Here's to Kedmond's bold Brigade, 
 Strong and fearless, stout and hearty, 
 
 All for Ireland's rights arrayed ; 
 Here's to Ireland's Irish Party. ^ 
 
 At the meeting just referred to, Mr. Joseph 
 Devlin was presented with an address from the 
 Belfast and County Antrim Branch of the Order, 
 in which it was boasted that : " The Order to- 
 day is a poiverful auxiliary in heljnng on the 
 work of ^politically emancipating our land''' 
 Mr. Devlin, in reply, mentioned that the 
 Australian Ancient Order of Hibernians ''had 
 guaranteed £1,000 '' to the fund being then 
 raised to pay the expenses of the General 
 Election.^ At a great Convention of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians, held in Dublin, in July, 
 1905, at which 500 delegates were present from 
 Ireland, England, and Scotland, two resolutions 
 were unanimously carried, the first requiring 
 every Branch to instruct young men in the 
 political principles of Irish Nationality ; and 
 
 ^ Irish Neivs, March 5th, 1906. 
 ' Ibid, 
 
THE OHDER AND THE UNITED IRISH LEAGUE 7 
 
 the second giving hearty supjDort to the Irish 
 Parliamentary Party and the United Irish 
 League : 
 
 *' That every Branch of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians shall make it its duty to 
 instruct in Nationality the young men of 
 the country ; that lectures and talks upon, 
 and readings from Irish history, the singing 
 of patriotic Irish songs, and the recitation 
 of ]3atriotic pieces, should form part of the 
 programme at every meeting of the Order, 
 and that in general the instruction of the 
 young men on the duties they owe their 
 country should ever be kept as a main 
 object in view.'' 
 
 " That this Convention heartily approves 
 of the great National work done in the 
 interests of Ireland by the pledge-bound 
 Irish Parliamentary Party, and, recognising 
 that the overwhelming vote of our country- 
 men has declared in favour of the United 
 Irish League as the National organisation, 
 this Convention requests the National 
 officers to see that no division of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians will adopt or support 
 any candidate for a representative position 
 in opposition to the candidates duly selected 
 by the United Irish League in the spirit 
 of its constitution." ^ 
 
 At a meeting of the Glenties (Co. Donegal) 
 Branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians on 
 March 17th, 1905, Canon MacPadden, P.P., 
 who presided, said : '' He took it also to be an 
 evidence that they were in full agreement and 
 sympathy with the United Irish League, whose 
 meetings were held in the same hall. So far 
 
 ' JS^'orthern Star, July 29tli, 1905. 
 
8 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 as their native laud teas conce^^ned, the aims of 
 both organisations were identical. ^^ ^ 
 
 A Mr. OAven Kiernan holds high office in 
 the Order, as '' National Delegate." In that 
 capacity he gave an address to its Wallsend-on- 
 Tyne Division in August, 1905, when he told 
 his hearers that : 
 
 ^' To give his best to the destruction oj 
 alien rule in Ireland was^ next to faith- 
 fulness to Mother Church, the primary 
 duty of every Sihernian. Speaking for 
 himself, he had very little love for any 
 Hibernian who was not also a practical 
 Irish Nationalist ; and to he that to-day, in 
 his judgment, id as to he a member of the 
 United LHsh Leagued ^ 
 
 At another meeting of the Order, this same 
 Mr. Kiernan said : 
 
 ''Every man who joined the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians ivas expected to he a 
 member of the United Irish League, and for 
 his part he would admit no man as an 
 Hibernian who was not a member of the 
 League. . . . The Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians conferred many benefits on its 
 members. In the first place, as he had 
 already pointed out, it ivas a most valuable 
 force behind the National Organisation the 
 wide world over.^^ ^ 
 
 We thus see that the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians and the disloyal, boycotting, and 
 intimidating United Irish League, if not a kind 
 of Siamese Twins without a separate existence, 
 yet are in reality twin sisters, having common 
 
 ^ Donegal I7idepe7ident, March 24th, 1905. 
 
 2 Irish Neivs, August 10th, 1905. 
 
 3 Ibid., July 5th, 1905. 
 
PREPARED TO USE THE SWORD 9 
 
 political objects in view. We are of the opinion 
 that of the two the most dangerous by far is the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians. The Order is 
 prepared to go quite as far as the League in 
 opposition to British rule in Ireland, and — if we 
 judge by its past history — there is reason to fear 
 that it may ere long leave the League far 
 behind. 
 
 "To-day," says a leading article in a paper 
 devoted to the interests of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians, *' the organisation is banded 
 together throughout the world for the same 
 purpose for which the society was originally 
 founded. . . . Those who at present hear the 
 name of Hibernians are as prepared as their 
 forefathers tvere to take up, if needs he, thestvord 
 in defence of their inalienable right to freedom. ^^ ^ 
 
 If the members of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians did take up the sword to fight 
 against British rule, it would not be for the 
 first time, for, as this same article from which 
 we have just quoted reminds us, in the past 
 '' the members took part in pitched battles 
 against the trained might of England's forces." ^ 
 
 It is important to emphasise the fact that 
 none but Irish Boman Catholics with National- 
 ist sympathies can or ever have become members 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A regular 
 contributor (in the interests of the Order) to 
 The Irish Neics states that " the principles which 
 guide the Order to-day " in admitting new 
 members are identical with those expressed in 
 an official message which it sent to America in 
 the year 1836.^ This message stated : 
 
 *' The qualification for membership must 
 be as follows : All members must be 
 
 ^ Northern Star, Sept. 2nd, 1905. 
 
 ' Ibid. 
 
 3 Msh News, Jan. 23i'd, 1906. 
 
10 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Roman Catholics and Irish, or Irish descent, 
 and of good moral character, and none of 
 your members shall join in any secret 
 societies' contrary to the laws of the Catho- 
 lic Church Be it known unto you 
 
 that you are at liberty to make such laws 
 as will guide your workings and for the 
 welfare of our old society, but such laws 
 must be at all times according to the 
 teachings of the Holy Catholic Church, 
 and the obligation that we send you, and 
 all of your workings must be submitted to 
 any Catholic priest when called for." ^ 
 
 The " Eules of Division ' St. Patrick,' No. 188, 
 Manchester," of the '' Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians Benefit Society," issued in 1905, state that 
 members must be between sixteen and forty 
 years of age, that they '^ must be Irish by birth 
 or descent, and only members of the Catholic 
 Church can be admitted." The " Objects " of 
 this Division are "for the protection of each 
 other in religion and Nationality , and thematerial 
 and moral advancement of the Irish race and 
 motherland inj^oUtics, language, and literature." 
 The Bides have prefixed to them the ''Epis- 
 copal Approbation" of the Boman Catholic 
 '' Bishop of Salford." Every member, on joining 
 this Division, is required to sign, in the presence 
 of witnesses, a Declaration in which he states : 
 '' I further promise that I Avill defend our Holy 
 Church, our Motherland, and our Noble Order 
 from all traducers, whenever and wherever 
 necessary ; and shall endeavour to diffuse and 
 spread the patriotic Gospel of ' Ireland a 
 Nation' by every word or act." By the ex- 
 pression " Ireland a Nation," is generally under- 
 
 ^ History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, by Thomas F. 
 McGrathj pp. 54, 55. 
 
ONLY ROMAN CATHOLICS IN THE ORDER 11 
 
 stood, by Nationalists, a nation independent of 
 British rule. 
 
 In the United States of America a similar 
 limit to admission is found in ''the Constitu- 
 tion and By-Laws of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians," adopted in the year 1871, which 
 were produced in Court at the trial of members 
 of the '' Molly Maguires " — a body which 
 formed part of the Order itself — who wore 
 charged with abominable crimes, to which I 
 will have again to refer later on. The trial 
 took place at the Quarter Sessions for Schuylkill 
 County, Pennsylvania, in August, 1876. Article 
 X. of the Constitution provides : 
 
 *' No person shall become a member of 
 this Order who is not Irish, or of Irish 
 descent ; a Boman Catholic, and of Boman 
 Catholic parents." 
 
 The '' By-Laws," Section 39, provide : 
 
 " Members of this Order in this State 
 (of Pennsylvania) shall be required at least 
 twice a year to receive Holy Communion 
 at their parish church, or such church as 
 they may designate, and wear the rosette 
 of the Order. . . . Any member failing to 
 comply with this section, for the first 
 neglect, shall be suspended for three 
 months, for the second neglect, six months, 
 and for the third, for life." ^ 
 
 It will thus be seen that the members of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians must not only 
 be all Boman Catholics, but also men Avho — 
 to use a well-known phrase — '' attend regularly 
 to their religious duties." In Australia, Car- 
 
 ^ ReiMrt of the Commomvealth, U.S., John Kehoe, et. al. 
 Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, commonly known 
 as Holly Maguires, Pottsville, 18*76, pp. 169, 174. 
 
12 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 dinal Moran is their Hon. Grand Chaplain. 
 Until the summer of 1906, the National 
 Chaplain in America was Archbishop Farley, of 
 New York. In Ireland the relationship of the 
 Hierarchy to the Order was thus described by 
 the Irish Grand Chaplain at a meeting of the 
 Order on August 15th, 1905 : 
 
 '' Here in Ireland the Most Rev. Dr. 
 O'Donnell, the great and patriotic Bishop 
 of Raphoe, was and had been a tower of 
 strength to their movement. When a word 
 of wise counsel and of hearty encourage- 
 ment was needed, it was always forthcoming 
 from the great successor of St. Eunan, in 
 ancient Eaphoe. Other warm and loyal 
 friends were to be found in the Bishops of 
 Elphin and Dromore. But the greatest and 
 most powerful friend of all is the present 
 occupant of the See of Feter, whose special 
 prize to the Sligo Bazaar had been entrusted 
 to the hands of the members of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians. When he meutioned 
 His Holiness as one of their special friends 
 he felt he need say no more to recommend 
 their body to the millions of patriotic Irish- 
 men who are scattered the world over." ^ 
 
 At a meeting of the Order at Ardglass, Co. 
 Down, on March 17th, 1905, a resolution was 
 passed, which commenced thus : 
 
 "That we congratulate the members of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians on having 
 received from His Eminence Cardinal Logue, 
 the Most Eev. Dr. Henry, and the Most 
 Rev. Dr. Clancy, their kind support, and 
 that amount of recognition that is never 
 
 1 Irish News, August 16th, 1905. 
 
POPE PUTS X. BLESSES THE HIBERNIANS 13 
 
 given to any organisation that is not 
 strictly a Church organisation." ^ 
 
 The Order held another meeting at Loop, on 
 the same day as that held at Ardglass, when a 
 resolution was passed hy the members congratu- 
 lating themselves : 
 
 " That we have lived to see the day when 
 the Irish Episcopate has given us that 
 recognition by which we can carry out 
 the principles of the Order." ^ 
 
 At the forty-fifth International Convention 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, held at 
 Saratoga, United States of America, in July, 
 1906, a letter was read from the Archbishop 
 of New Tork, dated Rome, June 20th, 1906, and 
 addressed to Monsignor McCreedy, in which he 
 remarked : 
 
 '' In my absence, I would ask you to 
 preside at the meeting of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians at Saratoga, July l7th. The 
 Holy Father sends his cordial blessing to 
 those assembled at the opening ceremony 
 — the Sigh Mass. You loill please, there- 
 fore, give the Pontifical benediction on 
 that occasion,^' ^ 
 
 At this International Convention the following 
 resolution was adopted : 
 
 ''That we, the Ladies' Auxiliary to the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, pledge our 
 fealty to our Holy Mother, the Church, 
 our Holy Pather, the Pope, and all digni- 
 taries of our Holy Catholic Church." * 
 
 ^ Irish News, March 18th, 1905. 
 
 ' ^^^*^: 
 
 ^ National Hihernian, August 15th, 1906. 
 
 ' Ibid. 
 
14 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 It must be acknowledged that an organisation 
 like this, with such a gigantic membership, and 
 working with the blessing of the Pope, Cardinal 
 Moran, Cardinal Logue, the Archbishop of New 
 York, and " the Irish Episcopate," must be 
 powerful for good or evil. No one can, of 
 course, object to its work as a Benefit Society ; 
 but its political operations and past history are 
 unfortunately such as merit the severest censure 
 of all who are loyal to the British Throne, of 
 which it probably is the most dangerous and 
 implacable foe in existence. When the Order 
 was known as the Bibbon Society, and as White- 
 boys, several Boman Catholic Bishops denounced 
 it and its murderous work in vigorous terms. 
 It was opposed by the Irish Boman Catholic 
 Bishops mainly as one of the secret societies 
 condemned by their Church. But has it ceased 
 to be secret in the present day? One of its 
 principal supporters, the Bev. Canon McPadden, 
 P.P., stated at a meeting of the Order at Glen- 
 ties, Co. Donegal, on March I7th, 1905, that 
 at the present time — 
 
 " They had their passwords, and their grips, 
 and their signs, and their ritual of pro- 
 cedure and initiation, but that did not, 
 and should not, call down upon them any 
 condemnation. It was not the secrecy 
 of a society that condemned it, but the 
 nature of the secrets, and the conduct of 
 the members." ^ 
 
 This was, of course, equivalent to an acknow- 
 ledgment that the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 is still, what it has been ever since its birth, a 
 secret society. When the American " Ladies' 
 Auxiliary " of the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 
 ^ Donegal Indepeiidenty March 24th, 1905. 
 
THE SECRET WORK OF THE ORDER 15 
 
 met at Saratoga, in July, 1906, they asked that 
 '^ passwords " and other secret imrh^ as well as 
 charters, be received from the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians.^ 
 
 A similar plea to that put forward by Canon 
 McPadden, as to the kind of secret societies con- 
 demned by the Church of Rome, is found in 
 the official History of the Order, wherein we 
 read : 
 
 " That the Church has condemned secret 
 societies is a fact, but it is also a fact that 
 by the term ' secret societies ' she did not 
 mean the Ancient Order of Hibernians, or 
 Trade Unions, or other organisations whose 
 sole object is mutual protection and benefit. 
 In a Decree of the Sacred Congregation of 
 the Inquisition, communicated by the order 
 of the Pope to the Archbishops and Bishops 
 of the United States, on July 13th, 1865, 
 we have the authoritative definition of the 
 term ' secret societies. ' The tenor of it 
 is as follows: 'The secret societies, of 
 which mention is made in the Pontifical 
 Constitution, are all those which propose 
 to themselves something opposed to the 
 Church or the State.' Let us judge the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians by this 
 standard and see if it can, in any way, be 
 included in the associations contemplated 
 in the Pontifical Constitutions. The pre- 
 amble to the Constitution and By-laws of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians is but a 
 simple exposition of Christian duty. The 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians is composed 
 of practical Catholics who would lay down 
 their lives for the faith." - 
 
 ^ Gaelic American^ August 18th, 1906. 
 
 ^ McGrath's Hiatory of the Ancient Order of Hihernians^ 
 pp. 63, 64. 
 
16 THE UNKNOWN POWEK 
 
 This secrecy of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians is not a thing past and gone. In 
 further proof of this we need only refer to 
 the proceedings at a great annual Convention 
 of the Order held in Dublin in July, 1905, 
 at which delegates were present from Ireland, 
 England, and Scotland. At this Convention 
 new rules for the Order were brought for- 
 ward, and as we are informed that '' all the 
 resolutions were carried unanimously," ^ it is 
 but reasonable to assume that the resolutions 
 adopting the new rules are included in this 
 motion. A fortnight before the Convention 
 met TJie Northern Star printed the pro- 
 posed new rules, as supplied to it by the 
 Secretary of the Order. Amongst these are 
 regulations for Divisions in sending reports 
 of their proceedings to the Press, in which 
 it is forbidden to send such reports to any 
 paper excej^t those whose editors ''agree to 
 defend the Order and support its principles," 
 unless by permission of the Board of Erin, 
 which is the governing body. But even when 
 these reports are sent to trustworthy news- 
 papers, everytJiing that transpires at the meet- 
 ings must not be made public. It is assumed 
 that at all the meetings of Branches or 
 Divisions of the Order secret transactions take 
 place which it would not be safe to make 
 public, and therefore it is provided in the new 
 Eules that — 
 
 " Divisions shall not include in any Press 
 report any business of a private character 
 transacted at the meeting, such as the 
 names of those present, proposed, elected, 
 or initiated, the contents of any circular or 
 resolution sent by any Division or Body 
 
 ^ Northern Star, July 29th, 1905. 
 
THE SECRECY OF THE ORDER 17 
 
 connected with the Order. The reports 
 shoukl be merely of a social nature." ^ 
 
 The Order holds public meetings, to which, 
 of course, these rules do not apply. But there 
 is evidently, on the part of the governing body, 
 a great anxiety to keep, as far as possible, the 
 names of some of their members secret. One of 
 the new rules provides that — 
 
 '^ While every member shall be free to 
 admit his membership, he should not be 
 permitted to use the organisation or identify 
 it Avith any act of his, nor sJioidd he he 
 permitted to inform non-memhers loho are 
 the Brothers of the Order ^ or tvhat j^osition 
 they occupy other than the Secretary of his 
 Division,'''^ 
 
 A correspondent of The Dundalh Democrat, of 
 September 8th, 1906 (a paper devoted to the 
 Nationalist interests), writes to complain of the 
 secrecy of the Order : 
 
 " In my former letter," he states, '' I 
 asked what benefits the Ancient Order 
 proposes to confer on the members, or on 
 the country at large. Mr. Cusack replies 
 that I can get a copy of its rules for six- 
 pence. I find such is not the case, as no 
 one can obtain any information of the 
 Brotherhood until nominated, initiated, and 
 invested loith pass-words, grips, and signs. ^^ 
 
 A very interesting account of the initiation 
 of a new member into the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians is given in Mr. Allan Pinkerton's 
 book entitled. The Molly Maguires and the 
 
 ^ Northern Star, July 8th, 1905. 
 ' Ibid. 
 
18 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Detectives, which will be more fully quoted 
 later on. The account states that after the 
 reception of the new member : 
 
 " The next thing was the instruction of 
 the new member in the passwords and 
 signs — or secret work— commonly called 
 ' the Goods ' of the Society, by Lawler, as 
 follows : 
 
 a i rpj^Q ^ign of recognition, which is 
 changed every three months, for the 
 present is made by putting the tip of the 
 little finger of the right hand to the outer 
 corner of the right eye, thus : and the 
 Bodymaster made the sign, which 
 McKenna [the new member] was re- 
 quested to imitate. He did so, and the 
 officer resumed : 
 
 '' ' The answer to this is, to catch the 
 right lapel of the vest or coat with the 
 little finger and thumb of the right hand, 
 in this manner : ' and Lawler performed 
 the answering signal, which the Novitiate 
 imitated as well as he could. 
 
 '' Lawler continued : 
 
 " There are a number of Toasts, or 
 hailing signs and responses, by which 
 members of the Order recognise each 
 other. When the signal just furnished 
 cannot be seen, what is called the Drink- 
 ing Toast for the quarter is employed. 
 It is this : 
 
 '' ' The Emperor of Erance and Don 
 Carlos of Spain.' 
 
 " And is answered : 
 
 '' ' May unite together and the people's 
 rights maintain.' 
 
 " The Password now used on entering 
 a Division is this : 
 
PASSWORDS AND GRIPS 19 
 
 " ' Question.— Will tenant-riglit in Ire- 
 land flourish ? ' 
 
 '' ' Answer. — If the people unite and 
 the landlords subdue.' 
 
 ''The Quarrelling Word, to be em- 
 ployed when a Brother is in doubt if one 
 with whom he is about to dispute or 
 come to blows is a member of the Order, 
 or not, is as follows : 
 
 '' '' Question.— YouT temper is high.' 
 
 " ' Anstver. — I have good reason/ 
 
 " The Night Word, to be used when 
 two men meet in darkness, is : 
 
 '' ' Question. — The nights are very 
 dark.' 
 
 '' ' Answer. — I hope they soon will 
 mend.' 
 
 " This concluded the ceremonies, and the 
 meeting, without transacting any business 
 of importance, adjourned." ^ 
 
 There was not on that occasion one word said 
 about the murders being at that very moment 
 committed by that section of the Order known 
 as Molly Maguires. We shall have to describe 
 their crimes later on ; but we must be here 
 content with pointing out that at the present 
 moment — as we have already proved on the 
 authority of Canon McPadden, P.P.— the mem- 
 bers of the Ancient Order of Hibernians still 
 have in Ireland, as well as in America, '' their 
 Passwords, and their grips, and their Hitual 
 of procedure and initiation." *' The Goods " 
 are still circulated every three months amongst 
 its members, and these still include the 
 " Quarrelling Words," '' Passwords," and 
 '' Drinking Toasts " ; all of these being so many 
 
 ^ Pinkerton's The Molly Maguires and the Detectives^ p. 144. 
 New York. 
 
20 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 links with the past, when the Order, before it 
 adopted its present name, circulated similar 
 " Goods " amongst its members. All these are 
 but so many evidences of the continued secrecy 
 of the Order. 
 
 But, as we have already intimated, the 
 Ancient Order of the Hibernians has a history 
 behind it of over three hundred centuries' 
 duration. It is no newly fledged society of the 
 present day. It is one of its proudest boasts 
 that it was founded by Rory Oge O'More, in 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth.^ Since then 
 " they were known by different names, such as 
 Tories, Eapparees, Defenders, etc."^ The or- 
 ganisation has been known by other names, in 
 addition to those just mentioned. At a meeting 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, at Castle- 
 blayney, on October 21st, 1905, the National 
 Secretary of the Order declared that at the close 
 of the eighteenth century '' sprang up afresh 
 the trampled spirits of the old Hibernians. In 
 those days the combination assumed many 
 names — Molly Maguires and Ribbonmen ; but 
 no matter what name they call themselves by, 
 they found it necessary to protect Catholicity."^ 
 
 Speaking at a meeting of the Order at 
 Drummullan on March 17th, 1905, Mr. John 
 Dillon, National Vice-President of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians, said that in the dark 
 days of Ireland " the Hibernians were known 
 as Ribbonmen. Who was it but the Ribbon- 
 men who gave any measure of protection to 
 their gallant priests when they were offering 
 up the Holy Sacrifice ? " * Mr. Michael Davitt 
 states that the Ribbonmen ^' were evolved " 
 
 ^ McGrath's History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, p. 28. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 32. 
 
 3 Irish News, Oct. 26th, 1905. 
 * Jbid., March 18th, 1905. 
 
THE ORDEE S '' ALIASES 21 
 
 out of the Whiteboys ; ^ while the author of 
 the History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 states : " The Defenders of the North and the 
 Whiteboys of the South joined hands and 
 adopted the name of E;ibbonmen." ^ The 
 Ribbon Society was formed about the year 
 1820. Mr. Michael Davitt says : 
 
 '^ The E;ibbon organisation, which came 
 into prominence at the later stages of the 
 anti-tithe movement, was founded in Ulster, 
 and had its origin in the Defenders^ already 
 briefly described. It became the most 
 powerful of all the Irish secret societies of 
 the middle of the nineteenth century, and 
 exerted very considerable influence upon 
 the subsequent upbuilding of the Eenian 
 Brotherhood. It absorbed almost all the 
 existing agrarian bodies after 1830, White- 
 boyism being largely transformed into 
 the better-organised and more widespread 
 Eibbon combination." ^ 
 
 The Ribbon Society was known imder different 
 names. '' Branches of the Ribbonmen began 
 to spring up in England and Scotland under 
 the name of the Hibernian Society, and the 
 Hibernian Sick and Puneral Society, as the 
 name Ribbonmen was outlawed by the British 
 Government. In 1825 the name in Ireland 
 was changed from Ribbonmen to that of 
 St. Patrick's Eraternal Society."^ Mr. Davitt 
 states that the '' Whitefeet," '' Blackfeet," the 
 "Terry Alts," "Rockites," and the "Lady 
 Clares," were all branches of the Whiteboy 
 movement.^ 
 
 ^ Davitt's Fall of Fetidalism in Ireland, p. 16. 
 
 ^ History of the Ancient Order of Hihernians, p. 48. 
 
 ^ Fcdl of Feudalism in Ireland, p. 41. 
 
 ■* History of the Ancient Order of Hihernians, p. 52. 
 
 ^ Fall of Feudalism in Ireland^ p. 37. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT ORDER OE 
 HIBERNIANS 
 
 Tories, or Rapparees — The founder of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians— The head of a band of brigands and guerillas 
 — His character by the " Four Masters " — His murderous 
 work — The cruelties of his successor — The horrible crimes 
 of the Tories — The murder crusades of the Rapparees — The 
 Tories denounced by the Roman Catholic Synod of Ard- 
 patrick, in 1678, as "lawless bandits" — The Tories try to 
 assassinate Archbishop Plunkett— Modern members of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians glory in its past history — Boast 
 that the Order has " always been right." 
 
 We have now to review the past history of 
 this remarkable organisation, so far as this is 
 possible from the materials at our disposal. 
 The exact date when it assumed its present 
 name of Ancient Order of Hibernians Ave have 
 been unable to discover, but apparently it was 
 between forty and fifty years since. Erom the 
 time of its foundation in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth it has been known, as we have 
 seen, under the following names : (1) Tories, 
 or Eapparees; (2) Whiteboys; (3) White feet; 
 (4) Blackfeet ; (5) Defenders ; (6) Eibbonmen ; 
 (7) Molly Maguires ; (8) Lady Clares ; (9) Terry 
 Alts; (10) Eockites; (11) The Hibernian 
 Society ; (12) Hibernian Sick and Puneral 
 Society ; (13) St. Patrick's Praternal Society. 
 
 The organisation whose history we are tracing 
 was, as already stated, founded by Eory Oge 
 O'More in 1565. Modern writers speak of his 
 followers as " Defenders," but there is nothing 
 
 22 
 
THE IRISH TORIES 23 
 
 to show that they were knoAvn by that name 
 until a century later. Mr. Prendergast asserts 
 that the first mention of the term '' Tory " in 
 an official document occurs in a proclamation 
 by Ormonde, dated September 25th, 1650 ; ^ but 
 he proves that they existed in the previous 
 century.^ 
 
 Cox, who published his History of L' eland in 
 1689, expressly terms the followers of Rory 
 Oge O'More, '^Tories."' 
 
 This founder of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians certainly had a band of organised followers 
 around him, whose duty was, according to 
 modern members of the Order, that of protecting 
 Roman Catholic priests Avhile saying Siass ; but 
 the records of the period do not support that 
 assumption. If this were the case it would be 
 to the credit of Hory Oge O'More ; but, as a 
 matter of fact, he seems to have been the 
 lawless and disloyal head of a band of " noted 
 brigands, or guerillas." '^ 
 
 His followers were not sufficiently numerous 
 to wage war against the trained soldiers of 
 England in the ordinary way ; but they were 
 able to break into a small, defenceless town or 
 village, burn most of the houses, and waylay and 
 kill their enemies. O'More frequently submit- 
 ted himself to the English authorities, promising 
 humble obedience, but again and again he broke 
 his pledged word, and at last he was killed, in 
 1578. He was in his lifetime the ringleader of 
 a lawless and seditious organisation, which has 
 continued in a lawless and seditious course from 
 that time down to the present. 
 
 ^ Prendergast's Cromivellian Settlement in Ireland, pp. 332, 333, 
 second edition. 
 
 ^ Prendergast's Ireland from the Restoration to the Revolution^ 
 p. 57. 
 
 ^ Cox's History of Ireland, vol. i., p. 350. 
 
 ^ Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudor s^ vol. ii.j p, 352. 
 
24 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Here is a description of Rory Oge O'More, 
 the founder of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 of whom its members of the present day are so 
 proud. It is written, not by a modern Pro- 
 testant or Loyalist, but by one of '' The Tour 
 Masters," who wrote in the Irish language, and 
 were certainly no friends to the English con- 
 nection. Describing his death, he remarks : 
 " This Mory was the head of the plunderers and 
 insurgents of the men of Ireland in his time. ^ 
 
 Here is a description of the kind of brigand- 
 age committed by Eory Oge O'More shortly 
 before his death, contained in a letter from the 
 Council of Ireland to Queen Elizabeth, dated 
 September 12th, 1577 : 
 
 '' Conner McCormucke 0' Conner, and 
 Eory Oge O'More, contrary to their oaths, 
 (hoping for aid out of Connaught) began to 
 gather their friends and confederates, to the 
 number of one hundred swords, or there- 
 abouts, and so to revolt; who, upon a 
 sudden, at Christmas Eve last, burnt divers 
 haggards and poor men's cottages of the 
 King's County to the value of £200. 
 Afterwards, with greater force, they came 
 to the town of Naas by night, and 
 burnt about 140 thatched houses, and since 
 that time they have burnt a great part of 
 Leighlin, and done some other harms and 
 spoils upon the borders of the Pale."^ 
 
 On one occasion this Eory Oge O'More had 
 a nephew of Sir Henry Sidney as a prisoner in 
 his house. It was attacked by English soldiers, 
 but Eory managed to escape. Before doing so, 
 he showed his cruel and murderous nature by 
 
 * Annals q/ the Kingdom of Ireland, by " The Four Masters," 
 vol. v., p. 1707. Dublin, 1856. 
 f Calendar of Carew Papers^ 1575-88, p. 110. 
 
THE REBEL FOUNDER OF THE ORBER 25 
 
 a brutal personal assault on his prisoner, who, 
 being in chains, was quite unable to defend 
 himself. Sir Henry Sidney, writing to Sir 
 Prancis Walsingham, tells him : 
 
 '' The villainous rebel (Eory Oge O'More) 
 fell upon my most dear nephew, being tied 
 in chains, and him most shamefully hacked 
 and hewed with my nephew's own sword, to 
 the effusion of such a quantity of blood as 
 were incredible to be told. He brake his 
 arm with that blunt sword, and cut off the 
 little finger of one of his hands, and in 
 sundry parts of his head so wounded him, 
 as I myself in his dressing did see his brains 
 moving." ^ 
 
 Such was the man who is acknowledged to 
 have been the founder of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians. His followers in the present day 
 are never tired of singing his praises at their 
 meetings. We mxay, however, rather wonder 
 that they are not ashamed of some of his deeds. 
 He was the head of a celebrated family, which 
 lost a great deal of their lands in the Irish wars 
 against Elizabeth ; but certainly modern ideas 
 of morality cannot approve of the methods of 
 revenge he adopted. He kneAV very well that he 
 was too weak to resist the power of England in 
 open battle; but if he had possessed anything like 
 a sense of honourable conduct he would never 
 have degraded himself by adopting the murdering 
 and thieving conduct of a brigand, or by con- 
 ducting a guerilla warfare and perpetrating- 
 agrarian outrages in which the principal sufferers 
 were his innocent fellow-countrymen, and not 
 the English Government. No doubt he had 
 some very real grievances, but he did not adopt 
 the right or a likely way to remedy them. 
 
 ^ Calendar of Carew Papers^ 1575-88, p. 356. 
 
26 THE UlSTKNOWN POWER 
 
 When Eory Oge O'More died in 1578, he was 
 succeeded by Donald O'Driscoll, of whom all 
 we can ascertain is that Avhich is recorded in 
 the H.%story of the Ancient Order of Ilibermmis, 
 which states that he — 
 
 *' continued to protect the priest and harass 
 the Red Coats until December 24th, 1594, 
 when with six of his men he was escorting 
 the EiCV. Eather O'Connor to the try sting- 
 place near Bray, County Wicklow, where 
 he was to celebrate the midnight Mass. 
 They were surprised by a company of 
 English soldiers, and, after a bloody fight, 
 Donald and his companions were killed. 
 Donald's head was taken across the sea and 
 placed on a spike on the Tower of London " 
 (p. 30). 
 
 O'Driscoll was succeeded by Owen, or Owny, 
 O'More, son of Eory Oge O'More. This Owny 
 was a ringleader in the fifteen years' war 
 against the rule of Queen Elizabeth. He re- 
 duced the whole of Leix to his sway, except 
 Maryborough and two other forts. The war in 
 Munster, under his generalship, was accompanied 
 by a vast amount of inexcusable cruelty. 
 " English children," writes Bagwell, '' were 
 taken from their nurses' breasts and dashed 
 against walls. An Englishman's heart was 
 plucked out in his wife's presence, and she was 
 forced to lend her apron to wipe the murderers' 
 fingers. Of the English fugitives who flocked 
 into Youghal, some had their tongues and noses, 
 and some had their throats cut, though they 
 still lived." ' 
 
 There can be no doubt that, from his earliest 
 manhood till the day of his death, Owny O'More 
 
 ^ Ireland under the Tudor Sy by Richard Bagwell, vol, iii., 
 pp. 304, 306. 
 
DESCRIPTION OP THE TORIES 27 
 
 was a bitter enemy of England, and a ringleader 
 in rebellion, nor yet that his followers were 
 actuated by the same spirit. To the Eour 
 Masters, who were in full sympathy with all 
 rebellions against England, Owny was a hero. 
 They state that '' he was slain by the Queen's 
 people in an overwhelming and fierce battle 
 wdiich was fought between them on the borders 
 of Leix, in the month of August of this year " — 
 i.e. 1600.' 
 
 The history of the Irish Tories, or Eap- 
 parees, during the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries, does not increase our respect for the 
 organisation. It was a criminal and disloyal 
 body from first to last. We hear very little 
 about it during the earlier years of the seven- 
 teenth century, but wdien the Cromwellian 
 Settlement of Ireland took place, by which the 
 leading men of the Rebellion of 1641 forfeited 
 their lands, the Tories once more came to the 
 front, and continued their depredations until 
 towards the middle of the eighteenth century. 
 The leaders of the Tory bands, as a class, were 
 very accurately described by the Rev. Dr. 
 Killen. 
 
 ''The 'Tory,'"^ he writes, ''was often 
 the son of an Irish gentleman — if not an 
 Irish gentleman himself — whose estate had 
 been forfeited. Without the means of an 
 honest livelihood, and driven to desperation, 
 he betook himself to the woods and lived 
 as a freebooter. Joined by a troop of 
 banditti as reckless as himself, he prowled 
 about the ancestral property, and swooped 
 down, every now and then, on the new 
 settlers. He drove away their cattle in 
 the dark nights, burned their houses, took 
 
 * Annals of Ireland^ vol. vi., p. 2179. 
 
28 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 possession of their money, and perhaps 
 murdered themselves." ^ 
 
 The late Mr. Prendergast, in his Cromivellian 
 Settlement in Ireland, as well as in his Ireland 
 from the Restoration to the Mevolution, and in 
 the Thirty 'Second Report of the Deputy Keeper 
 of Public Records, relates dozens of cases in 
 which Tory leaders, by the aid of brigand 
 dependents, committed innumerable robberies, 
 burned hundreds of houses, mutilated cattle, 
 and committed murders in Leinster, Munster, 
 Connaught, and Ulster. No one who reads 
 these records, written by an Irishman whose 
 sympathies were decidedly Nationalist, can for 
 one moment doubt that any civilised Govern- 
 ment would fail in its duty if it tolerated such 
 a body of men as these Irish Tories. Prom 
 other sources also we learn much about them. 
 The Earl of Orrery wrote as follows to Secretary 
 Nicholas, on September 7th, 1661 : 
 
 " I arrived from Munster on the 6th, and 
 got yours of the 24th of August. I had to 
 go to Munster owing to the insolency of the 
 Tories, which grows very much. I will 
 relate their latest insolency, as I had it 
 from the mouths of those who suffered that 
 unparalleled wrong. The Tories came to a 
 husbandman's house, whom they forthwith 
 seized upon and forced him to hold the 
 candle whilst in his sight they ravished 
 his wife, who then had not lain in a fort- 
 night, then burned the house over their 
 ears. This is such a barbarity as I think 
 no age can parallel, and was deposed before 
 me by all the suffering parties but the 
 woman herself, who, 'tis thought, will die. 
 And a fortnight before they ravished another 
 * Killen's Ecdesiastical History of Ireland voL ii., p. 122. 
 
THE HOERIBLE CRIMES OF THE TORIES 29 
 
 woman till she died. I have fixed garrisons 
 in all those places where they haunt, and 
 hope within ten days to root out those 
 villains." ^ 
 
 A year and ten months later, a numher of the 
 gentry resident in Queen's County called the 
 attention of the Duke of Ormonde to the depre- 
 dations of the Tories, in a united remonstrance, 
 in which they complained that — 
 
 '' Several rehels, or, as they are now 
 commonly called, Tories, have of late 
 committed many robberies, felonies, and 
 other mischiefs in this county, and continue 
 in so doing." ^ 
 
 On June 10th, 1675, a Proclamation against 
 the Tories was issued by the Irish Government, 
 in which it was affirmed that — 
 
 ^' divers disloyal persons, commonly called 
 Tories, have of late very much infested 
 certain counties of this Kingdom, and 
 have committed divers robberies, bur- 
 glaries, and murders, upon his Majesty's 
 good subjects." ^ 
 
 Under the name of Eapparees the Tories 
 committed many atrocious crimes. Gordon, 
 under date 1690, states that : 
 
 '' Braving the asperity of the season, the 
 hardy Irish made ruinous incursions, sur- 
 prised and slaughtered small parties of 
 the Hoyal army, and set villages in flames. 
 In the general confusion and misery, while 
 the soldiers of Ginckle also, in spite of 
 
 ^ Calendar of Irish State PajDers, 1660-62, p. 415. 
 '\ Calendar of the MSS. of the Marquess of Ormonde, Royal 
 Historical Commission, New Series, vol. iii., p. 32. 
 ' Report on the MSS. of the Marquess of Ormonde, vol. ii., p. 344. 
 
30 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 general orders, plundered the peasants and 
 violated protection, a banditti, loJio had 
 premoiisly subsisted under the name of 
 Tories, became hideously numerous and 
 formidable under the denomination of 
 Rapparees, an Irish denomination from 
 the half -pike, their usual weapon. In 
 summer they hovered round the English 
 camp, butchering every straggling soldier 
 whom they found. In winter they appeared 
 in the different quarters of the army with 
 the humility of beggars, leaving their 
 weapons concealed in convenient places. 
 Assembling in troops in solitary spots in 
 the night, they rushed on their prey, and 
 vanished at the first appearance of danger, 
 discoverable only by the conflagrations of 
 houses and the cries of their murdered 
 victims." ^ 
 
 Dalrymple, in his Memoirs of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, tells us something more about the 
 customs of these Rapparees. He writes : 
 
 '' The Happarees rendezvoused during 
 the night, coming to some solitary station 
 from an hundred places at once, by paths 
 which none else knew. There, in darkness 
 and deserts, they planned their mischievous 
 expeditions. Their way of conducting them 
 was, sometimes to make incursions from 
 a distance in small bodies, which, as they 
 advanced, being joined at appointed places 
 by others, grew greater and greater every 
 hour; and as they made these incursions 
 when the moon was quite dark, it became 
 impossible to trace their steps, except by 
 the cries of those they were murdering, or 
 
 ^ Gordon's Histonj of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 159, 160. London, 
 1806. 
 
CRUELTIES OF THE RAPPAEEES 31 
 
 the flames of the houses, barnyards, and 
 villages which they burnt as they went 
 along." 
 
 Mr. Proude informs us that — 
 
 '' In October, 1725, a party of Eapparees, 
 ' out on their keeping,' broke into the house 
 of a Protestant miller in Wexford, named 
 Hayes. They tore the wife out of her bed 
 in her shift, tied her to the wall naked, 
 by the fire, and, in order to force her to 
 tell where her husband's money was con- 
 cealed, heated two chisels red-hot, and 
 seared her limb by limb. The wretched 
 husband said she was with child, to move 
 them to pity. One of the party answered, 
 that he would run a red-hot chisel into 
 her body to her child, if she would not 
 give them up her money. Next they 
 seized the husband himself, and were 
 preparing to burn him in the same way, 
 when some neighbours, who had heard 
 their cries, came to their help, and the 
 Eapparees fled."^ 
 
 At more than one Synod of Irish Eoman 
 Catholic clergy it was found necessary to 
 denounce the Tories, which certainly would not 
 have been the case had they been only engaged 
 in disloyal actions. At a National Council of 
 Eoman Catholic Bishops, held at Dublin in 
 1670, the following statute was passed : 
 
 ''We, moreover, decree that all the 
 ordinaries shall command, in their respective 
 dioceses, the parish priests and preachers 
 to admonish and warn, under threats of 
 the Divine vengeance, the people subject 
 
 ^ Froude's English in Ireland, vol. i., p. 483. 
 
32 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 to their charge, to give no favour, aid, or 
 assistance to robbers, highwaymen, and 
 other disturbers of the public peace, toho 
 are hnoimi as Tories ^ ^ 
 
 At a Roman Catholic Synod, held at Ard- 
 patrick in 1678, it v/as decreed : 
 
 '' That the clergy should warn the faithful 
 against aiding or countenancing tJie bodies 
 of laivless bandits, tvlio loere called Tories, 
 and who, under pretence of defending the 
 national rights, infested the country ; and 
 that they (the clergy) should likewise make 
 known to their flocks what dishonour the 
 deeds of these loiched men brought upon 
 their religion and country." ^ 
 
 The Tories seem to have determined upon 
 revenge against Archbishop Plunket (who was 
 declared a beatified saint by Leo XIII.), after 
 the National Council in Dublin, in 1670, over 
 which he presided, for, in a letter to the 
 Propaganda, dated January I7th, 1680, he 
 reports that a Priar named Anthony Daly 
 '' sought to take away my life here, instiga- 
 ting the Tories to kill me ; they came at mid- 
 night, about six years ago, to the house of 
 my Vicar-General, where I then was ; they 
 broke open the doors and took away all the 
 money from myself and my Vicar- General, and 
 my secretary, Michael Plunket, who is now in 
 E;ome, and they held a sword to my throat. 
 The chief of this band was afterwards taken, 
 and before death declared in prison to the parish 
 priest of Armagh, and to his curate, that Pather 
 Anthony told him to kill me, and that after- 
 wards he would give him absolution." ^ 
 
 ' Moran's Memoirs of Archbishop PlunJcet, p. 118. 
 2 Ibid., p. 131. 
 ^ Ibid., p. 283. 
 
THE ORDER ''HAS ALWAYS BEEN RIGHT" 33 
 
 We might naturally expect that the modern 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, which claims to 
 be identical with the Tories and E^apparees of 
 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, would 
 shrink with horror from the crimes which 
 disgraced their Order in the past. But we look 
 in vain, through reports of their recent gatherings 
 in Ireland, England, Scotland, and America, for 
 any expressions of regret for any portion of its 
 history associated with the Tories and Rapparees. 
 Instead of being ashamed of the past, they, 
 without exception, glory in it. " We have," 
 said Eather M'Kinley, National Chaplain of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ireland, 
 at a meeting of the Order in Magherafelt, 
 in June, 1906, '' in the history of the Order, a 
 noble and glorious heritage to maintain. When 
 he looked around that hall, and witnessed the 
 enthusiasm of those present, he was satisfied 
 that the same patriotic spirit which animated 
 their forefathers, the same love for faith and 
 fatherland, remained." ^ And the same Eather 
 M'Kinley, at a meeting of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians in Belfast, on March 4th, 1906, 
 boasted : 
 
 '' The men to be depended on had been 
 the men of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. 
 Individuals might have gone wrong, hut as 
 a body they had ahoays been right. ^^ ^ 
 
 ^ Irish Netvs, July 3rd, 1906. 
 2 ji^^^^^ March 5th, 1906, 
 
 3 
 
CHAPTEE III 
 
 THE WHITEBOYS 
 
 Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians formerly known as 
 Wliiteboys — Testimony of President Cmiimings and John 
 Mitchell — Secrecy of the Whiteboy Society — The oath taken 
 by its members — Its chief work the organising of agrarian 
 outrages — Their horrible cruelty and crimes — Denounced by 
 the Roman Catholic Archbishop James Butler, as "a gang 
 of wretches heaved out by hell," and as " deluded victims 
 of the devil " — The Roman Catholic Archbishop Troy terms 
 the oaths of the Wliiteboys " bonds of iniquity, wicked and 
 damnable " ; and declares that their " accumulated enormities 
 call to Heaven for vengeance " — Bishop Woodward describes 
 their attacks on the Protestant Clergy — Mr. Michael Davitt 
 declares the social insurrection of the Whiteboys was " neces- 
 sary " — He sneers at the censure of the Whiteboys by Roman 
 Catholic Bishops. 
 
 At a meeting of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians, held at Pall River, Massachusetts, on 
 August 28th, 1906, Mr. Matthew Cummings, 
 President of the Order in the United States, 
 and therefore one who may be assumed to be 
 well acquainted with its history, said : 
 
 " The organisation has been known in 
 the old land (Ireland) by different names — 
 Confederationists, Whiteboys, and Ribbon- 
 men, and at last became known as the 
 Hibernian Society, as the name Ribbonmen 
 had been outlawed by the English Govern- 
 ment. It was afterwards called St. Patrick's 
 Eraternal Society. Then it was named the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians." ^ 
 
 These are the links in the chain which bind 
 
 ^ National Hibernian^ Sept. 15th, 1906. 
 34 
 
THE WHITEBOYS 35 
 
 and identify the Whiteboys Avith the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians of to-day. 
 
 Mr. John Mitchell, the well-known Irish 
 Nationalist, in his History of Ireland, also 
 connects the E^apparees and Whiteboys with 
 E/ibbonism, and even with the Eenians. '' We 
 have now," he writes, " arrived at the era of the 
 ' Whiteboy ' organisation, whicli was itself the 
 legitimate offspring of the * JRapparees,' and 
 which in its turn has given birth to ' Ribbonism,' 
 to the ^ Terry Alts,' and finally to the 
 ' Eenians ' ; " ^ and he adds, as a warning no 
 doubt to England, that Whiteboyism, '' under 
 one form or another, must remain till English 
 domination in Ireland shall be abolished."^ 
 The " form " which Whiteboyism has assumed at 
 the present day is that of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians. 
 
 Plowden states that the Whiteboys first 
 appeared in January, 1762, and that they 
 received their name in consequence of their 
 wearing their shirts over their coats, for the 
 sake of distinction in the night. ^ 
 
 There is still remaining a great deal of mystery 
 as to their origin. 
 
 Lecky says of the organisation which was 
 then formed : 
 
 '' The names of those who constructed it 
 will never he hnown, but they were evidently 
 men of some education and of no small 
 organising ability, and they created a system 
 of intimidation which in many districts be- 
 came the true representation of the Catholic 
 peasantry, and which often made it much 
 safer to violate than to obey the law." * 
 
 ^ Mitchell's Histonj of Ireland, vol. i., p. 144, fourth edition. 
 
 ' Ihid., p. 146. 
 
 ^ Plowden's Historical Review ^ vol. i., pp. 338, 339. 
 
 * Lecky's History of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 20. 
 
36 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 It was essentially a secret society. The oath 
 which they took proves this. It was as follows : 
 
 ''I do hereby solemnly and sincerely 
 swear that I will not make known any 
 secret now given me, or that hereafter may 
 be given me, to any one in the world, 
 except a sworn person belonging to the 
 society called Whiteboys. 
 
 '' Eurthermore, I swear that I will be 
 ready at an hour's warning, if possible, 
 being properly summoned by any of the 
 officers, Serjeants, or corporals belonging to 
 my company. 
 
 '' furthermore, I swear that I will not 
 wrong any of the company I belong to 
 of the value of one shilling ; nor suffer it 
 to be done by others, without acquainting 
 them thereof. 
 
 '' furthermore, I swear I will not make 
 known, in any shape whatever, to any person 
 that does not belong to us, the name or 
 names of any of our fraternity, but particu- 
 larly the names of our respected officers. 
 
 " Lastly, I swear that I will not drink 
 of any liquor whatsoever, whilst on duty, 
 without the consent of one or other of the 
 officers, Serjeants, or corporals ; and that 
 we will be loyal to one another as far as 
 in our power lies." ^ 
 
 The Whiteboys' operations may be said to have 
 been confined to agrarian outrages, for the re- 
 dress of grievances. Many of those grievances 
 were, it must be admitted, very real, and loudly 
 called for a remedy ; but, unfortunately, the 
 Whiteboys adopted, almost exclusively, immoral 
 methods for their redress. Their cruelties were 
 simply barbarous. They organised a social war- 
 
 ^ Plowden's Historical Review, vol. i., p. 345. 
 
ATROCITIES or THE WHITEBOYS 37 
 
 fare more especially against the landlords, 
 which the late Mr. Michael Davitt affirms 
 was " a necessary war of social insurrection." ^ 
 
 How that '' necessary " warfare was carried 
 on is thus briefly described by Gordon : 
 
 '' Besides other atrocities, these misguided 
 people (Whiteboys) placed men quite naked 
 on horseback, on saddles covered with skins 
 of hedgehogs, and drove them before them 
 in excruciating pain ; or left them standing 
 many hours, buried to the chin, in holes 
 in the ground, with branches of thorns 
 trodden closely round their bodies." ^ 
 
 Lecky describes similar atrocities committed 
 by the Whiteboys. He tells us that : 
 
 '' One of the mildest punishments" which 
 they inflicted '' was to drag a man from 
 his bed, often in mid-winter, beat him, and 
 leave him bound and naked in a ditch by 
 the roadside. In one case, which is related 
 in detail, the captors bound their prisoner 
 to the post of a turnpike gate and compelled 
 the keeper to swear that he would not 
 relieve him till a certain numbers of hours 
 had passed. In another they carried a man 
 who had threatened to inform against some 
 illicit distillers about a mile on a bier, and 
 left him bound in the very streets of Cahir, 
 Avhere he remained unrescued the whole 
 night. Not unfrequently they carried their 
 victim to a newly dug grave and left him, 
 sometimes with his ears cut off, buried up 
 to the chin in earth, or in thorns and furze. 
 Men were placed naked on horseback on 
 saddles covered with thorns, or with a hedge- 
 
 ^ Davitt's Fall of Feudalism in Ireland^ p. 16. 
 ^ Gordon's History of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 241. 
 
38 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 hog's skin. Many cottages were burnt, and 
 their inmates forced to abandon the country. 
 A man once appropriated two pounds of 
 powder which had been concealed for the 
 Whiteboys. They discovered him, and 
 having obliged him to pour the powder into 
 his hat, they placed it beneath him, ignited 
 it, and blew him to pieces. Their threaten- 
 ing notices were filled with the most savage 
 menaces, and their outrages in some districts 
 were so frequent and so severe that scarcely 
 any one dared to resist them." ^ 
 
 Lord Luttrell, in the course of a speech 
 delivered in the Irish Parliament, said that a 
 friend of his, while riding one morning near 
 Carlingford, overtook a clergyman who seemed 
 in pain, with his head bound in a napkin. He 
 asked if anything was the matter. '^ Did you 
 not see, sir," said the unfortunate minister, 
 '' as you rode through the town, two ears and 
 a cheek nailed to a post ? They were mine." ^ 
 
 The vile and criminal character of the White- 
 boy organisation is proved, not merely on the 
 testimony of Protestants, but also on that of 
 Eoman Catholic Bishops. On October 12th, 
 1775, Dr. James Butler, Eoman Catholic Arch- 
 bishop of Cashel, wrote a letter which he 
 ordered to be read from the altar of every 
 Boman Catholic chapel in his diocese. Its 
 stern denunciations of the Whiteboys could not 
 possibly be stronger. He wrote : 
 
 '' The scandal and desolation which those 
 daring and obstinate insurgents called 
 Whiteboys have caused wherever they have 
 swarmed, make us hear with the greatest 
 
 ^ Lecky's History of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 25. 
 ^ Froude's English in Ireland, vol. ii., p. 498. 
 
"deluded victims of the devil" 39 
 
 uneasiness, that they renewed their dis- 
 turbances in that part of our diocese which 
 lies about Pethard and Killenaule. We 
 tremble to think that any of the people 
 committed to our care, whose souls are as 
 dear to us as our own, should be exposed 
 to the contagion of their riotous example, 
 and the dreadful danger of herding with 
 a gang of tm^etcJies, ivho seem to he heaved 
 out and spirited up by hell to disturb all 
 peace and tranquillity ; to set all laws at 
 defiance, and bring eternal shame and 
 disgrace on whatever country or religion 
 would abet them. Deluded victims of the 
 devil, wJio, whilst they serve every purj)ose 
 of his hatred to mankind, and glory and 
 riot in all their works of darkness, live 
 the execration of all well-thinking per- 
 sons, and leave to posterity the shocking 
 remembrance of their perversity and 
 ignorance. . . . 
 
 '' We, therefore, in the name of Almighty 
 God, and by the authority of His Holy 
 Catholic Church, do excommunicate and 
 anathematise, and order you by these 
 presents, and each parish priest of our 
 district in these parts haunted by White- 
 boys, to declare excommunicated and ana- 
 thematised all and every one of our flock, 
 w^ho, after the due publication of this our 
 letter, shall join, assist, or countenance 
 these audacious rioters. We also declare, 
 to render this our sentence still more 
 terrible, that whilst they remain inflexible 
 in wickedness, whilst they brave every 
 effort of our pastoral authority, our prayers 
 and those of our clersry and the faithful 
 of our diocese will never ascend to heaven 
 but to beg of God to chastise them in all 
 
4iO THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 the severity of His anger, to pour down 
 on their rebellions heads all the phials of 
 His wrath, to tortnre them night and day 
 with remorse and angnish, that, forced to 
 bend nnder the weight of His omnipotent 
 hand, they may grant to the terrors of His 
 infinite justice what they refused to the 
 endearing tokens of His love, and pay the 
 homage which He requires of duty and 
 obedience to the voice of their religion and 
 the laws of their country." ^ 
 
 Nine years later a similar denunciation was 
 uttered by Dr. Troy, then Eoman Catholic 
 Eishop of Ossory, and afterwards titular Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin. He censured the Whiteboys, 
 in vigorous terms, in a Pastoral Letter addressed 
 to his flock. 
 
 ''Unmindful," wrote Eishop Troy, "of 
 the untimely and ignominious death of 
 their relations and acquaintances formerly 
 distinguished by the execrable appellation 
 of Whiteboys, and deaf to the dictates of 
 reason and religion constantly enforced by 
 our exhortation from the altars, they are 
 endeavouring to renew the horrid scenes 
 of confusion and bloodshed which disgraced 
 this part of the kingdom not many years 
 ago. They again seem to glory in the 
 opprobrious name of Whiteboys, and have 
 lately assembled at unreasonable hours, 
 and in different parties, sounding their 
 riotous horn. They have presumed to 
 administer oaths of combination, and pro- 
 ceed to barbarous acts of violence against 
 the persons and property of several in- 
 
 ^ Dr. Renelian's Collections on Irish Church History, pp. 335, 
 336. 
 
"unlawful, wicked, and damnable'' 41 
 
 divicluals. In a word, they notoriously 
 violate the most sacred laws, and equally 
 despise the injunctions of their spiritual 
 and tem]3oral rulers. Such accumulated 
 enormities call to heaven for vengeance, 
 which will most assuredly fall on the 
 deluded offenders, if they do not speedily 
 expiate their crimes by sincere and ex- 
 emj^lary repentance. As our silence upon 
 this occasion might he misunderstood by 
 ignorant, or sinistrously interpreted by 
 maleyolent persons, we think it highly 
 incumbent on us to declare, as we do 
 hereby solemnly, in the name and by the 
 authority of our Holy Mother the Church : 
 Pirst, that the association oaths usually 
 taken by the misguided and unhappy 
 wretches called Whiteboys are bonds of 
 iniquity, and consequently unlawful, wicked, 
 and damnable. They are not therefore 
 binding in any manner whatever. Secondly, 
 we in like manner declare that we con- 
 demn, abhor, and detest the above-men- 
 tioned outrages, as contrary to the maxims 
 and canons of our holy religion, destructive 
 of the public peace, injurious to private 
 property, and subversive of every law. 
 Einally, we condemn these deluded of- 
 fenders, who call themselves Roman 
 Catholics, as scandalous and rotten members 
 of our Holy Church, from which they have 
 been already cut off by the sentence 
 of excommunication solemnly fulminated 
 against them on the I7th of October, 1779, in 
 all the chapels of this diocese. We cannot 
 conclude without beseeching you, dearest 
 Christians, to join us in fervent and con- 
 stant prayer for the speedy conversion of 
 these unthinking creatures. Their con- 
 
42 THE UNKNOWN POWEK 
 
 dition is truly deplorable : in this life 
 exposed, by their nocturnal excursions and 
 wanton depredations, to sickness, loathsome 
 imprisonment, and an infamous death ; 
 whilst in the next their obstinacy will be 
 punished with endless torture." ^ 
 
 It has been asserted that during the earlier 
 years of the Whiteboy organisation the question 
 of religion did not enter into their oj)erations. 
 This is scarcely correct, since it is very well 
 known that they not only committed outrages 
 on landlords, and others renting land against 
 their wishes, but in particular they carried on a 
 cruel and bitter warfare against the payment of 
 tithes to Protestant clergymen. Their oppo- 
 sition to the payment of tithes was not to be 
 wondered at, but the means they adopted towards 
 the clergymen themselves merit the severest cen- 
 sure. Wherever the Whiteboy s were the lives 
 and property of the Protestant clergy were never 
 safe, exce23t when protected by the military. 
 The Eev. Dr. Woodward, Protestant Bishop 
 of Cloyne, writing in 1787, draws a pitiful 
 picture of the sufferings of the clergy in his 
 own diocese, and in that of Cork also. Re- 
 plying to a critic who had asserted that there 
 were " but two instances of any personal attacks 
 on clergymen" of the Church of Ireland by 
 Whiteboys, the Eishop remarks : 
 
 " My diocese alone would have furnished 
 him with numerous instances of personal 
 attacks upon clergymen. One (a dignitary 
 of my Cathedral) was forced to come out 
 of his house at midnight by a band of a 
 hundred and fifty ruffians, to swear that 
 he would give up his legal rights, a gun 
 
 * Plowden's Historical Review^ vol. iii., Appendix, pp, 51, 52. 
 
TEEROEISING PROTESTANT CLERGYMEN 43 
 
 being pointed close to his head whilst the 
 oath was tendered, and a horse produced 
 with a saddle full of spikes, on Avhich he 
 was to he mounted, if he refused to swear. 
 A second was menaced, with dreadful im- 
 precations, that he should meet with a 
 most horrible reception if he did not obey 
 their laws more punctually, though he by 
 a public notice had declared submission. A 
 third, with like imprecations, that he should 
 be treated inhumanly and barbarously. A 
 fourth, that he should be severely pun- 
 ished if he dared to officiate. A fifth, if he 
 did not discontinue a suit at law ; and a 
 sixth, that his house sliould be burned. 
 A seventh had his house, in the town of 
 Mallow, broken open at midnight, and his 
 bed-chamber entered by a number of armed 
 men, who forced him to give up his horses 
 for their use. An eighth narrowly escaped 
 a visit from three hundred men, having 
 just before their arrival quitted the house, 
 where he usually resided. A ninth had his 
 house surrounded in the dead of night 
 by a hundred men for several hours, who 
 endeavoured to force his gates ; the terror 
 nearly occasioned the death of his daughter, 
 who was brought to bed the night before (a 
 fact which the assailants, who were his near 
 neighbours, must have known), and by his 
 anxiety for her impaired the health of her 
 father. Though he sent word to the in- 
 surgents that he would give up the whole 
 of his tithes rather than endanger the life 
 of his child, they did not forbear their 
 visits, but repeated them, with the addition 
 of shocking cruelty to a poor labourer em- 
 ployed by him, whom they took naked out 
 of his bed, brought to the gate of this clergy- 
 
44 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 man; they whipped him severely there, 
 requiring him at every stroke to cry out to 
 his master, though they knew the cries 
 would be heard by his daughter, who was 
 still confined to her bed. 
 
 ''A tenth received a written message 
 from the Whiteboys, declaring, with their 
 usual imprecations, that if he intended such 
 villainy as to set tithes at the old rates, 
 they had prepared a pitched shirt for him, 
 in which they would set him on fire. The 
 eleventh, a gentleman still more respect- 
 able for his character than for his very 
 advanced age, after forty-four years' resi- 
 dence in his parish, where he had been a 
 constant benefactor to the poor, received 
 repeated messages that his barn (a thatched 
 building contiguous to his house) should be 
 burnt, and he taken out of his bed ; and the 
 spectacle was exhibited, which would have 
 disgraced the most uncivilised country, of 
 the dwelling of a man so venerable pro- 
 tected for a length of time by a military 
 guard. A band of three hundred White - 
 boys advanced within a mile of his house, 
 on the first night appointed for the attack 
 of it, but turned back on hearing that it 
 was guarded by soldiers. 
 
 '' In the dioceses of Cork and Hoss two 
 clergymen, resident on their respective 
 glebes, Avere attacked by numerous bodies 
 of Whiteboys, and compelled to swear that 
 they would conform to their rules. Two 
 others were obliged to retain military guard 
 for a considerable length of time in their 
 houses, one of whom had five of his horses 
 cropped, from spite that his house was 
 secure. The houses of both these gentlemen 
 were visited by the insurgents. . . . Many 
 
MICHAEL DAVITT ON THE WHITEBOYS 45 
 
 of the clergy of those dioceses received 
 threatening messages and letters, in conse- 
 quence of which two of them took refuge in 
 Cork. A clergyman now resident in Cork, 
 a fortnight since receiyed a Whiteboy mes- 
 sage that his ears should be cropped and 
 his tongue cut out of his mouth. On the 
 whole, all the clergy in the extensive 
 county of Cork, whose places of residence 
 were in the country, were under continual 
 alarm, and obliged to arm themselves in 
 the best manner they could." ^ 
 
 No one who studies carefully the history of 
 the Whiteboys can doubt that their methods 
 were a disgrace to Christianity and civilisation. 
 We cannot discover that its cruel and murderous 
 work ever benefited the peasantry, or any other 
 class of society. It vfould have been well for 
 Ireland if, when the organisation ceased to be 
 known by the name of Whiteboys, it had itself 
 ceased to exist. Such was the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians in the middle of the eighteenth 
 century ! 
 
 Yet Mr. Michael Davitt spoke of the White- 
 boys with a certain measure of respect, though 
 he acknowledged much of the wickedness of its 
 work. He stated that : 
 
 "The Whiteboys levied a necessary war 
 of social insurrection. They terrorised 
 grabbers, graziers, and other landlord 
 supporters, and enforced their decrees by 
 such powers as secret combination gave 
 them. The owners had the service of the 
 military, the law, the prison, and the gallows. 
 These peasant bands fell back upon arson, 
 
 ^ Woodward's Present State of the Church of Ireland^ fourth 
 edition, pp. 101-4. Dublin, 1V87. 
 
46 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 outrage, and frequently upon murder, as a 
 counter-deterrent to the extreme penalties 
 inflicted upon members of their body." ^ 
 
 In Leinster the Whiteboys took the name of 
 Bight Boys, and of both combinations Davitt 
 writes : 
 
 " These were dangerous associations in 
 many respects. All combinations against 
 despotism are. But these bodies did, in 
 doubtless a rude and riotous way, what 
 Dr. Troy (Boman Catholic Bishop) and his 
 Episcopal brethren did not do in any way, 
 namely, tried to protect the people from 
 extermination. ' Captain Bight ' and ' Cap- 
 tain Bock ' and the rest were good subjects 
 for palpit censure by the priests and 
 Bishops of the period, but it was by 
 them, by brave, if desperate and sometimes 
 criminally disposed men, that the Celtic 
 peasantry of Ireland had both their land 
 and religion preserved in those penal times, 
 and not through any sacrifice made by the 
 complaisant pro-English prelates of the 
 Br. Troy class."' 
 
 It is easy to see in what direction Mr. 
 Bavitt's sympathies lay when he wrote this 
 statement, and it is much to be regretted that 
 he gave expression to the opinion that the 
 Whiteboys' operations were '' necessary." 
 
 * Davitt's Fall of Feudalism in Ireland, p. 16. 
 2 lUd., p. 23. 
 
CHAPTEE IV 
 
 THE DEFENDEES 
 
 The modern leaders of the Ancient Order of Hibernians boast 
 that the Order is identical with the Defenders — The De- 
 fenders were the immediate successors of the Whiteboys — 
 Testimony of Mr. Michael Davitt — The Oath of Secrecy 
 taken by the Defenders — Rules of the Defenders Society — 
 Every member to provide a gun and bayonet — Plowden 
 says the Defenders " indulged in all sorts of crimes " — Testi- 
 mony of the Attorney-General — The Defenders described by 
 the Select Committee of the Irish House of I^ords — ^Testi- 
 mony of Lord Chancellor Clare — Their attacks on the houses 
 of Protestants — Lecky's character of the Defender Movement 
 — The Defenders as described by Mr. T. A. Emmet — Their 
 disloyal work— None but Ptoman Catholics admitted as 
 Members — Its secret character — The wholesale murders 
 committed by the Defenders— Instances of their horrible 
 atrocities — Summary of Defender outrages in 1793 — The 
 Defenders join the United Irishmen — 615 Protestants mur- 
 dered in cold blood by the rebels of 1798 — The oath taken 
 by the rebels to " murder all heretics, up to my knees in 
 blood." 
 
 Sir Eichaed Musgeaye, writing in 1801, states 
 that the enyenomed hatred by the multitude 
 of Ireland's connection with England '^ has 
 appeared in various shapes, such as Levellers, 
 Whiteboys, Eight Boys, United Irishmen, and 
 Defenders " ; and he adds that, ''We cannot be 
 at a loss to account for the origin of the latter ; 
 they are but a link of the same chain." ^ 
 
 Lecky states that Defenderism '' became to a 
 great extent a new Whiteboy movement." ^ 
 During the past two years the leaders of the 
 
 ^ Musgrave's Memoirs of the Rebellions in Ireland, second 
 edition, p. 67. 
 ^ Lecky's History of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 215. 
 
 47 
 
48 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ireland and 
 the United States have frequently boasted that 
 their organisation is identical Avith the De- 
 fenders, who succeeded to the Whiteboys 
 towards the end of the eighteenth century. The 
 close connection between these organisations is 
 admitted by the author of the official History of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Avho states 
 that eventually '' the Defenders of the North 
 and the Whiteboys of the South joined hands 
 and adopted the name of Ribbonmen." ^ 
 
 Mr. Michael Davitt also shows the practical 
 identity of these various organisations. He tells 
 us : 
 
 '' The Ribbon organisation, which came 
 into prominence at the later stages of the 
 anti-tithe movement, was founded in Ulster, 
 and had its origin in the Defenders, It 
 became the most powerful of all the Irish 
 secret societies of the middle of the 
 nineteenth century, and exerted very con- 
 siderable influence upon the subsequent 
 upbuilding of the Eenian Brotherhood. It 
 absorbed almost all the existing agrarian 
 bodies after 1830, Whiteboyism being largely 
 transformed into the better organised and 
 more widespread Ribbon combination T ^ 
 
 And, again, Mr. Davitt tells us distinctly : 
 
 '^ The Ancient Order of Hibernians, now 
 perhaps the most powerful pro-Celtic 
 organisation in the world, was the trans- 
 Atlantic offspring of the Ribbonism of 
 Ireland, It has long since ceased to be 
 a secret or oath-bound organisation, and 
 has become mainly a benevolent society. 
 
 ^ History of the Ancient Order of Hihernians^ p. 48. 
 2 Davitt's Fall of Feudalism in Ireland^ pp. 40, 41. 
 
THE OATH OP THE DEEENDERS 49 
 
 Its membership is strictly confined to 
 Catliolics, in accord with the original 
 aim of the parent Defender body.'' 
 
 55 1 
 
 The identity of these various societies, work- 
 ing under different names, is thus clearly 
 established. The Defenders were the parents 
 of the Ribbonmen and they, in turn, of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians. 
 
 Muso:rave affirms that the Defenders first 
 used that name in 1785, in Ulster, at a time 
 when they were frequently engaged in party 
 fights with the Presbyterians. The opposing 
 bodies at length formed themselves into societies, 
 the Presbyterians adopting the name of Peep- 
 o'-Day Boys, and the Bjoman Catholics that of 
 Defenders. The Oath taken by members of the 
 Defender organisation, together with the rules 
 adopted by it, were published by Plowden, in 
 1803. They were as follows : 
 
 ''The Oath 
 
 ''I, A B, of my own free will and 
 accord, do swear to be true to one an- 
 other, Avill assist one another abroad and 
 at home, and there are none to be admitted 
 without the consent of the Committee 
 appointed by the said body ; and they must 
 in all things be under subjection to the 
 said Committee in all things that are lawful, 
 and not otherAvise ; and all loords and signs 
 to he kept secret from all that are not 
 concerned or forfeit this oath, and we are 
 to meet once a month where the Committee 
 thinks proper, and we are to spend what is 
 agreeable to the company ; and any person 
 giving a lawful reason for his absence, he 
 is not to be under censure, and all persons 
 
 ^ Davitt's Fall of Feudalism in Ireland, p. 42. 
 
 4 
 
50 THE UNKNOWN POWEE. 
 
 entering must be under all rules and 
 regulations appointed by the said Com- 
 mittee ; and as in our former oath we are 
 bound to His Majesty King George III. 
 and his successors to the Crown, so for this 
 present year, 1789, we promise faithfully 
 the same obedience, and also while we live 
 subject to the same government." ^ 
 
 Of course, that part of this curiously worded 
 oath Avhich promises ''obedience" to King 
 George III. for one year only, was merely 
 intended as a blind to any outsider who might 
 chance to come across a copy. The " obedience " 
 of the Defenders either to the King or his laws 
 was an invisible quantity. We shall see similar 
 tactics adopted by the successors of the Defenders 
 later on. The following were the 
 
 '' EULES TO BE OBSEEYED 
 
 ''1st. There is no Defender to strike one 
 another upon any account ; or, if they do, 
 to be excluded the company as long as the 
 Committee thinks proper. 
 
 " 2nd. There is no person to come to the 
 monthly meeting drunk ; or, if they do, 
 to pay sixpence, and to be excluded for 
 three months. 
 
 " 3rd. There is no person on any account 
 to swear or speak loud in the company, and 
 for every oath they are to pay what the 
 Committee thinks proper. 
 
 "4th. There is no person that formerly 
 belonged to another body (that is to say, a 
 strange body) to be accepted without a line 
 from the body he formerly belonged to. 
 
 " 5th. There is no person to let any one 
 
 ^ Plowden's Historical Review^ vol. ii., p. 276. 
 
RULES OF THE DEFENDERS 51 
 
 know who belongs to their body, but those 
 who went under the obligation. 
 
 " 6th. There is no body of men to go to 
 a challenge without leave of three of the 
 Committee at least. 
 
 '* 7th. There is no body to get a copy of 
 these without the leave of the Grand Master 
 appointed by the general year's meeting, 
 or deputies appointed by the said Grand 
 Master, or his Committee. 
 
 '' 8th. Let no person know no words or 
 signs without being concerned, and they 
 are not empowered to give or make known 
 by either signs or words or tokens any 
 that mav hereafter come forth, or make 
 it known to any company or body but 
 ourselves, or our body. 
 
 ''9th. There is no Defender to make 
 himself known as a Defender after being 
 excluded, under fear of perjury ; and each 
 man continuing six months from this day 
 must find a gun and bayonet, loith other 
 necessary accoutrements, or be excluded at 
 the option of the Committee." ^ 
 
 Agrarian outrages and murders formed the 
 chief work of the Defenders. We may be quite 
 sure that Plowden, as a Homan Catholic, would 
 not exaggerate the offences of an organisation 
 composed exclusively of members of his own 
 communion. Yet even he is compelled to state 
 facts which form a heavy indictment against 
 the Defenders. Their opponents, the Peep-o'- 
 Day Boys, were, it must be admitted, not free 
 from blame ; but their offences were but few 
 in number when compared with those of the 
 Defenders. Allowance, too, must be made on 
 both sides for what men will do when heated 
 
 ^ Plowden's Historical Revieiv, vol. ii., p. 276 
 
52 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 with passion and hatred. The character of the 
 crimes of the Defenders was of a much darker 
 dye than that of their oj)ponents. In the 
 year 1794, PloAvden states, the Defenders '' com- 
 mitted depredations without control ; and as- 
 sembling in large bodies by night to learn the 
 use of arms, they went through military eyolu- 
 tions under their captains, the most infamous 
 individuals of the community, generally the pro- 
 scribed objects of civil or martial law. Their 
 necessities multiplied, under the specious name 
 of Defenders, tJiey indulged in all sorts of crimes. 
 They talked of liberty and equality. They 
 threatened to cut off heads, to burn and to 
 destroy wherever enmity appeared, or opposition 
 was made to them." ^ 
 
 On Eebruary 20th, 1796, the Attorney- General 
 delivered a speech in the Irish House of Com- 
 mons in which he related at length the crimes 
 of the Defenders. 
 
 '' These wretches," he said, " associated 
 together by night for the purpose of plunder, 
 murder, and devastation. To prevent Avit- 
 nesses appearing against them on trial, they 
 had adopted a system of assassination. He 
 instanced the transaction which took place 
 about ten days before, near Lutrelstown, 
 where the Cormicks, who were to prosecute 
 Defenders the very next day at the Quarter 
 Sessions of Kilmainham, were most in- 
 humanly murdered. Another part of their 
 system was, to put witnesses to death 
 after trial ; and he instanced a case where 
 a witness, who had prosecuted Defenders 
 at the Assizes of Dundalk, had been mur- 
 dered after the trial. He instanced many 
 
 Plowden's Historical Eevieiv, vol. ii., p. 437. 
 
OUTRAGES BY THE DEFENDERS 53 
 
 acts of atrocity committed in the county 
 of Longford, particularly the case of Mr. 
 Harman, one of the representatives for the 
 county, and in the county of Westmeath, 
 Cavan, and Meath." ^ 
 
 A Select Committee of the Irish House of 
 Lords, in 1793, reported : 
 
 '' The people at this time called Defenders 
 are very different from those who originally 
 assumed that appellation, and are all, as far 
 as the Committee could discover, of the 
 Eoman Catholic persuasion : in general 
 poor ignorant labouring men, sworn to 
 secrecy, and impressed with an opinion that 
 they are assisting the Catholic cause ; in 
 other respects they do not appear to have 
 any distinct particular object in view, but 
 they talk of being relieved from hearth- 
 money, tithes, county cesses, and of lower- 
 ing their rents. They first appeared in the 
 county of Louth in considerable bodies in 
 April last. Several of them were armed. 
 They assembled mostly in the night, and 
 forced into the houses of Protestants, and 
 took from them their arms. The disorders 
 soon spread through the counties of Meath, 
 Cavan, Monaghan, and other parts adjacent ; 
 at first they took nothing but arms, but 
 afterwards they plundered the houses of 
 everything they could find. Their measures 
 appear to have been concerted and con- 
 ducted with the utmost secrec}*, and a 
 degree of regularity and system not usual in 
 people of such mean condition, and as if 
 directed by men of a superior ranhT ^ 
 
 ^ Plowden's Historical Revieiv^ vol. ii., p. 544. 
 ^ Report from the Committee of Secrecy, second edition, 1798, 
 p. 33. 
 
54 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 ii The Lord Chancellor of Ireland (the Earl of 
 Clare), in a speech in the Irish House of Lords 
 on February 19th, 1798, referred to that part of 
 the Eeport of the Select Committee which we 
 have just quoted, and then proceeded to give 
 some further information about the Defenders. 
 
 " The lower orders of Catholics," he said, 
 " were stimulated to associate under the 
 title of Defenders, and were impressed with 
 an opinion that, by robbing the houses of 
 Protestants of arms and ammunition, they 
 would contribute to the success of the 
 Catholic cause, and finally be relieved from 
 the payment of tithes, taxes, and rents. I 
 will not say that this system of robbery 
 and outrage which was struck out for ^n 
 ignorant and deluded populace was first 
 devised by the Catholic Directory. Eut 
 your Lordships are in possession of full 
 proof, that sonae of the unfortunate men 
 who were capitally indicted as Defenders 
 in the summer of 1792, were patronised 
 and protected by them, and that consider- 
 able sums of money were paid out of their 
 stock-purse to defray the expenses at- 
 tending the trial of some persons who were 
 then convicted in the county of Louth." ^ 
 
 Soon after its birth, Defenderism spread 
 throughout the provinces of Ulster, Leinster, and 
 Connaught. "It soon," says Lecky, ''ceased 
 to be either a league for mutual protection or a 
 mere system of religious riot. It assumed the 
 usual form of a secret and permanent organisa- 
 tion, held together by oaths, moving under a 
 hidden direction, attracting to itself all kinds of 
 
 ^ The Speech of the Earl of Clare in the House of Lords in 
 Ireland, Feb. 19th, 1798, by authority, London, 1798, p. 24. 
 
DISLOYALTY OP THE DEFENDEES 55 
 
 criminals, and making itself the organ of all 
 kinds of discontent. ... It was also early- 
 noticed that it was accompanied by nightly 
 meetings for the purpose of drill, and Toy a 
 profuse distribution of incendiary papers." ^ 
 
 And, again, Lecky states : 
 
 '' The Defender movement is extremely 
 important in Irish history, for it appears to 
 have been mainly tlirougli tJiis channel that 
 a great mass of the poorer Roman Catholics 
 passed into the ranUs of disaffection!' ^ 
 
 In the course of An Essay towards the BJistory 
 of Ireland, by Mr. T. A. Emmet, that gentle- 
 man described the Defenders in terms which 
 make the treasonable character of the organisa- 
 tion manifest. He wrote : 
 
 '' The Defenders, after their association 
 had changed its type, were bound together 
 by oaths, obviously drawn up by illiterate 
 men, different in different places, but all 
 promising secrecy, and specifying whatever 
 grievance was, in each place, most felt and 
 best understood. Tithes, therefore, were in 
 all of them very prominent. The views of 
 these men were in general far from distinct ; 
 although they had a national notion that 
 ' something ought to be done for Ireland ' ; 
 but they were all perfectly convinced that 
 whatever was to be done for themselves 
 or their country could only be accomplished 
 by force of arms. They therefore formed 
 themselves, as far as their knowledge Avould 
 permit, upon a military system, and in order 
 
 ^ Lecky's History of Ireland^ vol. iii., p. 215. 
 2 Ibid., p. 221. 
 
56 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 to procure arms used to assemble by night, 
 to take them from the houses of those who 
 they conceived would be eventually their 
 
 In 1795 no fewer than thirteen counties were 
 infested with Defenderism. The members at 
 times appeared in arms to the number of from 
 2,000 to 3,000. Eor forty miles round Carrick- 
 on- Shannon every Protestant was forcibly de- 
 spoiled of arms by the Defenders. In the short 
 space of eight months there were no fewer than 
 147 murders, robberies, and rapes committed in 
 the county of Longford alone. It was generally 
 believed at the time that wherever the Defenders 
 were active they desired, above everything else, 
 the total extermination of Protestants from 
 Ireland. 
 
 In a memorial presented to the Prench 
 Government in Pebruary, 1796, by Wolfe Tone, 
 the rebel, that gentleman stated that the Eoman 
 Catholics of Ireland at that time had — 
 
 " An organisation comprising Catholics 
 only. Until within these few months, this 
 organisation baffled the most active vigil- 
 ance of the Irish Government, unsuccess- 
 fully employed to discover its principles, 
 and to this very hour they are, I believe, 
 unapprised of its extent. ^ 
 
 " The fact is that in June last it em- 
 braced the whole peasantry of the provinces 
 of Ulster, Leinster, and Connaught, three- 
 fourths of the nation ; and I have little 
 doubt but it has since extended into Munster, 
 
 ^ Pieces of Irish History^ by W. J. MacNeven, p. 48. New- 
 York. 
 
 _^ This same statement might now, we believe, be applied to the 
 Irish Government, with reference to the principles and extent of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians. 
 
DISLOYALTY OF THE DEFENDEES 57 
 
 the remaining province. These men, who 
 are called Defenders, are completely organ- 
 ised on a military plan, divided according 
 to their respective districts, and officered 
 hy men chosen hy themselves ; the principle 
 of their union is implicit obedience to the 
 orders of those whom they ha-ve elected 
 for their Generals, and loJiose object is the 
 emancipation of their country , the subver- 
 sion of JEiiglish usurpation, and bettering 
 the condition of the wretched peasantry 
 of Ireland. The eyes of this whole body, 
 which may be said, almost without a figure, 
 to be the people of Ireland, are turned, 
 with the most anxious expectation, to 
 Prance for assistance and support. The 
 oath of their Union recites, that ' They will 
 be faithful to the united nations of France 
 and Ireland,' and several of them have 
 already sealed it with their blood. I suppose 
 there is no history of a conspiracy, if a 
 whole people can be said to conspire, which 
 has continued so many years as this has 
 done, where the secret has been so religiously 
 kept,^ and where, in so vast a number, so 
 few traitors are to be found." " 
 
 One of the greatest outrages by the Defenders 
 was, perhaps, that committed by them at Eork- 
 hill, Co. Armagh, in 1791. It was thus described 
 by Lieut. -Colonel Yerner, M.P., when giving 
 evidence, on oath, before the Select Committee 
 on Orange Lodges, in 1835 : 
 
 '' It was," he said, ''in 1791 ; the circum- 
 stance made an impression on my mind. I 
 
 ^ Does not this also apply, in a degree, to the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians of the present clay ? 
 
 2 Memoirs of T. Wolfe Tone, edition 1827, vol. ii., pp. 434, 
 435. 
 
58 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 heard it related by my father several times, 
 who was on the Grand Jury when the trial 
 took place. A gentleman of the name of 
 Jackson died, and demised his property to 
 religious and charitable purposes, and re- 
 quired by his will that a Protestant colony 
 should be established on his property in 
 that part of the country — it adjoins the 
 county of Louth. In attempting to do so, 
 his agent was frequently shot at, and upon 
 one occasion had a horse killed under him. 
 Mr. Jackson required by his will that there 
 should be four schools established for the 
 purpose of the education of the children 
 of all denominations and persuasions. In 
 the attempt to establish this colony, the 
 persons who came to reside there were fre- 
 quently threatened by the Homan Catholics, 
 and told that they should not come into 
 that part of the country. One of the school- 
 masters had also been frequently threatened. 
 One evening his house was entered. I am 
 not sure whether the door was forced, or 
 if he opened it at the persuasion of a 
 neighbour; a body of men came in. The 
 man, aware from their threats what their 
 object was, concealed his wife in the bed 
 curtains. They threw him down, put a 
 cord round his neck, and forced his tongue 
 out, which they cut off, and then cut off 
 the joints of his fingers, joint by joint. 
 His unfortunate wife screamed out. They 
 took her and cut off with a blunt instru- 
 ment the joints of her fingers ; they then cut 
 off her breasts, seized her son, a boy of 
 thirteen years old, cut out his tongue, and 
 cut the calves off his legs. The unfortunate 
 man asked if he had ever injured them ; 
 they replied not, but this was the beginning 
 
HORKIBLE CRIMES OF THE DEFENDERS 59 
 
 of what all his sort might expect. I knew 
 the boy afterwards ; he lived for some years 
 on my property, and was a yeoman in the 
 corps which my father commanded. I 
 recollect my father mentioning that this 
 hoy, who had not recovered at the time 
 of the trial, was carried in and laid upon 
 the table, and that when he was handed 
 the crier's rod, and was asked whether he 
 saw any person in the Conrt whom he had 
 seen in his father's house on the night of 
 the outrage, he laid the rod on the head 
 of one of the prisoners in the dock ; and 
 when asked whether he recollected what 
 clothes he had on, he said he did, and 
 placed the rod on the head of a person 
 standing outside, who proved to be the 
 prisoner's brother, and who had exchanged 
 coats with him in the gaol that morning." ^ 
 
 The unfortunate family on whom this terrible 
 outrage was committed was named Barclay. A 
 man named Murphy was executed for his part 
 in the transaction. Sir E^ichard Musgrave, in 
 his Memoirs of the Hehellions, distinctly attri- 
 butes this outrage to the Defenders, and so also 
 does the late Dr. Ingram, in his Irish History. 
 Musgrave publishes a report of the crime, sent 
 to the Bishop of Dromore a few days after the 
 event bv the trustees of the school of which 
 Barclay was master, in which they stated : 
 
 '' Shocking as this account is to human 
 nature, it is publicly exulted at in the 
 parish, and no person seems to think that 
 any punishment will follow the commission 
 of this most atrocious wickedness. So far 
 were they from wishing to conceal it, that 
 
 ^ Reports from Committees, Orange Lodges, vol. xv., p. 4. 
 
60 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 they proceeded on the road with torches, 
 publicly, and in defiance of everybody."^ 
 
 It may be useful to reprint here a summary 
 of '' Outrages by the Defenders in the year 
 1793 " only, as given by Sir Richard Musgrave 
 in Appendix IX. of his Memoirs : 
 
 '' On the twenty-second of January, 1793, 
 a numerous body of them (Defenders) well 
 armed, wantonly attacked a detachment of 
 the forty-first regiment near Petersville, in 
 the county of Meath, and had a severe con- 
 flict with them ; and on that occasion the 
 Presbyterians who live in that county aided 
 the King's troops with great zeal, which 
 shows that they were loyal at that time. 
 About the same time the Defenders in great 
 numbers furiously assaulted a compan}^ of 
 the same regiment commanded by Major 
 Grey, when on their march, at Manor 
 Hamilton, in the county of Leitrim, and 
 destroyed their baggage, though they were 
 ultimately repulsed ; on that occasion 
 the Defenders charged the soldiers, and 
 wrenched their bayonets from their muskets. 
 
 '^ A proclamation issued on the 13th of 
 February, 1793, against them, stating that 
 outrages had been committed by them in 
 the counties of Louth, Meath, Cavan, Dublin, 
 Monaghan, and the county of the town of 
 Drogheda ; and it alludes to enormities 
 perpetrated by them in the preceding 
 year. 
 
 '' In the same month a large mob of 
 people assembled at Woodford, in the 
 county of Gal way, declaring they would 
 pay no more taxes ; and sAvore numbers of 
 
 ^ Musgrave's Memoirs of the Eehellions, p. 61. 
 
OUTRAGES BY DEFENDEES 61 
 
 people to be true to them and their cause. 
 They were incited to this hy inflammatory 
 hand-bills. 
 
 "In the same month a detachment of 
 the eighth regiment was attacked by a 
 numerous body of them at Athboy, in the 
 county of Meath, and two of the soldiers 
 were killed. 
 
 '' In the same month a party of them 
 attempted to carry off four pieces of cannon 
 from Garretstown, in the county of Meath, 
 but were prevented by the volunteers of 
 Ardeath. 
 
 " In the same month they committed 
 dreadful outrages in the barony of Innish- 
 owen, in the county of Donegal ; such as 
 burning houses, destroying corn, hough- 
 ing cattle, extorting money, and writing 
 threatening letters. At last the Protestant 
 inhabitants assembled and offered a reward 
 of two hundred guineas to au}^ person who 
 could enable their committee to prosecute 
 them. 
 
 '' In the same month Justice Graham 
 seized eight of them near the Naul, and 
 found on Joseph Corbally, their leader, a 
 list of sixty-six persons who had enrolled 
 themselves as Defenders. 
 
 '' In the same month a numerous body 
 of them forcibly entered and plundered the 
 house of Mr. Mark Cassidy, of Derry, in 
 the county of Monaghan, of arms, and 
 other valuable articles. 
 
 '' The same month a party of them, well 
 armed, attacked and fired on a bod}^ of the 
 King's troops near Ardee, who killed seven, 
 and wounded a great number of them. Eor 
 some time after the inhabitants of that 
 town were so much afraid of being 
 
62 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 massacred, that they, headed by the magis- 
 trates, kept guard by night. 
 
 " In the beginning of the year 1793 
 they often assembled in great numbers at 
 Moneymore, in the county of Derry, and 
 assumed the title of Green Cockade Men, 
 because they wore that badge in their 
 hats ; they paraded in arms, and exercised 
 in a public manner ; and at last they 
 became so formidable that General White 
 was sent there with a body of troops to 
 suppress them. 
 
 " In the month of May, 1793, there was 
 a general rising of them in the counties 
 of Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim, and Hoscommon; 
 and they showed great eagerness to procure 
 the firearms of Protestants. They destroyed 
 several gentlemen's houses ; they plun- 
 dered and demolished Coalville, the seat 
 of Mr. Tennison, valued at £6,000. Mr. 
 Tennison, with a party of soldiers, took 
 some of them prisoners ; but the mob, 
 supposed to be six thousand, rushed on 
 them, killed three of the soldiers, and 
 rescued the prisoners. 
 
 "They robbed of arms and ammunition 
 Captain Ormsby's seat of Castle-Dangan, 
 Mr. Johnson's of Addersaid, and his 
 sons, and Captain Carter's of Drumlease. 
 Mercury, the seat of Mr. Cooper, Member 
 for the county of Sligo, they plundered 
 of fifty muskets, and various other articles, 
 broke all his windows, and drank or spilled 
 all the liquors in his cellars ; most of the 
 gentlemen in that county were obliged 
 to fly from their houses. 
 
 " In the month of June a body of in- 
 surgents burned the house of Mr. Wilson, 
 of Castlecomer, and assassinated Mrs. 
 
OUTEAGES BY DEFENDEES 63 
 
 Wilson, as she endeavoured to escape from 
 tlie flames. 
 
 '' This year we find them in a state of 
 insurrection in the four quarters of the 
 kingdom. Swearing the Defender's Oath 
 took place very generally in the heginning 
 of the year 1793 in the county of Wex- 
 ford. 
 
 " In the month of July a numher of 
 them assembled near Enniscorthy, and 
 after threatening to break open the gaol, 
 they proceeded in immense numbers to 
 Wexford, to liberate the prisoners confined 
 there ; and the brave Major Vallaton, 
 having led out a detachment of the fifty- 
 sixth regiment to oppose them, and while 
 humanely expostulating with them, they 
 gave him some desperate wounds, of 
 which he died soon after. Great num- 
 bers of the insurgents were killed and 
 wounded. 
 
 "There was a dreadful spirit of insur- 
 gency in various parts of the county of 
 Limerick in the month of July, which 
 lasted some days. Near Limerick the in- 
 surgents had an engagement with part of 
 the thirty-eighth regiment, who killed and 
 wounded some of them ; however, the same 
 party afterwards burned the house of Mr. 
 Oliver, who narrowly escaped with his 
 life. 
 
 " At Bruff, in that county, they fired 
 treacherously from the windows of that 
 town on a party of the King's troops, 
 commanded by Captain Eorbes, which oc- 
 casioned a dreadful conflict, and in which 
 some lives were lost. 
 
 " In the month of May, 1793, a large 
 body of them, after committing various 
 
64 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 outrages at Boyle, in the county of Ros- 
 common, attacked a party of the King's 
 troops, who killed nineteen of them. 
 
 '' In the months of May and June, 1793, 
 the county of Kerry was a good deal 
 agitated. The pretext of the disaffected 
 was a determination to oppose the raising 
 of the militia ; hut it was soon discoyered 
 to arise from a deeper and more malignant 
 source, as the insurgents openly declared 
 that nothing would satisfy them hut a 
 division of property, and an abolition of 
 tithes and taxes. 
 
 ''Early in the month of June they 
 attacked and dispersed the Deputy Gover- 
 nors, who had assembled at Dingle to 
 confer on raising the militia. 
 
 '' A week after, about four thousand 
 assembled and entered that town for the 
 purpose of swearing the inhabitants to 
 abide by their laws. The gentlemen of 
 the county, having had notice of their 
 intention, united to the number of twenty- 
 five ; but found themselves unable to with- 
 stand so numerous a mob, of whom many 
 were well appointed with arms. They 
 therefore retreated to a house, and defended 
 themselves till night, when the insurgents 
 dispersed. 
 
 " A fortnight before St. John's Day, the 
 24th of June, they proclaimed at their 
 chapels, and by notices posted in all public 
 places, that they would meet in great 
 numbers on that day at Dingle, and carry 
 all their plans into execution. In con- 
 sequence of their declaration, Mr. Mullins 
 got seventy soldiers from Limerick, who 
 marched into Dingle the day preceding the 
 intended meeting ; and he gave public 
 
OUTRAaES BY DEFENDERS 65 
 
 notice that lie would oppose them. How- 
 ever, not deterred by the army, they entered 
 the town in immense numbers, armed with 
 guns, pistols, swords, pikes, and scythes 
 mounted on poles. Mr. Mullins, desirou.s 
 to prevent the effusion of blood, remained 
 in the barrack with the troops till 3 o'clock, 
 thouo^h the insuro:ents were two hours in 
 possession of the town; but when they 
 began to commit acts of violence on the 
 inhabitants, and their houses, he marched 
 out, when the mob fired on them, and 
 pelted them with stones ; on which, having 
 ordered the troops to fire, they killed four- 
 teen of the insurgents, and wounded many 
 of them; after which they dispersed and 
 fled, and did not stop until they arrived at 
 some cliffs over the sea, which were ten 
 miles off ; and they Avould not return till 
 they made peace with the magistrates. 
 Most of them gave information one against 
 another ; and they swore that their in- 
 tention was to have killed all the Protestant 
 gentlemen, and to have confiscated their 
 estates. It was proved afterwards that 
 this plot was general in the county of 
 Kerry; and that it extended even to the 
 county of Limerick, for there were persons 
 stationed at Tralee, and Tarbert, and in the 
 intervening space, ready to convey the 
 event of their attack on Dingle ; that all 
 the inhabitants of that immense tract of 
 country might have risen at the same 
 moment, and have acted in consort with 
 them. The exemplary punishment of these 
 insurgents has kept the county of Kerry 
 peaceful ever since ; for though it was 
 organised in 1797, no outrages were com- 
 mitted but in one place. That salutary act 
 
 5 
 
66 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 of severity probably saved many hundred 
 lives afterwards." 
 
 The conduct of the Defenders was not merely 
 criminal in the highest degree, but it was 
 foolish also. They had no reasonable prospect 
 of success to plead for doing evil that some 
 supposed good might come. The Defenders 
 merely multiplied the evils and sufferings of 
 the people on whose behalf they existed, by 
 bringing down on them the punishments of the 
 misdeeds organised by the society, and plunging 
 them into deeper poverty than ever. Their 
 intentions may have been good ; no doubt they 
 wished to improve the conditions of the 
 peasantry ; but were they justified in using such 
 vile weapons in support of their cause ? If we 
 are asked why we do not at least record some of 
 the good deeds of the Defenders, our only reply 
 must be that we can discover none to record. 
 They benefited nobody, but added greatly to the 
 miseries of Ireland. 
 
 On the eve of the Eebellion of 1798, the 
 Defenders ceased to be known by that appel- 
 lation. As a body they joined the United 
 Irishmen, and seem to have gained the control 
 of that organisation, after most of the Protes- 
 tants had withdrawn from it, disgusted with the 
 cruelties of the Wexford rebels. The United 
 Irishmen professed to aim at a combination of 
 Protestants and Eoman Catholics for the further- 
 ance of their disloyal objects. Their leaders 
 soon discovered how necessary it was for their 
 success that the Defenders — though exclusively 
 a Eoman Catholic body — should be drawn into 
 the movement. With this view, negotiations 
 were entered into, with the result, says Plowden, 
 that — 
 
 "The Defenders, by specific votes in 
 
BEFENDERS AND UNITED IRISHMEN 67 
 
 their own societies, agreed to be sworn 
 United Irishmen, and incorporated in large 
 bodies into the Union." ^ 
 
 And Madden, the sympathetic historian of the 
 United Irishmen, expressly declares that : 
 
 '' The Defenders gradually merged into 
 the United Irishmen, and in a short time 
 there loas no distinction betioeen them.^^ " 
 
 The addition of the Defenders to the ranks of 
 the United Irishmen tended, we have no doubt, 
 towards giving the rebellion of 1798 that religi- 
 ous character which, in County Wexford, led to 
 the wholesale murder of Protestants. If Pro- 
 testants took an important part in the pre- 
 liminary work of the United Irishmen, the 
 work of the rebels when actually in the field 
 was mainly guided by Roman Catholic priests 
 and laymen.- In Wexford it was looked on 
 as a war against the so-called heretics. Por 
 this, the infusion of the Defender element was 
 mainly responsible. The few Protestant leaders 
 who took part in the rebellion were simply used 
 as tools by those who really controlled it, and 
 most of them lived long enough to bitterly 
 repent of their folly. When James Beagham, a 
 E/oman Catholic rebel, was about to be executed, 
 on August 24ith, 1799, he said : 
 
 '' Now, gentlemen, remember what I tell 
 you. If you and the Protestants are ever 
 in the power of the Catholics again, as they 
 are now in yours, they will not leave one of 
 you alive ; you will all go smack smooth ; 
 even those (Protestants) who campaigned 
 with them, if things had gone well with 
 
 ^ Plowden's History of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 380. 
 
 ^ Madden's United Irishmen^ vol. i., p. 135, edition 1842. 
 
68 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 them, would in the end have heen killed. 
 I have heard them say so many times." ^ 
 
 Even Plowden admits it is not improbable 
 that there is ''some truth" in the following 
 statement of Musgrave : 
 
 ''A respectable Protestant who was taken 
 prisoner by the rebels, and compelled to 
 serve in the camp at Garickbyrne, informed 
 me that Pather Roche (one of the rebel 
 leaders), in a public harangue, denounced 
 all Protestants as heretics, and that they 
 could not have luck or grace while any of 
 them were permitted to serve in their 
 ranks : that on the same day he met E/Oche 
 in a tent, and that he, with singular 
 dissimulation, assured him that they made 
 no religious distinction, and never regarded 
 a man's religion, provided he was loyal and 
 true to their cause ; that Bagenal Harvey 
 (a Protestant leader of the rebels), on hearing 
 iloche's harangue, lamented to him that 
 the war unexpectedly turned out to he purely 
 religious ; that the priests had got absolute 
 sway ; that he seemed quite distracted, and 
 wished he could make his escape." ^ 
 
 It is stated that the rebels took the following 
 horrid oath, and that printed copies of it were 
 found on the bodies of numbers M^ho were slain, 
 particularly at the battles of New Ross and 
 Ballicanew : 
 
 " I, A B, do solemnly swear by our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for us on 
 the Cross, and by the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
 that I will burn, destroy, and murder all 
 
 ^ Musgrave's History of the Behellio7is, Appendix, p. 101. 
 ^ Plowden's HistoiHcal Bevieiv, vol. iii., p. 736. 
 
WHOLESALE MURDER OF PROTESTANTS 69 
 
 heretics, up to my knees in blood. So help 
 me God "^ 
 
 Certainly in the county of Wexford the 
 murder of Protestant '' heretics " was carried 
 out on a wholesale scale. Musgrave prints the 
 names of 538 Protestants murdered in that 
 county alone, and of 77 murdered in County 
 Wicklow, or 615 in all ! " ' 
 
 These unfortunate beings were not slain in 
 open battle, but deliberately murdered by their 
 savage enemies. 
 
 ^ Musgrave's History of the Rebellion^ Appendix, p. 136. 
 ^Rid., Appendix, pp. 72-4, 101-116. 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 THE EIBBONMEN 
 
 The Ribbonmen were the offspring of the Defenders— A strictly 
 secret society — Their special animosity to Protestants — The 
 Ribbon Society denounced by the Roman Catholic Bishop 
 Doyle — He charges it with "establishing a reign of terror 
 throughout the country " — Ribbonmen known by various 
 names — Their oaths to " wade knee-deep in Orange blood " 
 — They wished to expel the Protestants from Ireland — A list 
 of outrages committed by Whitefeet Ribbonmen in Queen's 
 County — Bishop Doyle again denounces the Whitefeet 
 Ribbonmen as making war " like the savage of the desert " 
 — The recent official History of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians terms the Ribbon organisation a "grand and 
 noble society " — The Ribbon Oath to owe no allegiance to a 
 Protestant Sovereign, to murder all Protestant landlords, 
 and destroy all Protestant places of worship — Another form 
 of the Ribbon Oath — Mr. Michael Davitt identifies the 
 Ribbon Oath to " wade knee-deep in Orangemen's blood " — 
 A general description of the Ribbon system — Mr. A. M. 
 Sullivan describes the Ribbon Society as " a hideous organi- 
 sation of outrage and murder "—The Report from the Select 
 Committee on Westmeath Unlaw^ful Combinations, in 1871 
 — The Ancient Order of Hibernians said to be the " Inheri- 
 tors of the glory " of the Ribbonmen— Mr. Michael Davitt 
 says the Order is " the trans- Atlantic offspring of the Ribbon - 
 ism of Ireland." 
 
 We have already shown that the Eibbonmen 
 were the direct offspring of the Defenders. It 
 is not quite certain in what year they were first 
 known by the name of Eibbonmen. Mr. A. M. 
 Sullivan states tliat the name was not attached 
 to the organisation until about the year 1826 ^ ; 
 but in this he was certainly mistaken. Wo 
 possess a pamphlet, published in Dublin in 
 1823, bearing the title of Ex- Officio ; or, the 
 
 ^ Neiv Ireland^ by A. M. Sullivan, p. 37 sixth edition. 
 70 
 
THE EIBBONMEN 71 
 
 Rihhonman's Comforter, in Avhicli it is asserted 
 that Eibbonism Avas first discovered by the 
 Eev. John Hamilton, Curate of E^oscrea, in 
 1814. Mr. Wyse gives an earlier date. He 
 writes : 
 
 '' The most notorious of these secret 
 societies are the E^ibbonmen. Their ex- 
 istence was a subject of alarm and regret 
 to the Catholics so early as 1812." ^ 
 
 There is very little recorded of the early 
 proceedings of the Eibbonmen ; but that little 
 makes it clear that from the first they continued 
 the evil deeds of the Whiteboys and Defenders, 
 and that their animosity was mainly directed 
 against Protestants as such, though Eoman 
 Catholics who disobeyed their agrarian laws also 
 felt the force of their revenge. The crimes of 
 the Eibbonmen early attracted the attention 
 of the Grovernment, and made it necessary for 
 them to take stern measures against them. The 
 Select Committees of the House of Lords and 
 House of Commons, in 1825, made inquiries 
 from various witnesses concerning the progress 
 and operations of the Eibbonmen. In the 
 course of his sworn evidence before the Select 
 Committee of the House of Lords, on April 22nd, 
 1825, Colonel William Yerner stated that within 
 the previous three or four years, at a place called 
 Benburb, County Tyrone, the Eibbonmen '' as- 
 sembled in very great numbers, dressed with 
 white ribbons round their arms, and white bands 
 upon their hats, having come in different 
 directions into the town between one and two 
 o'clock in the morning, as appeared before the 
 bench of magistrates, of ivhoin I was one. Prom 
 that period, I think, we may date the dis- 
 
 ^ Historical Sketch of the late Catholic Association of Ireland, 
 by Thomas Wyse, vol. i., p. 409. 
 
72 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 tiirbances that have lately occurred in that part 
 of the country. After that period, for a length 
 of time, they attacked the Protestants returning 
 from the fairs and markets, whom they waylaid, 
 knocked down, and beat indiscriminately and 
 unproYoked." ^ 
 
 As early as 1819 Bishop Doyle found it 
 necessary to denounce the Ribbonmen in his 
 first Pastoral Letter. '' Beloved brethren," 
 he said, ''we tell you in truth and sincerity 
 that these associations are opposed to all your 
 interests, both temporal and eternal ; that the 
 oath which unites them is illegal, sacrilegious, 
 and unjust ; that, if observed, it AYOuld be a 
 bond of iniquity ; and that though it would be 
 a crime to take it, it would be a still greater 
 crime to observe it by word or deed." ^ 
 
 The evil of Ribbonism continued, and even 
 increased after this, so that once more, in 1822, 
 Bishop Doyle Avrote another and lengthy letter 
 on the same subject, which he ordered to be 
 read from the altars of every Boman Catholic 
 church in his diocese, where Bibbonism was 
 known to exist. This latter address so pleased 
 the Government that they ordered 300,000 
 copies to be printed and distributed throughout 
 the country. In this address Dr. Doyle appealed 
 thus to the Bibbonmen : 
 
 '' And noAv let me ask you, how are your 
 wants to be remedied, and your distress 
 removed by these associations ? Is it by 
 the breaking of canals, by the destroying of 
 cattle, by burning houses, corn, and hay, 
 and establishing a reign of terror through- 
 out the country, that you are to obtain 
 
 ^ Minutes of Evidence taken he fore the Select Committee of the 
 House^ of Lords, 1825, p. 329. 
 ^ Life of Bishop Doyle, vol. i., p. 116, edition 1880. 
 
BISHOP DOYLE CONDEMNS THE RIBBONMEN 73 
 
 employment ? Is it by rendering the 
 farmer insecure in the possession of his 
 property that you will induce him to 
 increase his tillage ? Is it by injuring 
 canals and boats that you are to encourage 
 trade ? Is it by being leagued against the 
 gentry that you will preyail on them to 
 improve their houses and demesnes ? Is it 
 by causing a heavy police establishment to 
 be quartered throughout the country, to be 
 paid by taxes collected from the holders of 
 land, that you will enable them to give you 
 employment ? No ; your proceedings are 
 only calculated to impel gentlemen to fly 
 from the country, to convert their lands to 
 pasture, and to place an armed force to 
 protect their cattle, and to treat you, if 
 necessary, with the utmost rigour. Your 
 conspiracies, therefore, are calculated not 
 to relieve, but to augment your distress an 
 hundredfold." ^ 
 
 In 1832 the Government found it necessary 
 to appoint another Select Committee to examine 
 into the state of the disturbed counties in Ire- 
 land, and into the efficiency of the laws for the 
 suppression of outrages, caused mainly by the 
 Hibbon organisation. By that time Hibbonism 
 was known by a great variety of names. The 
 first witness called before the Committee was 
 Mr. Matthew Barrington, who had been for 
 seventeen years Crown Solicitor of the Munster 
 circuit, and from his position was necessarily 
 well acquainted with what was going on in that 
 part of the country. And this is what he said : 
 
 '' I find that the Whiteboy system has 
 for the last sixty years continued under 
 
 ^ Life of Bishoj:) Doyle, vol. i., p. 202, edition 1880, 
 
74 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 difPerent names, as, Peep-o'-Day Boys,^ 
 Thrashers, Whiteboys, Eighters, Carders, 
 Shanavats, Caravats, Rockites, Black Hens, 
 Biskavallas, Bibbonmen, the Lady Clares, 
 the Terry Alts ; these latter were the names 
 they assumed last year in Clare. Now we 
 have the Whitefeet and Blackfeet. The 
 outrages have been of the same kind for 
 the last sixty years ; the only variation is, 
 that the horrid torture called ' carding ' 
 has not been used at all latterly. A few 
 years back that system (which was a 
 dreadful mode of torturing a person whom 
 they wished to punish) was in frequent 
 practice." ^ 
 
 That all these bodies were closely united, 
 forming part of one system, as stated by Mr. 
 Barrington, was admitted by Mr. Michael 
 Davitt, who wrote : 
 
 " The varied forms in which Whiteboyism 
 manifested itself in the South and West, in 
 the earlier period of O' Conn ell's time, in- 
 dicated little or no change in purpose or 
 methods. Districts or counties gave names 
 of their own to a hrcmolfi of the same move- 
 ment. The ^Whitefeet' and ^Blackfeet,' 
 the 'Terry Alts,' ' Rockites,' 'The Lady 
 Clares,' and the rest, were all peasant 
 bands leagued irregularly against the 
 common enemy." ^ 
 
 The Whitefeet, like all other branches of 
 the Bibbon conspiracy, were bound together by 
 oaths, usually written out or copied by illiterate 
 persons. The wording of these oaths varied in 
 
 ^ This must have been a slip of the tongue. Everybody knows 
 that the Peep-o'-Day Boys were Protestants, strongly opposed to 
 the Whiteboy system. 
 
 ^ Report of the Select Committee, 1832, p. 11. 
 
 ^ Fall of Feudalism in Ireland, p. 37. 
 
THE OATH OF THE RIBBONMEN 75 
 
 different parts of Ireland, but they all agreed 
 in substance. In many instances the person 
 had to swear allegiance to the King, and, later 
 on, to the Queen ; but this was manifestly 
 intended as a blind, so that should a member of 
 the Whitef eet organisation be found with a copy 
 of the oath in his possession, he could at once 
 appeal to it as a proof of his loyalty. Probp^bly 
 when the oath was actually administered the 
 words relating to allegiance were omitted. This 
 was the opinion of Mr. Joseph Greene, a police 
 magistrate in the county of Kilkenny, who, 
 when giving evidence before the Select Com- 
 mittee on the state of Ireland, in 1839, said that 
 that part of the oath which refers to allegiance 
 " was not administered." He was asked : 
 
 '* Q. How do you knoY\^ that the Oath of 
 Allegiance was left out ? 
 
 '' A. Because the persons who lodged the 
 informations swore the Oath of Allegiance 
 was omitted. 
 
 '' Q. What do you consider was the 
 object of putting in that part of the Oath 
 of Allegiance ? 
 
 '' A. I believe for a bad purpose. 
 
 '' Q. Might not the Oath of Allegiance 
 have been put at the head in order to 
 protect the Ejibbonmen from the conse- 
 quences of any act of treason ? 
 
 '' A. Possibly ; as it is all printed to- 
 gether. 
 
 " Q. It is all printed together to give the 
 man who sees it the impression that the 
 whole Oath is taken ? 
 
 "A. It may be so; but the Oath of 
 Allegiance was not administered." ^ 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on the State of Ireland, 1839, 
 vol. iii., p. 914. 
 
76 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 None but Roman Catholics were eligible for 
 membership. So far as we can ascertain, the 
 first person to make public the actual terms 
 of one of these Whitefeet oaths was Mr. Hugh 
 Boyd Wray, Sub- Inspector and Paymaster of 
 the Police Establishment of Queen's County. 
 When giving evidence before the Select Com- 
 mittee on the State of Ireland on June 30th, 
 1832, Mr. Wray produced a copy of the oath, 
 as given to him by an approver, and which he 
 evidentlv believed to be a genuine document, 
 from which we take the following extracts : 
 
 " Here, in the presence of God, and sign 
 of the Cross, I certify and swear on oath, 
 at the hazard of my life, to be true to all 
 orders and regulations made under the 
 Duke of Ostridge and his committee. 
 
 "No. 1. To be true to the Eibbon 
 Acts. 
 
 "No. 2. Never make a Ribbonman 
 without the consent of seven, and pre- 
 sence of three brothers. 
 
 " No. 3. Never let Bishop, priest, or 
 deacon knoAV, but in gaol confession, the 
 man that made you. 
 
 " No. 4. Never spare, but "per severe 
 and wade knee-dee']^ in Orange blood, 
 
 " No. 11. Never to make a man 
 without sanction of the man who made 
 you. 
 
 "No. 12. Bear to have your right 
 arm or left cut off from your body, and 
 nailed to the gaol door of Armagh, before 
 you waylay, betray, or give evidence 
 against a brother." ^ 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on the State of Ireland, 1832 
 p. 228. 
 
"wade knee-deep in oeange blood" 77 
 
 If this document stood alone, on the evidence 
 of a single informer, it might be open to doubt ; 
 but it is corroborated by other evidence. Before 
 the same Select Committee, on July 11th, 1832, 
 Major J. O'Eeilly, who had been for twenty-five 
 years a magistrate for Queen's County, produced 
 another copy of the oath of the Wliitef eet, which 
 had been brought to light during the previous 
 Lent Assizes of that county. It was written 
 by an illiterate person, whose spelling alone 
 we have corrected. It was stated that this 
 oath was taken at that time all over Ireland. 
 It was as follows : 
 
 ''1st. I solemnly swear to be loyal and 
 true to the new Ptibbon Act. 
 
 " 2nd. I swear, I will to the best of my 
 power cut down kings, queens, and princes, 
 dukes, earls, lords, and all such, with 
 land jobbing and heresy. 
 
 ''3rd. I swear that I toilt never pity the 
 moans or groans of the dying, from the 
 cradle to the crutch, and that I ivill ivade 
 knee-deep in Orange blood. 
 
 " 4th. I swear that I am to bear my 
 right arm to be cut off and thrown over 
 the left shoulder, and nailed to the traples 
 door of Armagh, before I will waylay, or 
 betray, or go into any Court to prosecute 
 a brother, knowing him to be such. 
 
 " 5th. I will go ten miles on foot, and 
 fifteen miles on horseback in ^lyq minutes' 
 warning. 
 
 " 6th. I swear that I will srive monev 
 to purchase and repair firearms, ammuni- 
 tion, and the like, and every other iveapon 
 that may he ic anted. 
 
 " 7th. I swear I never will tell the 
 man's name, nor the man's name that stood 
 
78 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 by, making me a Eibbonman or Whitefoot, 
 to any one under the canopy of heaven, 
 not even to priest, Bishop, or any in the 
 Church. 
 
 " 8th. I swear I will not stand to hear 
 hell or confusion drank to a Whitefoot or 
 Ribbonman without resisting the same, or 
 quitting the company. 
 
 '' 9th. I swear I never will keep a 
 robber's company, nor harbour him, except 
 for firearms. 
 
 '' 10th. I swear I will not make foul 
 freedom with a brother's wife or sister, 
 knowing them to be such. 
 
 '' 11th. I swear I will not keep the 
 second coat, or the second shilling, and a 
 brother to be in want of relief, knowing 
 him to be such. 
 
 '' 12th. I swear I will not be present 
 at the making of a Eibbonman or White- 
 foot without proper orders from our 
 Captain. 
 
 "In pursuance of this spiritual obliga- 
 tion. So help me God." ^ 
 
 About three years later Lieut. -Colonel Yerner, 
 M.P., while giving evidence on April 7th, 1835, 
 before the Select Committee on Orange Lodges, 
 asserted that it was notorious that in the South 
 and West of Ireland the Whitefeet took an oath 
 to the following effect : 
 
 '' I, A B, in the presence of Almighty 
 God, and this my brother, do swear that I 
 will suffer my right hand to be cut from 
 my body, and laid at the gaol door of 
 Armagh, before I will waylay or betray a 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on the State of Ireland^ 1832, 
 pp. 345, 346. 
 
 i 
 
OATH TO EXTERMINATE ALL HERETICS 79 
 
 brother ; that I will persevere, and will 
 not spare from the cradle to the crutch ; 
 that I will 7iot pity the moans or groans of 
 infancy or old age, hut that I ivill ivade 
 hnee-deep in Orangemen's hlood, and not 
 do as King James did." ^ 
 
 It is not to he wondered at that Irish 
 Protestants in the early portion of the nineteenth 
 century viewed with dread the progress of the 
 Whitefeet and kindred organisations. That 
 large bodies of men were sworn to wade knee- 
 deep in Protestant blood is certain. There is 
 not only the evidence of the Oaths taken by the 
 Whitefeet, but also the sworn testimony of 
 Irishmen, well qualified to express an opinion, 
 given before various Parliamentary Select Com- 
 mittees, from which we give the following 
 extracts : 
 
 Mr. W. Wellesley Despard, a Magistrate of 
 
 Queen's County 
 
 '' Q. Is there in the Oath (of the White- 
 feet) any religious distinction or not ? 
 
 " A. Yes, I think there is ; one part of 
 the Oath is that they are to wade knee-deep 
 in Protestant blood. I have read the Oath. 
 
 '' Q. Have you ever heard an Oath pur- 
 porting to be the Whitefeet Oath, with 
 such a particular religious distinction, given 
 in evidence upon a trial ? 
 
 " A. Yes ; at the last Spring Assizes at 
 Maryborough ; the Oath was to exterminate 
 all heretics. 
 
 '' Q. Was it given by a credible witness ? 
 
 "A. It was an approver; the man he 
 prosecuted was convicted. 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on Orange Lodges, 1835, vol. xv., 
 p. 12. 
 
80 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 ^' Q. Is it your opinion tliat the combina- 
 tion inquired into is directed against tithes 
 alone, or has it any hostile view towards 
 the established religion ? 
 
 ''A. I think it is directed more against 
 tithes and property, but if you are to believe 
 that Oath, which I do not pay much atten- 
 tion to, that shows it was against the 
 Protestant religion. 
 
 '' Q. Was there any corroboration of that 
 Oath by any other witness ? 
 
 '' A. Yes, I have heard it from three or 
 four. 
 
 '' Q. Do you believe it yourself ? 
 
 "A. Yes, to a certain extent. 
 
 '' Q. Do you believe there is a rage among 
 the Whitefeet to murder Protestants ? 
 
 ''A. I think there is a strong feeling 
 against Protestants. 
 
 '' Q, Have the attacks of the Whitefeet 
 been directed equally against the houses of 
 Protestants and Catholics ? 
 
 ^'A. There have been many houses at- 
 tacked belonging to Catholics ; there were 
 several attacked for arms. 
 
 '' Q. Have you any reason to believe 
 there are Protestants in this conspiracy ? 
 '^A. Certainly not." ^ 
 
 It is clear that, although Mr. Despard did 
 not '' pay much attention " to the Whitefeet 
 Oath, the evidence in its favour did not rest on 
 the testimony of an approver only, but also on 
 that of three or four other witnesses, and was 
 sufficient to procure a conviction. Of course 
 the Eoman Catholics Avhose houses were attacked 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on the State of Ireland^ 1832, 
 pp. 42, 43. 
 
OATH TO EXTIRPATE HERESY 81 
 
 were not visited on account of their religion, 
 but for the purpose of securing arms to carry 
 on the criminal work of the Whitefeet. The 
 Roman Catholics who refused to obey the 
 commands of this lawless body suffered as well 
 as Protestants, none of whom, it is satisfactory 
 to learn, joined the Whitefeet. 
 
 Mr. Hoyenden Stapleton, a Magistrate of 
 Queen's County for tiDenty-five years 
 
 '' Q. Are you acquainted with the Oath 
 administered (by the Whitefeet) ? 
 
 ''A. I have heard it stated on the table 
 at Maryborough by a witness there, and I 
 have heard it from others ; I never took it 
 down : it is directed principally against 
 land and land-jobbers, and to support one 
 another, and go a certain distance when 
 called upon ; there is something to extirpate 
 heresy in it. 
 
 " Q. According to the best of your in- 
 formation, is it a party Oath, religiously 
 speaking ? 
 
 " A. No ; it partakes of a religious char- 
 acter; I think it is more directed against 
 land. 
 
 " Q. Should you recollect the Oath you 
 heard as it was given in evidence at the 
 Maryborough Assizes ? 
 
 '' A. I should, I think. 
 
 '' Q. 'To be true to his brother ; to 
 support the Catholic cause; to put down all 
 heretics and land-jobbers, and to put an end 
 to all JProtestants ? ' 
 
 ''A. That was the Oath as given in 
 evidence by a witness at Maryborough 
 Assizes. 
 
 '' Q. Have you ever heard from con- 
 flicting sources any difference in the form 
 
 6 
 
82 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 of the oath ; have you ever heard of more 
 Oaths than one ? 
 
 ''A. I have heard it stated in a longer 
 form than that. 
 
 " Q. Differing from it in suhstance ? 
 
 '' A. No, pretty much to the same effect/ 
 
 Me. John Dillon 
 
 '' Q. What is the nature of the White- 
 feet Oath ; can you state it ? 
 
 ''A. I heard it stated by a man of the 
 name of Dempsey at the Assizes. They 
 are bound to procure a rise of wages and 
 a reduction of rents, and to assist each other 
 upon every occasion when called; not to 
 betray each others' secrets ; and I heard 
 Dempsey sioear that ]^art of the Oath ivas 
 for the extermination of heretics''''^ 
 
 Mr. Matthew Sinoleton, Chief Ilagistrate 
 of JPolice, Queen's County 
 
 '' Q. Are you aware that the Whitefeet 
 are bound together by an Oath ? 
 
 '' A. Positive, so far as man can be con- 
 vinced. 
 
 " Q. Have you ever seen, or have you 
 reason to know, what the terms of that 
 Oath are ? 
 
 " A. I think the Oath in many cases 
 varies ; I think they are bound together 
 according to the circumstances of the cases. 
 
 " Q. Are you aware of any portion of 
 that Oath binding the parties to the de- 
 struction of members of the Established 
 Church ? 
 
 ''A. I have heard it. 
 
 ^ Rejjort of Select Committee on the State of Ireland, 1832, 
 p. 106. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 153. 
 
"wade knee-deep in PROTESTANT BLOOD " 83 
 
 " Q. Do you believe that they are so 
 hound ? 
 
 *' A. In many instances great hostility 
 has been shown towards those professing 
 the Protestant faith. 
 
 '' Q. Are the Committee to understand 
 by that, that you do or do not believe that 
 the Whitefeet as a body are bound by oath 
 in hostility to the Established Church ? 
 
 "A. I should think that they are, and I 
 will cite an instance within these last three 
 or four weeks. The Protestant clergyman 
 that is officiating in the parish of Mayo 
 was obliged to get protection from me to 
 go from his parish church to a military 
 party stationed at Dunane, to read divine 
 service to the soldiers." ^ 
 
 Majoe Georoe Brown, Commissioner of 
 Folice, Dublin 
 
 " I have seen formerly what were called 
 "Whitefeet Oaths, where they promised to 
 wade knee-deep in Protestant blood, and 
 things of that kind." " 
 
 Bound together by such murderous oaths, we 
 are quite prepared to learn that they were 
 not inoperative. Major-General Crawford gave 
 evidence before the Select Committee of 1832, 
 and spoke very positively on this point. In 
 reply to a question he said : 
 
 " I will state one reason why I think 
 they (Whitefeet) wish to expel the Protest- 
 ants. They have fired at them frequently, 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on the State of Ireland, 1832, 
 pp. 231, 232. 
 2 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 423. 
 
84 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 some at their work, and others coming 
 from divine worship. I can mention the 
 names and bring proof, if necessary, by 
 affidavits of the persons fired at ; also 
 Englishmen and Protestants employed 
 under the noblemen and the gentlemen of 
 the country have been attempted to be 
 murdered, and very nearly murdered ; and 
 some unfortunate wretches have been 
 actually murdered ; one at the collieries, 
 another attempted to be murdered near 
 Coolcullen ; another Avas fired at on the 
 28th of May last, coming from church ; 
 three were fired at in their fields upon the 
 27th when at their work ; another was fired 
 at at his own door upon the 4th of the present 
 month, and another upon the 2nd of this 
 month upon the bridge of Castlecomer. It 
 is from this data I infer that their inten- 
 tion : is to drive the Protestants out of the 
 country. 
 
 " Q. Do you mean that the Committee 
 shall understand that the principal object 
 of these parties is confined to those attacks 
 upon Protestants ? 
 
 "A. No, I do not think it is altogether 
 confined to attacks upon Protestants ; but 
 you asked me what I thought their ulterior 
 objects were. I have mentioned that I 
 thought one was to drive the Protestants 
 out of the country, the next is to appropriate 
 the property to those who had none. It is 
 no property, I think, against property. 
 
 '* Q. Do you mean to confine those cases 
 of attack and outrage to Protestants ? 
 
 '' A. Yes, I do ; those persons were Pro- 
 testants. 
 
 '' Q. Have there been any cases of firing 
 at Catholics ? 
 
FIEE AT PEOTESTANTS AND BEAT CATHOLICS 85 
 
 " A. No firing at Catholics that I know 
 of, but beating them about lands. 
 
 *' Q. They fire at Protestants and they 
 beat the Catholics ? 
 
 '^A. Yes."^ 
 
 An appendix to the Report of this Select 
 Committee of 117 folio pages is almost entirely 
 devoted to agrarian murders and other outrages 
 in various parts of Ireland, chiefly in Queen's 
 County. Of these, a large proportion were 
 committed bv the Whitefeet, on Roman Catho- 
 lies as well as Protestants. Chief Constable 
 Greene reported from Athy, on May 3rd, 1832 : 
 
 ^' I beg leave to inform you that, at 
 the fair of Calmerstown, in the parish of 
 Narraghmore, on the 1st instant, a man 
 named Hugh Sparks, from the County 
 "Wicklow, was attacked by a body of 
 Whitefeet, who broke three of his ribs, and 
 would have murdered him had it not been 
 for the interference of another man. The 
 reason these fellows assigned for this out- 
 rage tvas, they said, S2:)arks teas a Trotestant 
 and a JBrunsivicker ^ ^ 
 
 The daring of the Whitefeet at this j)eriod 
 was the result of their strength and numbers. 
 Even during the sitting of the Maryborough 
 Assizes, at the close of the month of May, 1832, 
 while many of the members of the Whitefeet 
 organisation were being tried and punished for 
 agrarian outrages, those outrages were being 
 continued on a large scale in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of Maryborough itself. 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on the State of Ireland^ 1832, 
 pp. 125, 126. 
 
 ^ Ibid., Appendix, p. 12. A " Brimswicker " was a member of a 
 Protestant Club of that name, formed to protect the interests of 
 Protestants. 
 
86 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Before the Select Committeej on June IGth, 
 1832, Colonel Ralph Johnson, a magistrate, 
 handed in the following reports from a Queen's 
 County newspaper of these local outrages, com- 
 mitted within a fortnight : 
 
 «« Progress of crime in Queen's County 
 during the sitting of the special commission, 
 which opened on Wednesday, the 23rd of 
 May, and ended on Wednesday evening the 
 6th of June, 1832 : 
 
 '' On Wednesday night. May 23rd, a party 
 of Whitefeet attacked the house of Mr. 
 John Green's steward; they fired a shot 
 into the house, and not finding the steward, 
 they in the most ruffianly manner heat his 
 wife ; his being considered by them as 
 honest to his employer is the only suppos- 
 ahle cause of this attack, and their not 
 having found him in all j)rohahility alone 
 saved his life. 
 
 " On the night of the first day of the 
 commission a party of Whitefeet assailed 
 the house of Oldglass, the residence of 
 Eohert White, Esq., and, having nailed a 
 threatening notice to the hall-door, they 
 fired several shots into the house ; the 
 bullets were found lodged in the walls and 
 wood- works inside. Same night they at- 
 tacked the house of Laughlin Kelly, and 
 beat him and his two sons most unmerci- 
 fully, and swore him to give up some 
 ground which he has occupied for twenty 
 years past. They then went to Edward 
 Kelly's house ; he, fortunately, was not at 
 home; they, however, fired a blunderbuss 
 at his dresser and broke every article on it. 
 
 '' On the evening of Eriday the 25th 
 May (being the third day of the commis- 
 
RIBBON OUTRAGES IN QUEEN's COUNTY 87 
 
 sion, and the day following the capital 
 conviction of Delaney for the assassination 
 of Mr. Bailey, of Inch), as Mr. D. Eleming, 
 of Monasterevan, was returning to that 
 town from Mountmelick in a gig, accom- 
 panied by Mr. Horan of Dublin, an at- 
 torney, when within a quarter of a mile of 
 the town a shot was fired at Mr. Pleminsr 
 by a ruffian Avho, from the flash of the pan, 
 could not ha.ve been more than five or six 
 yards distant; providentially the assassin 
 was disappointed in his object. 
 
 '' On the night of Sunday the 26th of 
 last month, and during the sitting of the 
 commission, a party of Whitefeet, all well 
 armed, broke into the house of a man 
 named Walslie, a tenant of Mr. William 
 Sevan, at Capponellan, near Durrow, and 
 swore him to deliver a threatening notice 
 of a very atrocious character to Mr. 
 Harrison, of Dairy Hill, a gentleman with 
 whom he has no connexion whatever. 
 
 '' On the night of the 28th ult. a party 
 visited the herd of Mr. William Delany, of 
 Durrow of Ballinasloe, and swore him to 
 drive Mr. Delany's cattle home to him, and 
 cautioned him on pain of death not to 
 continue to act for him ; the party fired 
 several shots. 
 
 '' On the night of Thursday, the 31st ult., 
 a notice was posted on the door of the 
 dwelling-house of Mr. William Perry, near 
 Durrow, ordering him to give up his farm 
 and to quit the country altogether, or that 
 he should meet the fate of Praine, Mr. 
 Lyster's unfortunate steward, whose murder 
 we announced some time since. 
 
 '' On Thursday night, the 31st May, a 
 party of Whitefeet proceeded to the house of 
 
88 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Patrick "Whelan, on the lands of Boyle, and 
 pulled it down to the ground ; fortunately 
 for Whelan and his family, they made their 
 escape : this was a new house, and not 
 quite finished, the occupier having been 
 expelled from his former house; the poor 
 man and family have been dreadfully 
 persecuted. 
 
 ''On Thursday evening, 31st May, two 
 armed men entered the house of Thomas 
 Jones, of Trummery, near Mountrath, and 
 swore him to give up his land ; they then 
 inflicted a bayonet wound on his body and 
 gave him a severe blow on the head with 
 the same weapon ; he now lies in a speech- 
 less and hopeless state, as we hear, being 
 unfit to be removed to the infirmary. 
 
 " On the night of the 2nd instant, the 
 dwelling-house of Edward Roe, of Doon, was 
 forcibly entered by three armed men, who 
 beat him, his wife and son, in a savage 
 manner, with the butt-ends of their pistols, 
 and also with a wooden mallet which they 
 found in the house ; constable Carter, of the 
 Borris-in-Ossory station, on hearing of the 
 outrage, immediately went in pursuit of the 
 offenders, and succeeded, about the hour 
 of 12 o'clock, in arresting at the house of 
 a publican named Bays, who resided at 
 Bocknavo, four men who have been fully 
 identified by Boe's wife and son as the 
 persons who attacked their house : we are 
 sorry to add that little hopes are entertained 
 of Boe's recovery. 
 
 '' The windows and sashes of seven houses 
 in the town of Mountrath were demolished 
 on Saturday night, about 12 o'clock, by a 
 party of Whitefeet. 
 
 " On Sunday, the 3rd instant, the dwelling- 
 
RIBBON OUTRAGES IN QUEEN's COUNTY 89 
 
 house of John Wall, of Ballybroply, was 
 entered about the hour of 11 o'clock in the 
 forenoon by three armed men, who forcibly 
 carried away a gun ; on leaving the house, 
 one of them fired a pistol at Wall, the 
 contents of which lodged in the wall by his 
 side. 
 
 " On the night of the 3rd instant, a 
 threatening notice was ]30sted on the hall- 
 door of Humphrey Palmer, Esq., at Earry- 
 Duff e, ordering him to give up a farm which 
 he has lately taken from Mr. Stubber ; there 
 were several shots fired near his house on 
 same night. 
 
 ''On Sunday, the 3rd instant, Mr. Matthew 
 Hanbury was assailed and severely beaten 
 by a party of ruffians, while returning from 
 chapel at Luggacurran ; he now lies in a 
 dangerous state. This is an instance of the 
 contempt in which the power of the law is 
 held by those daring miscreants ; as Mr. 
 Hanbury prosecuted at the last Assizes a 
 man who narrowly escaped conviction, and 
 who has since declared himself as one of 
 a party who cruelly and dangerously beat 
 him on a former occasion. 
 
 " In the colliery district Mr. Hanlon's 
 engineer was fired at on Sunday last, the 
 8rd of June, but providentially without 
 effect. 
 
 " As many of the Whitefeet of this part 
 of the country have refused for many 
 months back to work, although there is 
 plenty of employment for both men and 
 boys at all seasons in this neighbourhood, 
 they are now, as might naturally have been 
 expected, resorting to robbery as a means 
 of support ; indeed, they have for a consider- 
 able period supported themselves by money 
 
90 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 extorted by intimidation from their indus- 
 trious neighbours, such as by compelling 
 them to pay a fine for being allowed to con- 
 tinue in quiet possession of their farms, etc. 
 A man of the name of Murphy, who lives 
 near Aries, was robbed a short time back 
 of 10s. and his watch. We are informed 
 that a man living in Monarvee (near Mayo, 
 where Magee was stabbed) was lately robbed 
 of £5. 
 
 ''The house of Thomas Eaton, at Ing, 
 near Mountrath, was attacked a few nights 
 since by six armed men, who broke his 
 door open; Eaton stood at the entrance 
 with a pitchfork, and succeeded in beating 
 them off. 
 
 " On Sunday, 3rd instant, during the 
 celebration of divine service, an armed 
 party entered the house of Mr. E^ichard 
 Dowling, of Cherryhill, Gullenagh, and 
 carried away a blunderbuss and a case of 
 pistols. As the family were away from 
 home at the time, and the doors and 
 windows fastened, they, in order to gain 
 admission, discharged a blunderbuss against 
 a window-shutter, and then introducing a 
 hand through the breach made by the 
 shot, pushed back the bolt, and entered 
 through the window. 
 
 "• On the night of Thursday, the 6th 
 instant, a party burst in the door of 
 William Brennan, of Knockbawn, in the 
 colliery district. 
 
 " A few nights ago Mr. John Legate, of 
 Eossey, was served with a notice command- 
 ing him, on pain of death, to dismiss his 
 two servant boys ; as his men threatened 
 to leave his employment if he refused 
 to comply with the orders, and as he had 
 
" MAKE WAR LIKE SAVAGES OF THE DESEET " 91 
 
 the fate of poor Mr. Bailey fresh in his 
 memory, he reluctantly obeyed the mandate 
 of the captain : the servants were trust- 
 worthy, and Protestants. If this system 
 continue much longer it will he impossible 
 for farmers to cultivate their land, and 
 consequently to pay their rent."^ 
 
 It is to the credit of Bishop Doyle that he 
 sternly denounced the Whitefeet organisation 
 and its villainous deeds. In the Colliery 
 district of Queen's County, in 1831, the White- 
 feet came into collision with the military, when 
 several of the Whitefeet lost their lives. Great 
 excitement was naturally created by the pro- 
 ceedings, and vows of revenge were uttered by 
 the friends of the deceased. Dr. Doyle hurried 
 to the neighbourhood, and preached in the 
 chapels to very large congregations, denouncing 
 the Whitefeet and their crimes. He told them 
 that what had occurred was but a just punish- 
 ment of their offences, and he even ordered the 
 priests to refuse the consolations of their re- 
 ligion to the wounded Whitefeet, except when 
 actually dying. Subsequently the Bishop ad- 
 dressed to the Whitefeet, and their companion 
 Blackfeet, a Pastoral Letter of stern denun- 
 ciation. 
 
 ''Look," he said to them, ''to your own 
 deeds ! What have you done ? You have 
 commenced by an unlawful and impious 
 oath, in which you call the God of holiness 
 to witness your crime; you enlarged your 
 combination by force and violence; you 
 confirmed it by drunkenness and violation 
 of the Lord's day. As you advanced, you 
 made war like the savage of the desert upon 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on the State of Ireland, 1832, 
 pp. 62-4. 
 
92 THE UNKNOWN POWEB, 
 
 your next neiglibour, if not of your own 
 tribe. You polluted the fair and market- 
 place by savage warfare ; or, like Gain, you 
 went into the field to spill the blood of 
 your defenceless and unsuspecting brother. 
 You plundered the house where you could 
 meet with no resistance; you fled from 
 him whom you most feared and hated ; 
 you wreaked your vengeance on the in- 
 dustrious man who supplied you with 
 bread and fed the poor out of his sub- 
 stance; and if you found a man straying 
 in the fields or travelling on the highway 
 unarmed and defenceless, him did you 
 murder and assassinate. These are your 
 deeds ; this is the reward of your crimes, 
 which will one day be tried by the Judge 
 of earth and heaven. And what can you 
 say in your defence? You will say, for- 
 sooth ! that you were employed in re- 
 dressing wrongs, in affording protection 
 to the oppressed. But you will be taught 
 how that office did not belong to you ; that 
 evil could not be done though good should 
 come from it ; that your whole comhination 
 was a tissue of iniqtiity, and that all your 
 deeds were crimes. Whatever, therefore, 
 may be the plea of those amongst us who 
 are burdened or oppressed, you have nothing 
 to plead in your justification. All the 
 arguments which other men might employ 
 are totally inapplicable to you. But let 
 us proceed to consider whether those evils 
 which afflict the country, and which you 
 resort to as a pretext and a cloak for your 
 crimes, may not be alleviated or removed 
 by means far different from your proceed- 
 ings — means which may be adopted without 
 offence or the violation of any law. . . . 
 
" THIS GRAND AND NOBLE SOCIETY " 93 
 
 "What, tliinlv you, will be the fate of the 
 Whitef eet ? What success, think you, awaits 
 the Elackfeet ? You may not know, hut 
 I will tell you. They shall he ground to 
 the earth, and scattered like dust before 
 the wind ; but not until they have disgusted 
 this Government, alienated the sympathies 
 of the Legislature, strengthened the hands 
 of the oppressors of the poor, degraded the 
 country with a sort of magistracy unknown 
 to the law and the constitution, and forced 
 the public to employ, in the payment of 
 an armed police, that money which, were 
 you peaceable, would be paid to you as 
 the price of your labour." ^ 
 
 No Protestant could more sternly denounce 
 the W^hitefeet than Bishop Doyle did. They 
 were a branch of that Eibbonism which was 
 the parent of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 who have no reason to be proud of their 
 parentage. Yet the official History of the 
 Ancient Order of Ilihernians, published in 
 1898, does not hesitate to speak of the Ribbon 
 Conspiracy as : 
 
 '' This ouand and noble society (which) 
 cemented its members together in the 
 bonds of friendship, unity, and true Christian 
 charity y ^ 
 
 After such a modern testimony in praise of 
 this murderous Ribbon Society, who can say 
 that its spirit is dead in its child, the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians ? 
 
 It would only weary our readers to describe 
 fully the evil history of Uibbonism from its 
 
 ^ Life of BisJwp Doyle^ vol. ii., pp. 331-3. 
 
 2 History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, p. 52. 
 
94 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 inception, at the commencement of the nine- 
 teenth century. The working of the society 
 was investigated by several Parliamentary Select 
 Committees, whose reports afford ample proof 
 of its disloyal and murderous character. We 
 notice that Mr. A. Sullivan, in his Neio Ireland, 
 tries to ridicule the idea that the Ribbonmen 
 swore to wade knee-deep in Protestant blood. 
 But the evidence is conclusive against his 
 theory. The wording of these Oaths varied 
 considerably, and in most cases were written by 
 very illiterate persons, while in some instances 
 words were added by local branches on their 
 account. If only one copy here and there had 
 been found, something might be said in favour 
 of Mr. Sullivan's theory, but the discovery of 
 these documents continued over a space of sixty 
 years, and is proved by the evidence of men 
 of the highest respectability. Mr. Christopher 
 Plunkett, Stipendiary Magistrate for the county 
 of Louth, gave evidence on May 14th, 1839 : 
 
 " Q. "Will you state to the Committee any 
 evidence you have of the objects of that 
 (Ribbon) Society ? 
 
 ''A. The object I believe to be the ex- 
 termination of Protestants, and the establish- 
 ment of the Roman Catholic religion 
 throughout Ireland. 
 
 '' Q. How do you derive your information 
 on this subject ? 
 
 ''A. By reports from Chief Constables, 
 and by private information. 
 
 " Q. Were those informations you re- 
 ceived on oath, any of them? 
 
 '^A. Some of them."' 
 
 Mr. Stephen Seed, Assistant in the office of 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on the State of Ireland, 1839, 
 vol. i., p. 381. 
 
FEARFUL OATH OF THE RIBBONMEN 95 
 
 Crown Solicitor for the Irish Home Circuit, was 
 examined on June 7th, 1839. 
 
 '' Q. What do you conceive to he the 
 object of E;ibandism ? 
 
 ''A. I think it has several objects, so far 
 as I am able to give an opinion. 
 
 '' Q. What are its objects ? 
 
 ''A. I tJiink one of its objects appears to 
 he the ext elimination of Frotestants, as it 
 has been stated to us. 
 
 '^ Q. Did you receive that information on 
 oath ? 
 
 *' A. Yes, we did ; and we have likewise 
 read their regulations to that effect." ^ 
 
 Similar evidence was given before the Select 
 Committee on Westmeath Unlawful Combina- 
 tions, 1871, when Mr. Stephen Seed, Senior 
 Crown Solicitor for Ireland, produced a copy of 
 the Eibbon Oath from his office, which had been 
 produced some years previously at the trial in 
 Meath of a E-ibbonman. The authorities seem 
 to have had no doubt as to its being a genuine 
 document. This was the Oath : 
 
 ''I, A B, hereby agree to become a 
 true and loyal member of this society, and 
 I solemnly swear before Almighty God, to 
 be true and loyal to the Brotherhood, and 
 to each member of the same, and I will be 
 obedient to my committee and superior 
 officers, and agree to all their articles, laws, 
 rules, and regulations, that have been since 
 the commencement, and all amendments 
 added thereto, and to perform all duties 
 imposed on me with loyalty, faith, and 
 fidelity ; and I swear that neither hopes 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on the State of Ireland, 1839, 
 vol. ii., p. V95. 
 
96 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 nor fears, rewards nor punishments, shall 
 induce me to give evidence against any 
 brother or brothers for any act or expression 
 of theirs done or made collectively or 
 individually. 
 
 '' And in pursuance of this obligation, I 
 swear to aid, as best I can, with purse and 
 person, any brother or brothers who may 
 be in distress. 
 
 '' And I further sioear to oive no allegiance 
 to any Frotestant or Seretic Sovereign, 
 Ruler, JPrince, or Potentate, and that I 
 loill not regard any oath delivered to me 
 by them or their subjects, be they judge, 
 magistrate, or else, as binding. 
 
 '' And I swear to aid, as best I can, any 
 brother or brothers who may be on trial for 
 any act or expression of theirs, before 
 magistrate, judge, jury, or else, and to be 
 ready at all times to aid by every means in 
 my power to assist in preserving his or their 
 liberation ; and, if myself a witness, to dis- 
 regard any oath delivered to me on such 
 occasions by judge, magistrate, counsel, 
 lawyer, official, or else, and that I will not 
 regard such oath as binding. 
 
 " And in revenge for the sufferings of 
 our forefathers, and protection of our rights, 
 I further solemnly swear to aid as best I can 
 in exterminating and extirpating all Pro- 
 testants and heretics out of Ireland or else- 
 where ', to hunt, pursue, shoot, and destroy 
 all Protestant or heretic landlords, proprie- 
 tors, or employers. And also to hunt, shoot, 
 pursue and destroy all landlords or pro- 
 prietors belonging to the Church of Eome, 
 should he or they evict his or their tenants 
 from any house, land, home, or holding of 
 theirs. 
 
BURN ALL PROTESTANT PLACES OF WORSHIP 97 
 
 '^ And I further solemnly swear to aid as 
 best I can in hurning down, caching, and 
 destroying all Frotestant or heretic places 
 of iDorsMp, and all houses used as such by 
 members of different heretical denomina- 
 tions in this country, and to level the same 
 to the ground. 
 
 '' I also solemnly swear to have no inter- 
 course, communion, or trade, neither to buy 
 or sell, barter or exchange, give or take, or 
 have any dealings whatever with the said 
 Protestants or heretics, unless on such 
 occasions as cannot be avoided. 
 
 '' I also swear to defend the farmer, the 
 poor man, the widow, and the orphans of 
 any brother, or former brother, against the 
 oppression of the landlords and the tyranny 
 of Saxon laws. 
 
 '' And I further solemnly swear to do all 
 in my power to procure the independence 
 of Ireland, and aid, as best I can, in 
 allowing none but Irishmen to possess Irish 
 land, and Ireland for the Irish. 
 
 " I solemnly swear to shoot, destroy, 
 hunt, and pursue to death any former 
 brother who may turn informer or traitor, 
 or w^ho may refuse to perform any duty 
 ordered by his committee, or superior 
 officers, or any duty which may fall by lot, 
 or otherwise, to execute ; and I agree that 
 my person shall be at all times at their ser- 
 vice to go wherever required, or do whatever 
 sent, and also to aid by every means in my 
 power any brother or brothers of this 
 society executing the orders of other com- 
 mittees or officers belonging thereto, though 
 not in my district, and to aid, as best I can, 
 he or them in the performance of their 
 duty. 
 
 7 
 
98 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 " And I most solemnly swear to keep all 
 secrets, passwords, signs, orders, or other- 
 wise belonging to this society, and that I 
 shall never divulge the same by word of 
 mouth, or otherwise. 
 
 '' And I swear never to mark, write, or 
 indite with pen, pencil, stone, chalk, or any 
 other mineral or substance above or under 
 wood, above or under water, above or under 
 land, above or under air, on the sea or else- 
 where, or to use therewith any substance 
 whatever above or under, etc., be it herb, 
 shrub, tree, wood, liquid, mineral, or else, 
 above or below this earth, above or under, 
 etc., or to use therewith any liquid, 
 marking fluid, ink, or any marking sub- 
 stance whatever, above or under, etc., in the 
 sea or elsewhere, to betray or inform of any 
 signs, secrets, passwords, orders, doings, 
 actions, or expressions that have been, that 
 are being, or that will be belonging to this 
 Brotherhood." ' 
 
 Mr. John Julian, Crown Solicitor for West- 
 meath and King's County, also produced before 
 the Select Committee another version of the 
 Ribbon Oath. The police, it appears, made a 
 raid on a public-house in Mullingar, where they 
 expected to find a Ribbon Lodge assembled. 
 They found a number of men in the house, who 
 went off directly. In his evidence before this 
 Committee the Roman Catholic Bishop of Meath 
 (Dr. Nutly) referring to this raid, said : " The 
 police broke into the house, and they found a 
 lot of liihhonmen there.'" ^ 
 
 The wording of the version of the Ribbon 
 Oath produced by Mr. Julian was as follows : 
 
 ^ Report of Select Committee on Westmeath Unlawful Combina- 
 tions, 1871, p. 93. 
 2 Ihid.,^. 112. 
 
OATH TO ABOLISH PROTESTANT KINGS 99 
 
 '' By virtue of the oath I have taken, 
 I will aid and assist with all my might 
 and strength, when called upon to massacre 
 Frotestants and cut aimy heretics, hum 
 British Churches, abolish Frotestant Kings 
 and Frinces and all others, except the 
 Church of Eome and this system. And hy 
 virtue of the oath I have taken, I will 
 think it no sin to Mil and massacre a 
 Frotestant whenever an opportunity serves. 
 
 "And hy virtue of the said oath, if I 
 know any memhers of this system to he 
 hackward in executing any of the aforesaid 
 orders, I will immediately make it knoAvn 
 to the Captain or the Committee-man he- 
 longing to the Eihhon Board. 
 
 " And hy virtue of the oath I always will 
 attend at one moment's warning to execute 
 any commands belonging to the system, and 
 that I vfill never see a brother hurt or 
 abused by any not up to this system with- 
 out assisting him, or will I buy anythmg 
 from a Protestant at any terms if I can 
 get it from a brother ; and I also feel bound 
 to believe that there is no absolution to 
 be had from the Pope of Bome, or any 
 other authority belonging to that Church, 
 on any part of this solemn test, or any 
 favour in this world, or that which is to 
 come, for a breach of this test." ^ 
 
 While the Parnell Commission was sitting, on 
 December 6th, 1888, a witness named Michael 
 Burke was asked about the Bibbon Oath. A 
 copy of it, in an abbreviated form, was read 
 to him, containing the vow to '' wade knee-deep 
 in Orangeman's blood." The Avitness professed 
 
 1 Report of Select Committee on Westmeath Unlawful Comhina- 
 tions, 1871, p. 63. 
 
100 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 that he could not tell what oath it was, when 
 up rose Mr. Michael Davitt, the well-known 
 ex-Penian, and exclaimed, " That is the Ribbon 
 Oath ! " What took place is thus recorded in 
 the official report of the proceedings : 
 
 " About this oath : you could not re- 
 member this morning the terms of it ? — 
 No, sir, not neither now. 
 
 " Was it anything like this ? I want 
 you to listen to me : 
 
 " ^ In the presence of Almighty God, and 
 this my brother, I do swear that I will 
 suffer my right hand to be cut from my 
 body and laid at the gaol door before I 
 will waylay or betray a brother, and I will 
 persevere and not spare from the cradle 
 to the crutch, and from the crutch to the 
 cradle ; that I loill not hear the moans or 
 groans of infancy or old age, hut that I will 
 wade hnee-deep in Orangeman^ s hlood, and 
 do as King James did.' 
 
 '' Did you ever hear that oath ? — No, 
 I did not ; I have never heard that oath. 
 
 " Will you swear that you never heard 
 anything like it ? — I could not say that. 
 
 " The Attorney 'General. What oath is 
 this? 
 
 ''Mr, Davitt. The Eibbon Society. 
 
 " The Attorney -General. That is the 
 Eibbon oath ? 
 
 ''Mr. Bavitt. That is the oath of the 
 Eibbon Society." ^ 
 
 After such an identification, who can deny 
 the blood-thirsty character of the Oath of the 
 Eibbon Society, as recently as 1888 ? 
 
 The best description which we have met with 
 
 ^ Official Re2Mrt of the Parnell Commission, vol. iii., p. 153. 
 
DESCEIPTION OF THE RIBBON SOCIETY 101 
 
 of the organisation of the Bibbon Society (which 
 bears a striking resemblance to that of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians of the present 
 day) is contained in a document presented to 
 the Select Committee on Westmeath Unlawful 
 Combinations, in 1871, by Mr. Stephen Seed, 
 Senior Crown Solicitor for Ireland. It is as 
 follows : 
 
 "The following is a correct revelation, 
 taken from authentic sources, of the Ribbon 
 system as it exists in Ireland. There are 
 few even in this country who can form any 
 adequate notion of the system, and yet its 
 meetings are held in many parts of the 
 United Kingdom, especially in those large 
 towns to which Irish resort. 
 
 «s There are five distinct orders in the 
 society : 1st, the County Delegates ; 2nd, the 
 Parish Masters ; 3rd, the Body Masters ; 
 4th, the Committee Men ; 5th, the mere 
 Bibbonman. These closely resemble the 
 military grades of colonel, captain, sub- 
 altern, Serjeant, and private. 
 
 '' The County Delegate is elected by 
 a majority of the Parish Masters connected 
 with the county. The Delegates meet 
 quarterly, and their meetings are principally 
 held in the large manufacturing towns, 
 such as Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, 
 etc. 
 
 "At those meetings the passwords and 
 signs (in the parlance of the society called 
 ' Goods ') for the ensuing quarter are 
 agreed on, and it is the duty of each 
 Delegate to disseminate them in his own 
 district without delay; at those meetings, 
 also, the place at which they are next 
 to meet is always decided on. All such 
 
102 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 meetings are held in some public-house 
 which has a private room. They gradually 
 assemble, so as to attract no attention, and 
 when assembled, they appoint five or six 
 of their own body to act as tylers, whose 
 office it is to bring in such drink as they 
 may order, pending their deliberations, and 
 to exclude all who are not in full possession 
 of the signs and passwords. 
 
 '^ Having elected a chairman, their own 
 wrongs and grievances, or those of their 
 neighbours, are discussed ; obnoxious land- 
 lord, agent, or bailiff, is placed on his trial, 
 and, if pronounced guilty, sentenced by a 
 majority of votes to such punishment, in- 
 volving death, or the destruction of property, 
 as the case may seem to them to merit; 
 and, when the doomed man is pronounced 
 unfit to live, or to undergo a minor punish- 
 ment, it is the duty of the Delegates of the 
 district in which he resides to have that 
 sentence carried into effect before the next 
 quarterly meeting, and woe befall him if 
 his mission be not performed . But, although 
 responsible for the sentence being carried 
 into full effect, the means of doing so are 
 supplied by another and (generally) distant 
 district, so that, being strangers, if those 
 who commit the murder or outrage escape 
 immediate apprehension, there is little hope 
 of their being identified. 
 
 '' The deed of blood is usually done in 
 implicit obedience to command ; but if the 
 party commanded should demur, it is done 
 by lot. If he escapes immediate detection, 
 money is collected, and he is sent out of 
 the country ; if detected, he is supplied 
 with means for his defence. At his trial, 
 witnesses are also provided for him. The 
 
DESCRIPTION or THE EIBBON SOCIETY 103 
 
 Delegate necessarily incurs expense by 
 attending the quarterly meetings. He is 
 thus reimbursed ; it is his duty to have 
 some fit man to act as Master in each parish ; 
 these are 'Parish Masters/ the second 
 order. 
 
 /'On his return from the quarterly 
 meeting, he calls a meeting of his Parish 
 Masters at some fair or market, the signs 
 and passwords agreed on at the meeting 
 of Delegates are communicated, and for 
 them each Parish Master pays the sum of 
 5s.; this compensates him for his outlay, 
 and even gives him a profit. The Parish 
 Master requires to be reimbursed. He is 
 bound to have within his parish a certain 
 number at his command; they are called 
 Body Masters, and form the third order. 
 To each of them he gives the ' Goods,' and 
 from each he receives in return the sum 
 
 '' The Body Master has his duty to dis- 
 charge, and has to select some twenty or 
 thirty choice lads upon whom reliance can 
 be placed. They are called Committee-men, 
 and form the fourth order. To them the 
 ' Goods ' are communicated, for which they 
 pay the Body Master the sum of 6d. 
 
 '' To the Committee-men is entrusted, 
 almost invariably, the execution of the 
 sentence passed by the Delegates. 
 
 " The fifth grade is that of the ordinary 
 Eibbonman, who, if he distinguishes himself 
 by acts of outrage, waylaying, malicious 
 injury to property, etc., is considered worthy 
 of promotion. 
 
 " The Delegates, Parish Masters, and 
 Body Masters, are the only persons ^ who 
 have authority to make a member, which is 
 
104 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 done by administering an oath, and this is 
 always done in some retired place, such as 
 the back of a ditch, no one ever being 
 present except the person who administers 
 the oath, and he who takes it, so that if 
 information was given there could be no 
 corroboration of the testimony. The signs 
 and passwords now only remain to be 
 noticed. They are contrived with great 
 ingenuity, the latter being an allusion to 
 some ordinary passing event, and of so 
 simple a character as not to awaken sus- 
 picion. 
 
 ^' There are three classes of passwords, 
 which may be called the Casual, the 
 Quarrelling, and the Night Words. The 
 following were lately in use : 
 
 '' Casual. — Q. What do you think of 
 the times ? A. We are exi3ecting a 
 change.— Q. Of what kind ? A. Of the 
 present Ministry. 
 
 '' Quarrelling. — Don't be contentious, 
 Sir. A. Not with you. 
 
 ''Night. — The clouds are heavy. A. 
 A storm is at hand. 
 
 '' Signs. — The right hand rubbing the 
 back of the head, the left thumb being in 
 the left waistcoat pocket." ^ 
 
 A complete history of the crimes of the 
 Ribbon men would fill more space than we can 
 afford. One peculiarity of their agrarian out- 
 rages is thus described by Mr. W. Steuart 
 Trench, in his well-known and deeply interesting 
 book : 
 
 '^ It is a fact, the bitter truth of which 
 
 ^ Report of the Select Committee on Westmeath Unlawful Com- 
 binations, Appendix, pp. 162, 163. 
 
EIBBONMEN AND LANDLORDS 105 
 
 has been felt, and can be attested by manj, 
 that those who have been most earnest and 
 anxious for the improvement of their 
 estates have come most frequently under 
 the ban of the Ribbon men; whilst the 
 careless, spendthrift, good-for-nothing land- 
 lord, who hunts and shoots and drinks, 
 and runs in debt, who even exacts the 
 most exorbitant rents from his tenants, 
 providing only he does not interfere with 
 their time-honoured customs of sub-dividing, 
 squatting, conacre, and reckless marriages, 
 may live in peace and careless indolence on 
 his estate, in high favour with the sur- 
 rounding peasantry, and with no fear or 
 danger of ever being disturbed by a 
 Ribbonman."^ 
 
 The testimony of Mr. Alexander M. Sullivan, 
 an earnest Nationalist, and a devout Eoman 
 Catholic, may convince some people of the 
 criminal character of the Ribbon Conspiracy, 
 who might pay but little attention to other 
 evidence. He writes : 
 
 ^'Wlien one comes to review the actual 
 results of the Ribbon system in Ireland — 
 to survey its bloody work throughout those 
 fifty years — how frightful is the prospect ! 
 It has been said, and probably with some 
 truth, that it has been too much the habifc 
 to attribute erroneously to the Ribbon 
 organisation every atrocity committed in 
 the country, every deed of blood apparently 
 arising out of agrarian combination or 
 conspiracy. An emphatic denial, and 
 challenge to proofs, have been given to 
 
 ^ Trench's Realities of Irish Life, fourth edition, 1869, 
 pp. 47, 48, 
 
106 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 stories of midnight trials and sentences to 
 death at lodge meetings. Very possibly 
 the records of lodge meetings afford no 
 such proof, though there is abundant 
 evidence that at such assemblages threaten- 
 ing notices and warnings were ordered 
 to be served and domiciliary visits for 
 terrorising purposes were decreed. But 
 vain is all pretence that the Eibbon 
 Society did not become, whatever the 
 original design or intentions of its members 
 may have been, a hideous organisation of 
 outrage and murder. The vengeance of 
 the Society was ruthless and terrible." ^ 
 
 The Select Committee on Westmeath Un- 
 lawful Combinations, in their Eeport describe 
 the criminal character of the Ribbon Society in 
 vivid colours. They state that it is their duty 
 to report : 
 
 " That there is at present existing within 
 the county of Westmeath and certain 
 adjoining portions of the county of Meath, 
 and of the King's County, an unlawful 
 combination and confederacy of a secret 
 nature, generally known by the name of the 
 Ribbon Society. 
 
 '' That this Ribbon Society has existed 
 for a considerable length of time, and has 
 within the last three years, as compared 
 with those immediately preceding, increased 
 in power and influence. 
 
 '' That owing to the prevalence of this 
 Society, murder and other crimes of the 
 most serious nature have been perpetrated 
 within the district above referred to, and 
 
 ^ Neiv Ireland^ by Alexander M. Sullivan, sixth edition, 
 pp. 41, 42, 
 
REPORT or SELECT COMMITTEE 107 
 
 that by reason partly of sympathy with the 
 perpetrators of such crimes, and still more 
 by the terror created by the existence and 
 action of the Society, it has been found to 
 be almost impossible to obtain evidence on 
 which to bring offenders to justice. 
 
 '' That such immunity from detection and 
 consequent punishment has had for its 
 results an encouragement to crime, the 
 diffusion of a spirit of lawlessness, and a 
 corresponding decrease of confidence in the 
 power of the law among the peaceful 
 members of the community. 
 
 '' That this Society, originating in a desire 
 on the part of its members to interfere in 
 an unlawful and violent manner in matters 
 relating to the tenure and occupation of 
 land, has extended the sphere of its opera- 
 tions, and more or less prejudicially affects 
 other relations of life. 
 
 ''That this Society has adherents and 
 supporters among the farming classes in 
 the district, and some sympathisers among 
 a certain class of small traders in the towns, 
 but recruits its ranks chiefly from farm 
 servants and daily labourers ; and that 
 these persons are under the control of a 
 few individuals who may be looked upon 
 as the heads of the Society, and are alleged 
 to be known as such to the local authori- 
 ties. 
 
 '' That the Society, besides leading directly 
 to the perpetration of the crimes already 
 mentioned, has infused a feeling of terror 
 into all classes in the district, by reason of 
 which its objects are frequently brought 
 about, without any overt act of violence." ' 
 
 1 RejMrt of the Select Committee on Westmeath Unlawful 
 ComhiTiations, pp. iii, iv. 
 
108 THE UlS-KNOWN POWER 
 
 It is to be regretted tliat there are to be found 
 in the ranks of the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 of the j)i'esent day men who give unqualified 
 praise to the Eibbon Society. As we have 
 already seen^ the official History of the Order, 
 published as recently as 1898, refers to the 
 Eibbon Society as " This geand and noble 
 Society (which) cemented its members together 
 in the bonds of fellowship, unity, and true 
 Christian charity."^ Heaven save us from the 
 '' Christian charity " of the Ribbonman ! One 
 who is evidently an official of the Order con- 
 tributes an article on '' Hibernianism " to a 
 friendly Nationalist paper, The Irish News, of 
 January 23rd, 1906. He says of the Ribbon- 
 men that '' well they performed their duty," 
 and he speaks in the language of admiration 
 of what he terms '' the heroism and sacrifice 
 of these devoted men." Lastly, he exclaims : 
 '^They have passed away, and we are the in- 
 heritors of their glory. Let us hope that we 
 shall we able to sustain it^ 
 
 And Mr. Michael Davitt tells us : 
 
 '' The Ancient Order of Hibernians, now 
 perhaps the most powerful pro-Celtic organi- 
 sation in the world, ivas the trans- Atlantic 
 offspring of the Hlbbonism of Ireland.''^ 
 
 ^ History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, p. 52. 
 2 Fall of Feudalism in Ireland, p. 42. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE MOLLY MAGUIEES 
 
 The Fenian leader O'Leaiy asserts that the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians in America is " a Eibbon organisation " — Birth of 
 the Order in America— Known in the Pennsylvania coal 
 region as " Molly Maguires "—Murders by the Molly Maguires 
 —List of Murders, 1863-7— Their crimes described by 
 Mr. F. B. Gowen — " Midnight prowlers and cowardly 
 assassins " — The detective McParlan — His _ adventures 
 amongst the Molly Maguires — Joins the Mollies and dis- 
 covers their secrets and murders— Description of his recep- 
 tion into the Ancient Order of Hibernians— The Oath of 
 Secrecy— McParlan denounced to the Molly Maguires as a 
 detective — Wholesale arrests of the Molly Maguires^ 
 McFarlan's evidence in Court— He identifies the Molly 
 Maguires with the Ancient Order of Hibernians — Declares 
 that the Order is a secret organisation — Sentence on seventy 
 Molly Maguires — i\Iolly Maguire outrages and murders in 
 1877 and 1878— The attitude of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians towards the Molly Maguires — The Order said to 
 have spent 30,000 doUtirs defending the Mollies v/hen accused, 
 and in paying assassins — Only one Lodge of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians out of 6,000 condemned the murders 
 and outrages of the Molly Maguires — Mr. Pinkerton asserts 
 that the whole Order, " from root to branch, was rotten and 
 corrupt " — Not one word of repudiation by the Order of the 
 "hellish acts" of the Molly Maguires— The Order assists 
 murderers to escape — Seven Ptoman Catholic priests assert 
 thp.t " no faith is to be placed in the most solemn promises 
 or denials of the Ancient Order of Hibernians," and that 
 "murder is traceable to the Order." 
 
 The well-known Eenian Leader, John O'Leary, 
 in his Recollections of the Fenians, states : 
 " It was during this first trip to America," in 
 1859, " that I learned, to my astonishment, that 
 there were Eibbonmen, or rather a Eibhon 
 organisation, ^ The Ancient Order of Hibernians/ 
 in America."^ 
 
 ^ Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism, by John O'Leary, 
 vol. i., p. 111. 
 
 109 
 
110 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 They had heen there long before O'Leary 
 arrived in the country, the first Lodge haying 
 been formed in New York, in 1836, by authority 
 of the Eoard of Erin, then the central authority 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Probably 
 about the year 1854 branches of the Order were 
 formed in the coal regions of Pennsylvania, 
 where for a time they were known as Buckshots, 
 but eventually they adopted the name of Molly 
 Maguires. The Molly Maguires originally came 
 from the west of Ireland. In Trench's Realities 
 of Irish Life may be found an account of some of 
 the atrocities they committed in the mother coun- 
 try; but these, bad as they were, were as nothing 
 compared with their crimes in Pennsylvania. 
 Outrage followed outrage, and murder followed 
 murder, yet for many years the criminals were 
 never discovered. It was known that a secret 
 society named Molly Maguires existed in the 
 locality, and it was more than suspected that 
 it was responsible for substantially every crime, 
 but, notwithstanding all the efforts of the local 
 detectives and police, none of the guilty Molly 
 Maguires were brought to justice. The people 
 murdered were mainly the '' bosses " of the vari- 
 ous collieries, foremen, and workmen supposed 
 to be inimical to Irish interests, especially the 
 English and German miners. The American 
 Miner's Journal, of March 30th, 1867, published 
 the following list of fifty murders committed in 
 Schuylkill County alone, between January, 1863, 
 and March, 1867. Prom the records of subse- 
 quent legal investigations and trials, there is 
 every reason to believe that nearly all of them 
 were committed by the Molly Maguires organi- 
 sation, and by its orders. It is not to be 
 wondered at that such a terrible series of crime 
 spread terror and dismay throughout the coal 
 regions of Pennsylvania. 
 
LIST OF MUEDERS 111 
 
 1863 
 
 January 2. James Bergen^ killed by 
 shooting, Coal Castle. 
 
 March 3. Mary Cochlin, killed by ill- 
 treatment by her husband, Potts ville. 
 
 April 6. Ellen Shay, killed by her hus- 
 band, Timothy Shay, St. Clair. 
 
 April 8. Joseph Eiland, killed by Pelix 
 Cilley, Potts ville. 
 
 April 26. Patrick Gillon, killed by A. 
 Leary, by stabbing, Norwegian Township. 
 
 August 15. Daniel Eckerly, killed by 
 James Burk, by stabbing, Ashland. 
 
 August 23. Gilmore, killed by cause 
 unknown, Potts ville, 
 
 August 30. John W. W. Noble, killed 
 by shooting with a pistol, Potts ville. 
 
 September 25. Charles Mendham, killed 
 by shooting. Potts ville. 
 
 October 17. Patrick J. Hassey, killed 
 by shooting, St. Clair. 
 
 November 2. Man unknown, killed by 
 cause unknown, Tremont Township. 
 
 November 13. David Davis, killed by 
 cause unknown, Mount Laffee. 
 
 November 17. Margaret Brown, killed 
 by kicks and blows, Norwegian Township. 
 
 1864 
 
 January 12. Patrick Ormsby, killed by 
 pistol-shot, Mahanoy Township. 
 
 Pebruary 13. Hiram Preher, killed by 
 beating, Tremont Township. 
 
 Pebruary 27. James Shiels, killed by 
 Hugh Curran, by stabbing, Blythe Town- 
 ship. 
 
 March 17. Mary Brennan, killed by 
 cause unknown, Cass Township. 
 
112 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 August 14. Alice Devlan, killed by 
 John Britt, by shooting, Mine Hill Gap. 
 
 August 21. Unknown man killed by 
 being mutilated, Mahanoy Township. 
 
 August 29. Elizabeth O'Brien, killed 
 by cause unknown, Cass Township. 
 
 September 11. Kobert Gardner, killed 
 by clubs and axes by Dennis Aiken, John 
 Donnelly, and a man unknown, Tremont 
 Township. 
 
 October 10. Michael Bemerick, killed 
 by shooting, Minersville. 
 
 October 11. George W. Thompson, 
 killed by violence, Tremont Township. 
 
 November 10. Beese Jenkins, killed by 
 pistol-shot, Mahanoy Township. 
 
 November 20. John Lawler, killed by 
 Patrick Dolan, by stabbing, Poster Town- 
 ship. 
 
 1865 
 
 January 3. Edward McAtee, killed by 
 Andrew Sorocco, blows and kicks, Potts- 
 ville. 
 
 January 18. Michael Darken, killed by 
 Michael Merrick, by shooting, St. Clair. 
 
 May 15. William Williams, killed by 
 John Barnet, by shooting, Blythe Town- 
 ship. 
 
 June 16. William A. Boyle, killed by 
 cause unknown, Pottsville. 
 
 April 3. Enoch Evans, killed by Lewis 
 Hurtig, by stabbing, Port Carbon. 
 
 April 30. Patrick Clawes, killed by 
 James Brennan, by pistol-shot, Shenandoah 
 City. 
 
 April 30. Michael Clawes, killed by 
 James Brennan and elohn Delaney, by 
 pistol-shot, Shenandoah City. 
 
LIST OF MURDERS 113 
 
 July 2. Thomas J. Hagerty, killed by 
 Hugh Riddle, by stabbing, North Manheim 
 Township. 
 
 August 14. Nicholas Burkhard, killed 
 by shooting, Pottsville. 
 
 August 25. David Muir, killed by 
 shooting, Reilly Township. 
 
 October 23. John McMachy, killed by 
 Patrick Delaney, by stabbing, Poster Town- 
 ship. 
 
 December 25. Albert Pittz, killed by 
 Thomas Griffith, by blow. Locust Dale. 
 
 1866 
 
 January 10. H. H. Dunne, killed by 
 shooting, Norwegian Township. 
 
 January 19. Mark Mala, killed by 
 Thomas McAnalley, by shooting, Mahanoy 
 Township. 
 
 April 2. Patrick Dooling, shot and 
 killed while attempting to murder Mr. 
 Lewis, boss at Cole's colliery, Mahanoy 
 Township. 
 
 July 4. Lewis Williams, killed by 
 Patrick Conners, by shooting, Llewellyn. 
 
 September 9. George Theobald, killed 
 by unknown person, by shooting, Mahanoy 
 Township. 
 
 1867 
 
 Pebruary 9. Michael Kain, killed by 
 John Kain, by shooting. New Philadelphia. 
 
 Pebruary 11. John Donohoe, shot and 
 killed while attacking Northall's house, 
 
 lu sr*^ voTPi 
 
 March 15. William H. Littlehales, 
 killed by unknown men, by shooting, Cass 
 Township. 
 
 8 
 
114 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 March 22. Patrick Stinson, killed by 
 James Gallagher, by shooting, Mahanoy 
 Township. 
 
 March 23. Jacob Johnson, killed by 
 Irish robber, by shooting. Union Township.^ 
 
 Por six years after the murders just named, 
 the Mollv Mao^uires continued their career of 
 crime. Horror followed horror in quick suc- 
 cession, but still the murders and outrages 
 continued unchecked, undetected, and unpun- 
 ished. At last, early in the month of October, 
 1873, Mr. P. E. GoAven, President of the Phila- 
 delphia and Reading Railway Company, and of 
 the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron 
 Company, and also District Attorney for the 
 County of Schuylkill, applied for help, to 
 discover the criminals, to Mr. Allan Pinkerton, 
 head of Pinkerton 's Detective Agency. To him 
 Mr. Gowen said : 
 
 ^^ The coal regions are infested by a most 
 desperate class of men, banded together for 
 the worst purposes — called, by some, the 
 Buckshots, by others the Molly Maguires — 
 and they are making sad havoc with the 
 country. It is a secret organisation, lias its 
 meetings in hidden and out-of-the-way places, 
 and its members, I have been convinced 
 ever since my residence in Pottsville and 
 my connection with the criminal courts as 
 District Attorney in the county of Schuyl- 
 kill, are guilty of a majority of all the 
 murders and other deeds of outrage which, 
 for many years, have been committed in the 
 neighbourhood. I wish you to investigate 
 this mysterious Order, find out its interior 
 w^orkings, expose its evil transactions, and 
 see if the just laAvs of the State cannot 
 
 ^ The Molly Maguires^ by F. P. Dewees, pp 372-4. 
 
THE MOLLY MAGUIRES OF PENKSYLYANIA 115 
 
 again be made effective in bringing criminals 
 to justice. At present, wiienever an assas- 
 sination is consummated, and, as a con- 
 sequence, a trial is instituted, a convenient 
 alibi steps forward and secures for the 
 prisoner his freedom. Municipal laws are 
 thus incapable of execution, sheriffs of 
 counties are powerless, and the usual run 
 of detectives are of as little value as the 
 open, uniformed police of the different 
 cities. Ail of these have been tested, and 
 all have failed. Now, if you cannot disperse 
 the murderous crew, or give us grounds 
 upon which to base prosecutions, then I 
 shall believe that it never will be effected. 
 
 '' As far as we can learn, the society is 
 of foreign birth, a noxious weed which has 
 been transplanted from its native soil — 
 that of Ireland — to the United States, some 
 time within the last twenty years. It lived 
 and prospered in the old country consider- 
 ably earlier. Its stq^porters there loere 
 known as Hibbonmen, the White Boys, and 
 sometimes as Molly Magtdres, but their 
 modes of procedure were the same as noto 
 pursued in the coal regions. Men were 
 then, as they are at this time, killed — some- 
 times in broad daylight, sometimes at 
 night, and invariably by strangers — persons 
 at least unknown to chance spectators, and 
 parties violently put out of the way. 
 Suspected individuals would be ap|)rehended, 
 but in the end nobody could be found able 
 to identify the criminals. It was only 
 after a protracted struggle in Ireland that 
 the proper evidence could be elicited to 
 convict the tools doing the bloody behests 
 of the society. I suppose it will not be 
 easy to do this in Pennsylvania. The 
 
116 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 same minds, the same combinations, are to 
 be encountered here. The Mollies rule 
 our people tvith a rod of iron. They do 
 this and maJce no sign. The voice of the 
 fraternity is unheard, hut the work is per- 
 formed. Even the political sentiments of 
 the commonwealth are moulded by them, 
 and in their particular field they elect or 
 defeat whomsoever they may please. They 
 control, in a measure, the finances of the 
 State. Their chiefs direct affairs this way 
 and that way without hindrance. Men 
 without an iota of moral principle, they 
 dictate the principles of otherwise honour- 
 able parties. In its ultimate results this 
 complexion of affairs in Pennsylvania 
 touches, to a considerable degree, the in- 
 terests of the citizens of the whole country. 
 Wherever anthracite is employed is also 
 felt the vice-like grip of this midnight, 
 .dark-lantern, murderous-minded fraternity . 
 [Wherever in the United States iron is 
 wrought, from Maine to Georgia, from 
 ocean to ocean — wherever hard coal is used 
 for fuel, there the Molly Maguire leaves 
 his slimy trail and wields with deadly effect 
 his two powerful levers — secrecy, com- 
 bination. Men having their capital locked 
 up in the coal-beds are as obedient puppets 
 in his hands. . . . 
 
 ''What we want, and everybody wants, 
 is to get within this apparently impenetrable 
 ring ; turn to the light the hidden side of 
 this dark and cruel body, to probe to its 
 core this festering sore upon the body 
 politic, which is rapidly gnawing into the 
 vitals and sapping the life of the community. 
 Crime must be punishable in the mountains 
 of Pennsylvania, as it is in the agricultural 
 
THE MOLLY MAGUIRES OE PENNSYLYANIA 117 
 
 counties, and in all well-regulated countries. 
 We want to work our mines in peace, to 
 run our passenger and freight trains with- 
 out fear of the sudden loss of life and 
 property through the malicious acts of the 
 Molly Magiiires ; we want people to sleep 
 unthreatened, unmolested, in their beds, 
 undisturbed by horrid dreams of midnight 
 proivlers and coioardhj assassins ; we want 
 the labouring men, of whatever creeds or 
 nationalities, protected in their right to 
 work to secure sustenance for their wives 
 and little ones, unawed by outside in- 
 fluences. We want the miner to go forth 
 cheerfully to the slope, or the shaft, for 
 labour in the breast or in the gangway, 
 wherever it may seem to him for the best, 
 void of the fear in his heart when he parts 
 from his wife at the cottage-gate in the 
 morning, that it may be their last farewell 
 on earth, and by evening his bullet-riddled 
 corpse may be taken back to his home, the 
 only evidence that he has encountered the 
 murderer— the agent of those who would 
 compel him to refuse all employment un- 
 less the regulations of the Order were 
 complied with. The State cannot attam 
 these things ; she has repeatedly tried, and 
 tried in vain. You can do it. I have seen 
 you tested on other occasions and in other 
 matters, and know your ability to conduct 
 the business; we are willing to supply 
 everything within our power to make your 
 task a success." ^ 
 
 Mr. Allan Pinkerton accepted the commission 
 entrusted to him by Mr. Gowen. He chose 
 for his agent a young Irishman named James 
 
 1 Pinkeyton's Molly Macjuires and the Detectives, pp. 13-17, 
 
118 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 McParlan, then in his twenty-ninth year, and 
 a Eoman Catholic. McParlan had been for 
 some time in the employ of the Pinkerton 
 agency as a detectiye, and had a high personal 
 character for honesty and ability in the profession 
 he had adopted. It was arranged that he should 
 at once leave Philadelphia, where he resided, 
 for the Pennsylvania mining region, beginning 
 his operations at Port Clinton, about seventy- 
 eight miles distant. He was instructed to worm 
 himself into the confidence of the Molly 
 Maguires, and eventually to become a member 
 of the organisation. He had strict orders to 
 report his proceedings to his employers, where 
 possible, day by day. In furtherance of his 
 plan McParlan adopted the name of James 
 McKenna, and arrived in Port Clinton in such 
 a disreputable attire that the owner of a low- 
 class public-house refused to allow him to lodge 
 in the house, and threatened to kick him out 
 as a dirty tramp ! 
 
 Por about two years and a half McParlan 
 remained in the coal regions, and was successful 
 beyond all the hopes of either himseK or his 
 employers. He was not merely made a member 
 of the Molly Maguire body, or rather, strictly 
 speaking, of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 but he was even promoted to hold high ofS.ce 
 in that body. The story of his many adventures 
 and hair-breadth escapes, as told by Mr. Allan 
 Pinkerton in his book The Molly Maguires and 
 the Detectives, is most romantic and truthful. 
 Here is a description of McParlan's initiation 
 into the Ancient Order of Hibernians, from a 
 report written by himself the same evening, and 
 forwarded by him to Mr. Pinkerton : 
 
 '' Behind the small table, Mike Lawler, 
 the Body Master of the Division^ stood. 
 
EECEPTION INTO THE A.O.H. 119 
 
 holding in his hand a slip of paper, Avhich 
 at the moment he was intently and earnestly 
 studying. The other men were ranged, 
 standing erect with arms folded, around 
 the room, leaving a clear spot of carpet in 
 the centre of the floor. Each Molly de- 
 voutly made the sign of the cross as 
 Monaghan and McKenna ^ entered. The 
 latter was instructed to similarly bless 
 himself, and promj)tly obeyed. He was 
 then taken to the middle of the room and, 
 still standing by his side, Monaghan pro- 
 claimed all in readiness to proceed. 
 
 " ^ The neophyte Avill kneel ! ' said 
 Lawler. 
 
 '^ ^ Now get down on your prayer-bones,' ^ 
 whispered Monaghan ; and McKenna knelt 
 upon the carpet. 
 
 " Here all the members, at a given signal 
 from Lawler, drew nearer the initiate, 
 leaving room for the Body Master, who 
 came also, still holding the mysterious 
 paper in his hand. 
 
 '' ' I will now proceed,' said the presiding 
 officer, in a pompous and affected tone of 
 voice, ' to explain to you the objects of the 
 Ancient ^ Order of Ilihernians : We are 
 joined together to promote friendship, unity, 
 and true Christian charity among our 
 members, by raising money for the main- 
 tenance of the aged, sick, blind, and infirm. 
 The motto of the Order is, 'Eriendship, unity, 
 
 ^ "McKenna" was, as we have already mentioned, the alias 
 which McParlan adopted whilst he was conducting his operations. 
 
 2 All the meetings of the Molly Maguires were opened with 
 prayer. " These men of blood," says Mr. Pinkerton, " did not 
 hesitate to introduce and canvass these murderous acts and begin 
 and end their councils, at which the taking of human life was 
 deliberately discussed, with a petition for the blessing of the 
 Father to rest upon them ! " — Pinkerton's Molly Maguires and 
 the Detectives, p. 204, ' /' . 
 
120 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 and true Christian charity : unity, in 
 uniting for mutual support in sickness and 
 distress ; friendship, in assisting each other 
 to the best of our ability ; true Christian 
 Charity, by doing to each other and all the 
 world as we would wish they should do 
 unto us. It is the desire to promote 
 friendship among the Irish Catholics, and 
 especially to assist one another in all trials. 
 You are expected to keep all matters 
 occurring tvithin the Division-room a secret 
 in your heart. None of the loorkings of the 
 society are to he recalled to those not knoivn 
 to he memhers.^ 
 
 '' Here there was a short pause, and the 
 initiate was asked if he subscribed to all 
 these things, to which he made audible 
 answer in the affirmative. 
 
 '"I will then proceed to administer the 
 solemn and binding obligation with which 
 all present have already pledged them- 
 selves. You will repeat these words after 
 me : ' 
 
 ''McKenna, still upon his knees, and 
 guarded by Monaghan, repeated the oath, 
 or obligation, as Lawler read it from the 
 paper, as near as may be, as follows : 
 
 " ' I, James McKenna, having heard the 
 objects of the Order fully explained, do 
 solemnly sivear that I will, with the help of 
 God, keep inviolably secret all the acts and 
 things done hy this Order, and obey the 
 constitution and by-laws in every respect. 
 Should I hear a member illy spoken of, I 
 will espouse his cause, and convey the 
 information to him as soon as possible for 
 me so to do. I will obey my superior 
 officers in everything lawful, and not 
 otherwise, All this I do solemnly swear ! ' 
 
DETECTIVE AMONGST THE MOLLY MAaUIRES 121 
 
 " Then McKenna was told to cross him- 
 self once more, the surrounding brothers 
 doing the same, and the test-paper, as it 
 was called, was handed to him by Lawler, 
 and, still in a kneeling posture, he reyer- 
 ently kissed it, and was prompted by 
 Monaghan to rise. 
 
 '^ This concluded the brief initiatory 
 ceremony. Afterward, the new-made 
 member walked to the treasurer's table, 
 which was the bureau, and there paid three 
 dollars, the sum assessed as the initiatory 
 fee." ' 
 
 Many additional murders and outrages were 
 committed by the Molly Maguires during 
 McParlan's residence amongst them, for which 
 some of the guilty parties were subsequently 
 tried and executed. He would haye prolonged 
 his stay amongst the yile crew, but was pre- 
 yented by the action of a Roman Catholic priest 
 named O'Connor, who told the Mollies that a 
 detectiye was working in their midst. This 
 information produced intense excitement, and 
 at once a fear of punishment fell upon the crew. 
 Suspicion at length rested on McParlan, alias 
 McKenna, as a spy, and he was told by one of 
 the Mollies to go to Eather O'Connor, who 
 would tell him why he was suspected. Ac- 
 cordingly he yisited the priest, who said to 
 him : 
 
 " I haye heard about you, young man, 
 and the language used need not be rej)eated. 
 I assure you, howeyer, that I neyer used 
 your name in connection with that of a 
 detectiye. I confess I heard that you were 
 a detectiye. . . . You can go toEather Ryan, 
 
 ^ Pinkertou's Molbj Maguires and the Detectives, pp 142, 143. 
 
122 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 of Mahanoy City, and Pather O'Eeilly, of 
 Shenandoah, as they know more about it 
 than I do."^ 
 
 McParlan did not go and see the priests 
 named ; he realised that his v/ork as a detective 
 of the Molly Maguires was done, and that if he 
 remained any longer amongst them he would 
 certainly be murdered ; so he returned to 
 Philadelphia, and placed himself once more 
 at the disposal of Mr. Allan Pinkerton. Mr. 
 Dewees, who says everything he possibly can 
 in favour of the Church of Rome, in connec- 
 tion with the Molly Maguires, distinctly affirms : 
 
 "It is sufficient to know that his (Mc- 
 Parlan's) business was discovered, and that 
 the discovery was imparted to several 
 Catholic priests. Through the priests, Jack 
 Kehoe, the County Delegate, and others of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians, were put 
 on their guard against him as a detective. . . . 
 That notice of the fact that James McKenna 
 (McParlan) was a detective was given to 
 members of the organisation through 
 Catholic priests has never been denied."^ 
 
 It is only fair to add that Pather O'Connor 
 publicly denounced the Molly Maguires by 
 name in his own church. 
 
 A large number of Molly Maguires were now 
 arrested and placed on their trials for various 
 murders and conspiracies to murder. They 
 were nearly all convicted, and either sentenced, 
 to death or imprisonment. The villainies ex- 
 posed during the trials were of the most 
 revolting character. Mr. Dewees tells us : 
 
 ^ Pinkerton's Molly Maguires and the Detectives^ p. 500, 
 ^ The Molly Macjiiires, by F. f, Dewee,s, p. 253. 
 
THE "PLEASUEE" OF A MUEDER 123 
 
 '* In describing to each other any outrage 
 or murder committed, the * Mollies ' seem 
 to revel in the recollection of the agony and 
 sufferings of the victim. Several have 
 asserted that the great pleasure of a murder 
 consisted in hearing what they termed the 
 ' squeal ' of the dying man." ^ 
 
 On the trial of John Kehoe and others at 
 Pottsville, in August, 1876, for conspiracy to 
 murder, McParlan was called on as a witness. 
 He clearly identified the Molly Maguires with 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians, as may be 
 seen by the subjoined extracts from his evi- 
 dence : 
 
 '' State whether, after you came to this 
 county, you joined any secret organisation ? 
 Yes, sir. 
 
 '' What was the name of it ? The Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians, more commonly called 
 the Molly Maguires. 
 
 '' State whether or not it was a secret 
 Order ? Yes, sir ; a secret Order. 
 
 " Was it known by any other name than 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians ? It had 
 several names ; it was known as Molly 
 Maguires, Buckshots, etc. 
 
 '' How did members know one another, 
 it being a secret organisation ? By signs 
 and passwords. 
 
 '' Proceed, and tell us whether there was 
 any higher degree in the Order ? Yes, sir ; 
 there was still what was called the Board 
 of Erin. 
 
 '' Of how many members was it com- 
 posed ? It was composed, I understand, 
 of delegates from England, Ireland, and 
 Scotland. 
 
 ^ The Molly Maguii^es^ by F P. Dewees, p 338 
 
124 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 '^ How many from each place ? I do 
 not think the number was limited ; I never 
 understood it to he. 
 
 " Where did they meet ? They met at 
 different places. Sometimes in England, 
 sometimes in Scotland, and sometimes in 
 Ireland. 
 
 '' They were called the Board of Erin ? 
 Yes, sir; that is what I understood. 
 
 " You have stated that the members were 
 known to each other by signs and pass- 
 words. Erom whom were these signs 
 received ? They were received from the 
 Board of Erin. 
 
 '' To whom were they sent in this 
 country ? They were sent to the National 
 Delegate. 
 
 '' By this Board of Erin ? Yes, sir. 
 
 '' Did you ever hear by whom they were 
 sent ? Well, I have heard it talked 
 among the members that a party who was 
 steward on the Inman Line used to carry 
 the ' goods.' 
 
 " Among the members ? Yes, sir. 
 
 '' To whom were these ' goods ' distri- 
 buted by the National Officers of New 
 York ? Distributed to the different State 
 delegates. 
 
 "^What was the practice of this organi- 
 sation in reference to committing crimes ? 
 It was a general practice to commit 
 crimes. 
 
 '' How was it done ? Generally when 
 there was an outrage to be committed, in 
 the district where it was going to be com- 
 mitted the Division Master of that district 
 would either apply to another Division or 
 to the County Delegate to get men who 
 were unknown to the parties upon whom 
 
SEVENTY MURDERERS ARRESTED 125 
 
 the outrage was to be perpetrated. These 
 men would come and commit this outrage, 
 and he woukl give a guarantee that if they 
 wanted a like favour in their locality he 
 would send the men. The men generally 
 selected for that purpose were strangers. 
 
 '' You say this constitution and by-laws 
 is the written law of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians ? Yes, sir, the written law. 
 
 '^ State whether the constitution sets 
 forth the practice and written law of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians. It neither 
 sets forth the practice nor the written law, 
 which is the main embodiment of the 
 Order. ^ 
 
 '^ They are governed hy the uniDritten 
 laiDi and that is a mere cover ? Yes, sir.'' 
 
 About seventy Molly Maguires were arrested 
 in the coal regions of Pennsylvania. Of these 
 twelve were found guilty of murder in the first 
 degree, and four of being accessory to murder ; 
 sixteen of conspiracy to murder ; six of perjury ; 
 one of assault with intent to kill; eight of 
 aiding and abetting a murder; one of assault 
 and battery ; one for aiding in the escape of 
 a murderer, and several others of lesser crimes. 
 The sum-total of the time of their sentences 
 amounted to a hundred and twenty-four years 
 and eight months. Eleven of the number were 
 sentenced to death. 
 
 Mr. Ernest Lucy, who, like Mr. Allan Pink- 
 erton and Mr. Dewees, is an American, tells 
 us : 
 
 " Dismayed as the Mollies were by the 
 arrest and execution of so many criminals, 
 
 ^ The Holly Maguires of Pennsylvania. By Ernest W. Lucy, 
 pp. 85-8, 92, 124. 
 
126 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 and by the flight of others, rage and thirst 
 for reyenge were yet strong in their hearts ; 
 and many murders and other outrages were 
 perpetrated by them in the years 1877 and 
 1878. They had also shown their rebellious 
 S2)irit by giving wakes, flowers, and funerals 
 with crowded processions to many of the 
 convicts executed, professing to honour 
 them as heroes, patriots, and martyrs. 
 Such disgraceful acts, tending to foster and 
 encourage wickedness, would be prevented 
 if burial within the precincts of the prisons 
 were made part of the sentence passed on 
 murderers. 
 
 ^' Among the crimes inspired by revenge 
 in 1877, are mentioned these. On July 30, 
 Miller, one of the jury on the trial of 
 Alexander Campbell, was fired at while 
 sitting in his parlour. The shot happily 
 missed him, but some days afterwards 
 his house was set on fire and burned 
 down. 
 
 '' Persons named Brunnow, John Dunn, 
 Crosby, Brady, Mrs. Dalton, who had given 
 evidence against Mollies on trial, were 
 murdered. Many threatening letters were 
 sent, many persons were ill-used and 
 robbed, houses were set on fire in the 
 towns of Scranton, Dunmore, Hyde-Park, 
 Greenwood, and in Avondale, Luzerne 
 County. Similar acts of terrorism were 
 committed in Bloomsburg, the chief town 
 of Columbia County. 
 
 " In September a man named Eiels was 
 fired at and severely wounded in Shenan- 
 doah. 
 
 '' On October 14th the corpse of one 
 Brennan, a known enemy of the Mollies, 
 was found in the Biver Lehigh. 
 
MORE MOLLY MAGUIEE MURDEES 127 
 
 ^^ On the first of December a miner, 
 Timothy Donohue, was murdered and flung 
 into an empty shaft at Heckshersville. 
 
 ''On the same day the oflices of J. B. 
 Davis, at Newcastle, were set on fire ; four 
 miners were attacked by a band of Mollies, 
 and so much injured that one died of his 
 wounds. 
 
 " A few days later the buildings of York- 
 town Mine in Carbon County were burnt 
 down, with a loss of $100,000 ; two miners 
 were shot in the neighbourhood. Two were 
 also killed at the Lehigh Coalworks, and 
 two others, who had given evidence against 
 the Mollies, disappeared without traces. 
 To these might be added many other 
 deeds of blood and crime in 1878 as well 
 as 1877."' 
 
 In an article on ''The Molly Maguires," 
 which appeared in the April, 1897, issue of The 
 American Feeler ationist, the organ of the 
 American Federation of Labour, the writer 
 remarks : 
 
 " I was intimately acquainted with John 
 Sharkey, the man who murdered the mine 
 boss Williams, and no man in the range of 
 my knowledge had more o£ my esteem up 
 to that time than John Sharkey. His home 
 was respectable, and his Avife an estimable, 
 intelligent, worthy woman. Eut Sharkey 
 was the man on whom the lot fell to kill 
 the mine boss, and the fearful Oath of the 
 Order bound every man to do the stern 
 duty devolving upon him as the Order 
 might command. More than a hundred 
 
 ^ The Molly Maguires of Pennsylvania. By Ernest W. Lucy, 
 pp. 64, 65. 
 
128 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 and fifty murde^^s in three years in the 
 Lackawanna, Scliuylkill, and Wyoming 
 coal-fields, and a strike that paralysed the 
 coal and iron business of the whole State 
 of Pennsylvania for one entire summer, 
 tvas a part of the mission of the dreaded 
 Order of the Molly Maguires.'' ^ 
 
 The important question here arises, what was 
 the attitude of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 as a whole, towards the Molly Maguires and 
 their crimes ? It was far from satisfactory, and 
 even worthy of severe censure. It is alleged 
 that the National delegates of the Order at New 
 York assessed each division of the Order in the 
 United States, some 6,000 in number, to pay 
 five dollars each, making in all about 30,000 
 dollars, to be expended in defending the Molly 
 Maguires charged with crime in the coal 
 regions. ^ 
 
 Mr. Pinkerton states that a part of this sum 
 *' was to be expended in clearing the criminals, 
 and the rest^ I have reason to believe, in paying 
 assassins to go to JPottsville and take the lives of 
 Mr. Mcl^arlan and all my employes in that 
 section of the country. But the refusal of one 
 of the Philadelphia Lodges to respond to this 
 levy, brought the matter to the notice of the 
 public press, and stopped at least a portion of 
 the funds going forward to the National officers. 
 New Orleans and some other distant branches 
 had sent their share without knowing exactly 
 the purpose for which it was to be employed, 
 but it is presumable that not more than one 
 half of the assessment was ever realised, and 
 
 ^ A Cydo2yoedia of Fraternities, by Albert A. Stevens, New 
 York, 1899, p. 425. 
 
 2 Dewees' Molly Maguires, p. 39, and Pinkerton's Molly 
 Maguires and the Detectives, p. 549. 
 
THE A.O.H. " ROTTEN AND COREITPT " 129 
 
 that must have been expended in paying for 
 legal services/ 
 
 At the trial of several of the Molly Maguires, 
 in June, 1876, Mr. P. B. Gowen, as one of the 
 prosecuting counsel, dealt with the general 
 character of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in 
 the United States, as distinguished from that of 
 the Molly Maguires section. He said : 
 
 '^ Whether this Society, known as the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, is, beyond the 
 limits of this county, a good Society or not, 
 I cannot tell ; but I have believed at some 
 times that it was, and am willing to be 
 satisfied of that fact now, if there is any 
 evidence of it. But there has been an 
 attack made upon this organisation, and 
 up to this time toe have not had furnished to 
 us any evidence that in any place its objects 
 were laudable or commendable. Criminal 
 in its character, criminal in its purpose, 
 it had frequently a political object.^ 
 
 Mr. Pinkerton further states, from informa- 
 tion collected bv him as the head of a s^reat 
 detective agency, that : 
 
 '^ It was maintained by some that the 
 Mollies of the coal regions were not sup- 
 ported or recognised by the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians throughout the United States, 
 but there is abundant evidence of this 
 being utterly false, the Sleepers, or Molly 
 Magtiires, being substantially part and 
 po7'tion of the Society. That this entire 
 organisation, from root to branch, loas 
 rotten and corrupt, has been tinmistakably 
 shown to the people of the country T^" 
 
 ^ Pinkerton's Molly Maguires and the Detectives, p. 549. 
 3 Ibid., p. 251. 
 
 9 
 
130 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Mr. Dewees discusses the attitude of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, as a whole, 
 towards the Molly Maguires and their atrocities. 
 What he says is of the utmost importance. He 
 writes : 
 
 "We are told that in the United States 
 there are in the neighbourhood of six thou- 
 sand Divisions, or Lodges, of the * Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians.' To even suspect that 
 this large organisation, as a body, is of the 
 same character, or in any way sympathises, 
 or has complicity with, the Molly Maguires 
 of the coal region, is extremely painful. 
 The country and the world will be inclined 
 to receive any reasonable explanation rather 
 than believe that so many thousands of 
 Irish- American citizens are faithless to God 
 and morality, the land of their nativity, 
 and the land of their adoption. 
 
 '' But the question forces itself, WTiy is 
 there not instant disavowal of the acts of the 
 coal-region ruffians by every Division in the 
 country ? The crimes proven are fearful 
 in atrocity, the society as organised in the 
 coal region has not its parallel for evil in 
 the history of the world. No obligation is 
 sacred to its members ; possessed with a 
 fiendish lust for blood, arson and murder 
 are but sport and pastime. And yet out 
 of six thousand Lodges in America, and a 
 
 LARGE ORaANISATION IN GREAT BRITAIN, not 
 
 one word of repudiation of these hellish acts, 
 except by jpart of Division No. 2, of Fhila- 
 del^Ma, has been tittered. It requires a 
 charity that ' beareth all things ' to ascribe 
 such non-action to a national prejudice 
 against the ' spy ' and ' informer.' " ^ 
 
 ^ Dewees' Molly Maguires^ pp. 97, 98. 
 
SEVEN PRIESTS CENStJRE THE A.O.H. 131 
 
 Mr. Dewees further asserts that : " The 
 detectives have now (December, 1876) ob- 
 tained information, which they consider 
 reliable, that the officers of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians in New York assisted 
 with money Priday O'Donnell and James 
 McAllister in their escape from arrest as the 
 murderers of Sanger and Uren. They were 
 sent to England." ^ 
 
 If any official denunciation of the Molly 
 Maguires by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 either in the United States or in Ireland, has 
 been issued since Mr. Dewees pu])lished his 
 book in 1877, we have been unable to find any 
 record thereof. After all, perhaps the most 
 damaging exposure of the Order ever made was 
 that signed by seven Eoman Catholic priests, 
 all resident in the coal regions infested by the 
 Molly Maguires, which appeared in the American 
 'Freeman's Journal, of October 3rd, 187li — three 
 years before the full extent of its criminal 
 actions was made known to the public. These 
 priests were: The Rev. D. J. McDermott, 
 Pottsville ; Hev. Michael Sherman, Ashland, 
 Schuylkill County; Eev. H. E. O'Reilly, Shen- 
 andoah ; Rev. D. O'Connor, Mahanoy Plane, 
 Schulykill County ; Rev. Jos. Bridgeman, Girard- 
 ville, Schuylkill County ; Rev. E. T. Eield, Cen- 
 tralia, Columbia County; and the Rev. Joseph 
 Koch, Shamokin, Northumberland County. These 
 seven priests declared that : 
 
 " 1. Ribbonmen and kindred societies 
 have been nominatim condemned by the 
 Holy See. 
 
 '' 2. A society in America organised on 
 the same basis, holding the same principles, 
 
 ^ Dewees' Molly Maguires, p. 339. 
 
132 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 and animated by the same spirit, comes 
 within the condemnation of its prototype 
 in Ireland. 
 
 "3. When the spirit and principles as 
 manifested in acts are the same, it matters 
 very little by what name the society is 
 styled. 
 
 "4. The testimony of members, ex- 
 members, public report, and our experience 
 compel us to believe that the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians has all the vices of 
 societies nommathn condemned in Ireland. 
 
 "5. Experience has proved that no faith 
 is to be placed in the most solemn promises 
 or d€3nials of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians. 
 
 ''6. It is certain that a fear, terror of 
 punishment, that may in secrecy be decreed 
 in upper circles, compels members to exe- 
 cute commands given by the countersign, 
 no matter how repugnant to the laws of 
 God and man those commands may be. 
 
 "7. Men of notoriously infamous char- 
 acter (the constitution and by-laws to the 
 contrary notwithstanding) have not only 
 been admitted to membership, but elected 
 to office, and actually control the society 
 in many places. 
 
 ''8. Evidence sufficient to convince the 
 most sceptical has come to light that works 
 forbidden by the commandment ' Thou shalt 
 not kill ' are traceable to the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians.'' ^ 
 
 * Dewees' Molly Maguires, pp. 348, 349 
 
CHAPTER YII 
 
 THE PEESENT-DAY WORK OF THE ANCIENT 
 OEDER OF HIBERNIANS 
 
 Schisms in the ranks of the Order— The American Schism healed in 
 1897 by Bishop McFaul — Relations of the American section of 
 the Order to the Irish Board of Erin— The Australian section 
 of the Order governed on the same lines and principles as the 
 Irish section — The Revised Laws and Constitution of the 
 American Hibernians — None but practical Catholics and 
 Nationalists admitted as members — Evidence of the secrecy 
 of the Order to-day. 
 
 Several schisms have taken place in the ranks 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians during the 
 past half-century. There was a dispute in its 
 American ranks, which commenced in 1879. 
 Down to that period the Annual National Con- 
 vention of the Order in the United States met 
 only in New York ; but in that year it was 
 moved to Boston, Mass. As a result, the 
 branches existing in New York and New Jersey 
 counties refused to send delegates to the Boston 
 Convention ; but in the following year the 
 schism was healed. At about this time the 
 Order in that country undertook some work of 
 a commendable character, including a donation 
 of ^2,000 toAvards relieving the sufferings of the 
 poor in Ireland. It endowed a Gaelic Chair in 
 Washington Boman Catholic University, which, 
 although its wisdom may be doubted by some 
 of our readers, was at anv rate better than 
 contributing, as it did, $3,000 to the Irish Land 
 League. The History of the Ancient Order of 
 
 133 
 
134 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Sihemians, not very politely, states that this 
 amount of money was sent to Mr. Charles 
 Stewart Parnell ''to aid him in his fight in the 
 English Parliament for Home Eule for Ireland, 
 when the six hundred scoundrels united to quell 
 the eloquent pleadings of Charles Stewart 
 Parnell." ' 
 
 In 1884, another and far more serious schism 
 took place, which lasted for nearly fourteen 
 years. This was caused partly hy the decision 
 of the Cleveland Convention of the Order in 
 that year to admit to membership persons who 
 were Irish hy either parent, instead of by both 
 parents, as was hitherto the case ; and also hy 
 a personal financial squabble. The result was 
 that the Order was divided into two sections, 
 each claiming to be the true and only '' Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians." Both sections for a time 
 continued to receive from Ireland the quarterly 
 " goods," or '' merchandise," from the Board 
 of Erin. The result of the quarrel was that 
 one section took the name of "The Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians, Board of Erin," and the 
 other that of the '' Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 Benevolent Society of America," the former 
 being the schismatical section, and the latter 
 claiming to be the original Order in America. 
 The schismatical body sent a deputation to 
 Ireland to the quarterly meeting of the Board 
 of Erin, for the purpose of finding out why that 
 body had sent the *' merchandise " to both 
 sections in the United States. The members 
 of the Board, with four exceptions, took a 
 solemn oath that they had not sent the '' mer- 
 chandise " to the Board of Erin section in 
 America. The four men who refused to take 
 the oath were placed on their trial by the Board 
 of Erin on a charge of supplying the " merchan- 
 
 ^ McGrath's History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, p. 68, 
 
THE BOARD OF ERIN 135 
 
 dise " to a society not entitled to them, and, 
 being found guilty, were expelled from the 
 Order. Thereupon the four set up a new 
 " Board of Erin " on their own account, and 
 thus produced a split in the Irish ranks of the 
 Order. A correspondent of The JDerry Feople 
 (a Nationalist paper) of July 28th, 1906, asserts 
 that there are still in existence two bodies in 
 Ireland, each claiming to be the real '' Eoard 
 of Erin," one — the much larger body — of which 
 Mr. Joseph Devlin, M.P., is President; and the 
 other — and, apparently a very small body, of 
 whose workings we can find no record — known 
 as ''The Old Board of Erin," whose National 
 President is a Mr. Toner, and its National 
 Secretary a Mr. Murphy. The founder of this 
 former body was, says a writer in The Derry 
 JPeople of September 1st, 1906, a Mr. John 
 Crilly, of Belfast, and he asserts, whether truly 
 or not we cannot say, that the Board of Erin 
 over which Mr. Devlin presides is the offspring 
 of the new Board, founded in 1884 by the four 
 ex-members expelled in that year by the old 
 Board of Erin. 
 
 The two sections in America quarrelled for 
 years over the question — which was the genuine 
 Board of Erin in Ireland ? One section obtained 
 its ''merchandise" from one section of the 
 " Board of Erin " in Ireland ; the other obtained 
 their "merchandise" from the rival section of 
 the Board in Ireland. When the two American 
 sections became united in one body, in December, 
 1897, they settled the diificulty by refusing to 
 receive the " merchandise " from either section 
 of the Board of Erin in Ireland, and they 
 decided that it should be henceforth manu- 
 factured at home in America. That union was 
 brought about by a committee rejoresenting both 
 American sections, who nominated the Roman 
 
136 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Catholic Bishop McPaul, Bishop of Trenton, 
 as arbitrator, mutually agreeing to abide by 
 his decision. He accepted the post offered to 
 him, and eventually gave the decision by which 
 the union became an accomplished fact — a union 
 which has continued until the present time, 
 when only one body exists in the United States 
 claiming the title of Ancient Order of Hibernians. 
 The Bishop decided that " a bond of [Friend- 
 ship, Unity, and Christian Charity shall still 
 exist between the American and European 
 bodies," and that this bond shall be the '' Transfer 
 Card " by which members moving from Europe 
 to America, or from America to Europe, should 
 be admitted to membership on either side of the 
 Atlantic. But since then there has been no 
 formal Eederation between the two continents. 
 At the American International Convention of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, held at Saratoga 
 Springs, New York, in July, 1906, Mr. James 
 E. Holan, the National President, reported : 
 
 '' We regret very much to state that the 
 Hibernian Organisation in Great Britain 
 and Ireland seems to be divided into two 
 separate organisations, holding opposite 
 views on a number of questions, and having 
 separate and distinct National Boards. 
 Between them a somewhat bitter feeling 
 seems to exist. "We understand that certain 
 officers of each have at different times 
 claimed they were federated or possessed 
 some bond of union with the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians in America. This is 
 erroneous. We are federated only with 
 the Hibernians of Australia. We have 
 declined to enter into any negotiations 
 with either Hibernian Organisation of 
 Great Britain and Ireland, believing that 
 
THE AUSTRALIAN A.O.H. 137 
 
 to do SO would but bring their controversies 
 into our own ranks." ^ 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding the absence of a federa- 
 tion between the Order in Great Britain and 
 Ireland and the Order in America, at the 
 Annual Convention in Dublin, in 1905, a friendly- 
 feeling between the two sections was shown 
 when a cablegram was read, from the Order 
 in America, of greeting and congratulations 
 to their brethren assembled in Ireland.^ 
 
 The fact is that in all essential j)™ciples 
 the various sections of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians throughout the world are united, 
 though each section acts independently of the 
 others. The American Hibernians arc federated 
 with the Australian Hibernians. In a letter to 
 the National Chaplain of the Irish Board of 
 Erin section, the Australian Hibernians declared 
 that their organisation was '' governed exactly 
 on the same lines and principles " as the Board 
 of Erin section.^ 
 
 The Austra^lian Hibernians decided to ra.ise 
 £1,000 as the Order's contribution to the Irish 
 Parliamentary Eund for the last general 
 election ."^ 
 
 At a special meeting of the Board of Erin, 
 held in Hublin, the National President (Mr. 
 Joseph Devlin, M.P.) addressed the meeting. 
 The Freeman s Journal of April 13th, 1907, 
 states : 
 
 " The National President (who has just 
 returned from Australia, where he com- 
 pleted the agreement between the Hiber- 
 nians of Australia and the National Board 
 
 ^ National Hibernian, August, 1906. 
 2 Northern Star, July 29th, 1905. 
 ^ Ibid., Sept. 2nd, 1905. 
 ^ Freeman's Journal, Oct. 26th, 1905, 
 
138 THE UNKNOWN POWEE. 
 
 in Ireland) gave a very glowing account 
 of the progress being made by the Order 
 in the Southern Hemisphere. During his 
 stay there he had several interviews with 
 His Eminence Cardinal Moran, and the 
 National and District officers of the 
 Australian organisation, all of whom are 
 well pleased to be connected with the 
 Order in Ireland, and the progress that is 
 being made here during the last few years. 
 The unity which now exists will be of 
 considerable assistance to both organisa- 
 tions." 
 
 The revised laws and constitution for the 
 American Ancient Order of Hibernians, as 
 sanctioned by Bishop McPaul, are printed in 
 the History of the Order so frequently quoted 
 in these pages. It may be useful to cite some 
 of them here : 
 
 '' This Order is to be formed exclusively 
 of practical Catholics. Therefore each 
 member is expected to comply with all his 
 Christian duties. 
 
 '' In order that all may be done with 
 Justice, Christian Charity, and edification, 
 there shall be in each county a Chaplain, 
 appointed by the Ordinary {i.e. the Bishop) 
 of the diocese, to be consulted by the 
 Division before determining anything re- 
 lating to morality or religion. 
 
 '' The Chaplain in each county shall see 
 that nothing is done or countenanced by 
 the Order which is contrary to the laws of 
 the Catholic Church, the Decrees of the 
 Plenary Councils of Baltimore, and the 
 Synodical Constitutions of the diocese. In 
 any difficulty or doubt which he may not 
 
THE SECRECY OF THE A.O.H. 139 
 
 be able to solve, he shall consult the 
 Ordinary of the diocese. 
 
 '' It shall be the duty of the members of 
 this Order to receive Holy Communion, at 
 least once a year, within the Easter time." ^ 
 
 It is somewhat difficult for outsiders to recon- 
 cile the duties of the Chaplains of the American 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians with the laws of 
 the Church of Rome against secret societies, 
 unless we accept the already cited theory of 
 the author of the History of the Order : 
 
 '^That the Church," he writes, "has 
 condemned ' secret societies ' is a fact, but 
 it is also a fact that by the term ' secret 
 societies ' she did not mean the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians " ^ : 
 
 or else explain the difficulty as did Canon 
 McEadden, P.P., when addressing a meeting 
 of the Order at Glenties, Co. Donegal, on 
 March 17tli, 1905. ''It was not," he said, 
 " the secrecy of a society that condemned it, 
 but the nature of the secrets, and the conduct 
 of the members." ^ 
 
 Of the secrecy of the Order in America at 
 the present time there can be no doubt. The 
 evidence is conclusive. When its National 
 Convention opened in Saratoga on July 17th, 
 1906, the first business was to listen to the 
 report of the Sergeant-at-Arms, to the effect 
 that " all present were possessed of the current 
 password," and subsequently it Avas voted that 
 "at all future Sessions of the Convention the 
 passwords be taken up at the door."^ 
 
 ^ History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, pp. 225 -8= 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 63. 
 
 ^ Donegal Independent, March 24th, 1905, 
 
 * NoMonal Hibernian, August, 1906. 
 
140 THE UNKNOWN POWEU 
 
 At this Convention was read tlie report of the 
 E/itual Committee, who stated that they were 
 engaged in revising the E^itual, but that '' to 
 conserve the secrecy it was essential that the 
 constructive work should be entirely in the 
 hands of those who were members of our 
 Order." ^ 
 
 Restrictions were placed by the Convention on 
 newspaper reports of its proceedings, no doubt 
 owing to a dread lest some of its secret work 
 should be made public. There is a Ladies' 
 Auxiliary of the Order in America, which held 
 its National Assembly at Saratoga Springs at 
 the same time that the male Order was holding 
 its Convention. At this Assembly, the report 
 of the Press Committee was accepted, which 
 stated that it would '' meet after each Session, 
 and the news will be given to the newspapers 
 that will he deemed advisable for the good and 
 welfare of the Orders '^ 
 
 To have admitted reporters from the public 
 newspapers to the proceedings Avould scarcely 
 have been safe or prudent. Erom another 
 report of the proceedings we learn that the 
 ladies asked that " passwords and other secret 
 work be received " by them from the male body, 
 and that this request was granted.^ 
 
 Yet some barrier was fo^^nd necessary on the 
 curiosity of the Ladies' Auxiliary, which wished 
 to penetrate too far into the secrets of the 
 Order, for when the National Eoard met in 
 New York, on November 30th, 1906, it decided 
 that '^ during the business meetings of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, members of the 
 Ladies' Auxiliary must not be present." ^ 
 
 The male members are not allowed to reveal 
 
 ^ National Hibernian^ August, 1906. 
 2 Ibid.^ 
 
 ^ Gaelic American, August 18th, 1906. 
 ^ National Hibernian^ December, 1906, 
 
THE SECRECY OF THE A.O.H. 141 
 
 the secrets or transactions of any meeting of 
 the Order. The County Conyention of New 
 York found it necessary in emphatic terms to 
 declare : 
 
 " We herehy condemn as infamous the 
 manifest attempts of viciously disposed 
 persons outside or inside our ranks to 
 scandalise the Order, and some of its 
 members, hy the discussion of the affairs 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in 
 either the public press, or in places other 
 than the meeting Halls of our Order." ^ 
 
 If further evidence be needed of the secrecy 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, 
 it will be found in the assertion of The Catliolic 
 Citizen, of Milwaukee, which states that the 
 Order 
 
 ''has alivayg had a 'wheel within a 
 wheel.' In most of the cities where it is 
 organised, a faction of its members form 
 a separate and secret society, identical with, 
 or similar to, the Clan-na-Gael ; and this 
 faction attempts, more or less, to run the 
 local Division of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians." ^ 
 
 ^ N'ational Ilihernian, December, 1906. 
 
 ^ Article reprinted from The Catholic Citizen^ by The Boston 
 Citizen, Oct, 13tli, 1906. 
 
CHAPTER YIII 
 
 OPPOSITION TO AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN 
 ENGLAND AND AMEKICA 
 
 Numbers and income of the American Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians — It seeks to promote bad blood between America 
 and England — What the President said on this subject- 
 Mischievous influence of the Massachusetts Hibernians in 
 this direction^ — Strong language of the Missouri State Con- 
 vention of Hibernians — Dangerous Political Alliance between 
 American Hibernians and Germans in America. 
 
 The operations of a secret organisation like this 
 merit close attention, in tlie light of its past 
 history of three hundred and fifty years. It has 
 never been other than a Secret Society ever since 
 its evil birth. An official statement put forth 
 in its official organ — The National Hibernian — 
 of November, 1906, asserts that in the previous 
 October it had 185,000 members in the United 
 States. Its income for the year 1905 was no 
 less than $2,186,634, and it possessed at the 
 same time, in addition, in real estate and cash, 
 $1,721,017. It will thus at once be realised 
 that its influence on American politics, and, in 
 directly, on Irish affairs, must be considerable. 
 Money and votes go a long way with politicians in 
 the United States, and there is reason to believe 
 that they are used to the utmost by the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians to produce bad blood 
 between England and America, and to injure 
 Great Britain as much as possible. It may be 
 truthfully affirmed that hatred to England is 
 the overmastering passion of the whole Order 
 
 142 
 
OPPOSED TO ALLIANCE WITH ENGLAND 143 
 
 in America. This was seen in a marked degree 
 at the International Conyention of the Order, 
 in July, 1906. The National President, on 
 behalf of the goyerning body, reported : 
 
 ''At a time when eyery effort is being 
 made by the ancient enemy of our people 
 to gloss oyer the many crimes of the past, 
 placate public sentiment, and form a so- 
 called ' Anglo-Saxon Alliance ' that will 
 enable her to retain her present position in 
 the world's affairs, and thereby make it 
 unnecessary to restore to Ireland the rights 
 and liberties so cruelly and unjustly taken 
 from her six centuries ago, it is only right 
 and fittino; that an or^^anisation of the 
 character of ours should make eyery effort 
 to educate, not only our own children, but 
 also the entire American people, to a true 
 realisation of the boasted English ciyilisa- 
 tion — a ciyilisation incited by greed, and 
 forced upon unwilling peoples at the point 
 of the bayonet. We look upon any attempt 
 to secure an Anglo-Saxon Alliance as dan- 
 gerous to the interests and welfare of this 
 Republic, and one that cannot be too 
 seyerely discountenanced by eyery honour- 
 able citizen." ^ 
 
 The Massachusetts State Conyention met in 
 August, 1906, when the State President re- 
 ported that : 
 
 '' During the year 1901 the English 
 Goyernment had been spending millions 
 of dollars in the United States, under the 
 management of a Mr. Barclay, for the pur- 
 pose of haying a so-called Anglo-American 
 
 ^ National Ribernian, August, 1906. 
 
144 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 treaty passed by tlie Senate of the United 
 States. Your State Board, knowing the 
 facts, were convinced that an arbitration 
 treaty was intended for an alliance between 
 England and America, to be used as a club 
 against England's enemies in Europe. We 
 therefore drew up at that meeting a set 
 of resolutions which were forwarded to all 
 the United States Senators and Members 
 of Congress. 
 
 " Thirty thousand members of our organi- 
 sation in this State demanded, of the United 
 States Senators from Massachusetts, that 
 the so-called Anglo-American treaty should 
 be defeated. Senator Lodge, of Massa- 
 chusetts, led the opposition to that bill on 
 the floor of the Senate, and it was defeated 
 by a great majority. We therefore report 
 to this Convention that we have done our 
 duty in combating English influence in this 
 country, and we recommend that the 
 Hibernians of this State be ever watchful 
 of England's hypocritical friendship for 
 America. We pledge ourselves to do every- 
 thing possible to defeat any man or any 
 administration that favours an alliance 
 
 between England and America, 
 
 J5 1 
 
 A similar spirit of hatred to England was 
 manifested at the State Convention of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians for Missouri, held 
 at Kansas City, on September 9tli, 1906. In 
 an official Declaration issued by the Convention 
 it was stated that : 
 
 " We again place ourselves on record as 
 being emphatically opposed to an alliance 
 or so-called arbitration treaty with England. 
 
 ^ National Hibernian^ September, 1906. 
 
OPPOSED TO ALLIANCE WITH ENGLAND 145 
 
 There can never be a union between the 
 Eagle and the Vulture. England's hands are 
 red with the blood, and her stomach gorged 
 with the plunder of the weaker peoples 
 she has made subject to her rule in her 
 pirate march around the world. America 
 needs no ally now. When we needed 
 friends England was our enemy. She is 
 our enemy still ; we must not estrange the 
 European nations who were ever our friends, 
 which we would do if we permitted our- 
 selves to be bound by any alliance or treaty 
 with 'perfidious Albion.' So for the above, 
 and other reasons, we hereby serve notice 
 that we will ojjpose by every means in our 
 power, with our ballots at the polls, any 
 candidate or any political party committed 
 to such a doctrine, or favouring such an 
 un-American policy."^ 
 
 The State Convention of the Order for Min- 
 nesota met on September 21st, 1906, and passed 
 a resolution affirming a wish that it should 
 ''be understood that the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians is opposed to any Alliance with 
 Great Britain, whether military or commercial, 
 and we shall use all our influence against such 
 a movement."^ Speaking at a great meeting 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, at Boston, 
 on November 14th, 1906, Mr. Matthew Cum- 
 mings, the newly elected National President of 
 the Order, gave expression to similar sentiments, 
 when he declared that : 
 
 " I speak for the organised Irishmen of 
 this country, and by that I mean those 
 of Irish blood, and I say that we love 
 
 ^ Gaelic American, Sept. 22nd, 1906. 
 2 National Hibernian^ October, 1906. 
 
 10 
 
146 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 America too well to permit any alliance 
 or any special friendship to exist between 
 England and America, and there is no 
 sop or bribe of petty Local Government 
 for Ireland that will ever cause ns to cease 
 our efforts with all our power and influence 
 to destroy the possibility of an alliance 
 between England and America." ^ 
 
 It would be well if statesmen on both sides 
 of the Atlantic, who are friendly to an alliance 
 between England and America, were to make 
 an effort (by way of counteracting the mis- 
 chievous and dangerous efforts of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians) to enlighten American 
 editors and leading politicians as to the true 
 character and history of the Order. Its political 
 power in the United States is evidently con- 
 siderable, and not to be despised by any who 
 wish well to friendly relations between two 
 great nations. 
 
 Just now the American Hibernians are seeking 
 the aid of Germans residing in the United 
 States in forwarding their efforts to prevent 
 goodwill between America and England. At 
 a meeting of the governing body of the Order 
 in America, held in New York, on December 1st, 
 1906, it was decided that : " The National 
 President be authorised to arrange details of 
 a friendly alliance with the German people of 
 America, and that negotiations be at once 
 opened with representatives of the German- 
 American Societies of this country." ^ 
 
 The result of this decision is seen in the 
 following telegram from the Washington corre- 
 spondent of The Morning Post of January 29th, 
 1907 : 
 
 ^ National Hibernian. December, 1906. 
 ' Ibid. 
 
A.O.H. ALLIANCE WITH GERMANS 147 
 
 " A moYement that may have an im- 
 portant political effect directly antagonistic 
 to the best interests of England has taken 
 shape in an Alliance between the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians and the National 
 German-American Alliance, two organisa- 
 tions having a membership of over 2,000,000. 
 The Alliance nominally is ' for the good 
 of the Ejepublic,' and its purpose is to 
 oppose any alliance, secret or otherwise, 
 between the United States and any foreign 
 pov/er, to oppose the restriction of im- 
 migration, and the passage of sumptuary 
 laws. The President of the Order of 
 Hibernians explains that friendly relations 
 have for a long time existed between his 
 Order and the German- American Alliance, 
 the interests of the two in this country 
 being identical, ' It was the Germans who 
 preserved our language,' he said to a 
 reporter, ' when England sought to kill 
 it, and it was the Germans who fought 
 side by side with the Irish to save this 
 country.' As the Germans and the Irish 
 have always taken a prominent part in 
 American politics, while Englishmen, as a 
 rule, seldom become naturalised, this Irish- 
 German Alliance may be able to exercise 
 considerable influence on the future of 
 American politics." 
 
CHAPTEE IX 
 
 WORKING FOE IRISH INDEPENDENCE 
 
 The American Order of Hibernians working to entirely separate 
 Ireland from British rule — Mr. Michael Davitt on the military 
 organisations of the Order — Official information concerning 
 its regiments and officials — " The final and complete inde- 
 pendence of Ireland will alone satisfy all Hibernians " — 
 Statements of the Hibernians' State Conventions of Minne- 
 sota, Massachusetts, and Missouri. 
 
 The American Hibernians are not merely pro- 
 moting hatred between America and England, 
 and doing what they can to prevent a friendly 
 alliance between the two nations ; they are also 
 working zealously to promote the national in- 
 dependence of Ireland, and her entire separation 
 from British rule. Eor this purpose they are 
 forming military organisations, exclusively com- 
 posed of members of the Order, who are supplied 
 with arms and ammunition. Similar tactics 
 were adopted by the American Eenians in pre- 
 paration for their raid upon Canada. Some 
 light was thrown on this portion of the opera- 
 tions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians by Mr. 
 Michael Davitt, who, when examined before the 
 Parnell Commission, on July 3rd, 1889, acknow- 
 ledged that he was himself a member of the 
 Order. The Attorney- General asked him : 
 
 " Q. My question is, whether the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians (in America) had drilled 
 companies ? 
 
 ''A. It is not a military organisation, 
 
 148 
 
MILITARY WORK OF THE A.O.H. 149 
 
 but they have military orders attached here 
 and there. 
 
 '' Q. Drilled companies ? 
 
 ^'A. Yes. 
 
 '^Q. Armed?— A. Yes.' 
 
 55 1 
 
 Judging by the report of the National Presi- 
 dent at the Convention of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians at Saratoga Springs, in July, 1906, 
 the military operations of the Order have grown 
 considerably since Mr. Davitt gave his evidence. 
 This report stated that : 
 
 '' Judging by the number of commissions 
 for which requisition has been made through 
 the National President's office, great in- 
 terest is being taken in the military feature 
 attached to our Order. Several new com- 
 panies have been organised, and in several 
 States the comjoanies already in existence 
 formed into regiments. We believe that 
 the military features of our Organisation 
 should be made to excel that of any other 
 fraternal organisation, and that clue en- 
 couragement should be given the military 
 branch of the membership in general." ^ 
 
 This subject was discussed at the Worcester 
 County Convention, Mass., on September 27th, 
 1906, when this resolution was adopted : 
 
 '^ That the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 heartily approves of the development of 
 military organisations throughout its ranks. 
 The Hibernians of this county should make 
 greater efforts to recruit military com- 
 panies in the various towns and cities in 
 their jurisdiction." ^ 
 
 ^ Official Report of^ Farnell Commission, vol. ix., p. 472. 
 2 National Hibernian^ August, 1906. 
 ^ Ibid., December, 1906. 
 
150 THE UNKNOWN POWEE 
 
 The National Board, which is the governing 
 body of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in 
 America, at its meeting on December 3rd, 1906, 
 ordered that : 
 
 '' The military branch of the Order be 
 under the supervision of the Adjutant- 
 General, and that he be authorised to 
 organise into regiments and battalions the 
 various scattered companies of the several 
 States ; also that he be empowered to change 
 commands to correspond with the laws of 
 different States."^ 
 
 We have not been able to ascertain how many 
 Hibernians have enlisted in the military ranks 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. 'No doubt 
 these military companies, regiments, and bat- 
 talions are not formed merely for the purpose of 
 a useless show, from time to time, in the streets 
 of American cities and towns. They are in- 
 tended for business. Should England at any 
 time be at war with a really formidable Con- 
 tinental power, these trained Hibernians may 
 be expected to flock to the standards of her 
 enemy and fight against her ; or else flock to 
 the aid of an armed rebellion in Ireland itself, 
 having for its object Irish independence. 
 
 The views of the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 in America as to Irish independence have been 
 expressed again and again. The Report of the 
 Order, at its International Convention in 1906, 
 declared : 
 
 "The final and complete independence 
 of Ireland is the goal towards Avhich all 
 Hibernians are striving, and which alone 
 will thoroughly satisfy them." ^ 
 
 * National Hibernian^ December, 1906, 
 ^ Ibid., August, 1906. 
 
ADVOCATES AN IRISH REPUBLIC 151 
 
 At the Minnesota State Convention of the 
 Order, on September 21st, 1906, it was declared : 
 
 '' Its members are loyal as of yore to the 
 land of our fathers ; that we pledge our- 
 selves to maintain and wage with ceaseless 
 vigour the battle for National independence ; 
 that no quondam measures dealt out by an 
 alien Parliament will appease us, or satisfy 
 the desire of our lives and hearts to see an 
 Irish Reptihlic shining through the mists 
 that rise from the sea." ^ 
 
 The Worcester County, Mass., State Conven- 
 tion of the Ancient Order of Hibernians on 
 September 27th, 1906, passed this resolution : 
 
 '' The Order notes with much j)leasure 
 the ever-increasing but only natural growth, 
 throughout the United States, of the senti- 
 ment for Irish independence. Our Order 
 still demands for Ireland absolute freedom, 
 and not merely the compromise of Home 
 Eule."^ 
 
 In an official " Declaration " issued on Seji- 
 tember 9th, 1906, by the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians' State Convention of Missouri, it is 
 asserted that : 
 
 ''We believe and know that Ireland is 
 unwillingly chained to a robber and murder- 
 ous partner, who for centuries has used 
 every means known to the perverted in- 
 genuity of man to exterminate, debase, 
 and brutify. ... So we here and now 
 pledge to aid by every means in our power 
 
 ^ JVatianal Ilihernian, October, 1906. 
 2 Ibid., December, 1906. 
 
152 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 any organised movement of our countrymen, 
 either in this country, at home, or elsewhere, 
 that has for its paramount object the 
 restoration of Erin to the place God in- 
 tended she should have, a Bepuhlic amongst 
 the Republics of the earth.'' ^ 
 
 1 Gaelic American^ Sept. 22nd, 1906. 
 
CHAPTEE X 
 
 THE CLAN-NA-GAEL AND THE ANCIENT ORDER 
 OF HIBERNIANS 
 
 The bond of sympathy between the Clan-na-Gael and the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians — The United Irish- American Societies 
 working together for a common cause — Prominent American 
 members of the Order support the Clan-na-Gael — The 
 Catholic Citizen on the similarity of the two organisations- 
 Secret plot for the capture of the Order by the Clan-na-Gael 
 — Monsignor Charles McCready asserts that the administra- 
 tion of the Order in New i^ork has been transferred to the 
 Clan-na-Gael — The Ancient Order of Hibernians in Canada 
 — 50,000 members of the Order in Montreal. 
 
 The Ancient Order of Hibernians never gives 
 up a particle of its independence as an organisa- 
 tion, yet it announces its willingness to work in 
 brotherly unity and concord with American 
 societies, labouring for the independence of 
 Ireland. It is not a branch, for instance, of 
 the infamous Clan-na-Gael, but it seems to 
 possess a close bond of sympathy with that 
 body, which appears to have made attempts to 
 capture and rule several Divisions of the Order. 
 The ancient Order of Hibernians is officially 
 represented on the governing body of an 
 American Eederation of Irish Societies, whose 
 October meeting in New York is thus reported 
 in The Gaelic American (the official organ of the 
 Clan-na-Gael) of October 20th, 1906 : 
 
 " The United Irish- American Societies of 
 New York held their regular monthly 
 meeting at 163 East Sixtieth Street, on 
 
 153 
 
154 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Sunday, October 14th. The executive 
 branch of this body consists of delegates 
 from over eighty Irish Societies located in 
 New York and vicinity. These compose 
 Ancient Order of Hibernian Divisions, 
 Clcm-na-Gael Clubs, Irish County Associa- 
 tions, Gaelic League Branches, Sinn Pein 
 Clubs, etc., all worhing together for the 
 common cause of Ireland.'' 
 
 It is asserted by the friends of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians in America that it no 
 longer continues the criminal work for which 
 its Molly Maguire Branches were notorious over 
 thirty years ago ; and we are not in a position 
 to assert the contrary. But if it be true that 
 "a man may be judged by the company he 
 keeps," so also may a society. What, then, are 
 we to think of the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 in New York, when we thus see it keeping 
 company with the infamous and crime-stained 
 Clan-na-Gael, and with it ^'working together 
 for the common cause " ? It was conclusively 
 proved before the Parnell Commission that this 
 organisation promoted murder, and was mainly 
 responsible for the dynamite outrages and 
 explosions in London about a quarter of a 
 century since. Mr. Patrick McGarry, National 
 Delegate of the Board of Erin section in 
 America, before the amalgamation of the two 
 sections into the present body, boasted, in a 
 letter he wrote to the National President of the 
 other section, on Pebruary 25th, 1897 : '' I will 
 say I am at present President of the Con- 
 federated Irish Societies of this city (Chicago), 
 which compose a part of the great Irish 
 organisation of the Clan-na-Gael." ^ 
 
 The National Sihernian (the official organ of 
 
 ^ History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians^ p. 156, 
 
THE A.O.H. AND CLAN-NA-GAEL 155 
 
 the American Ancient Order of Hibernians) in 
 its issue for December, 1906, reports, under the 
 heading of " Philadelphia," that the " Hon. 
 James M. Sullivan, a prominent Hibernian of 
 New Haven City, who ably represented his 
 county in the St. Louis Convention, was the 
 Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien orator heard on 
 Thursday evening, November 22nd. The 
 demonstration took place in the American 
 Academy of Music, and was under the auspices 
 of the Clan-na-Gael. Mr. Sullivan made a fine 
 address, in which he eloquently sustained the 
 positio7i of the Clan in present-day Irish affairs.'^ 
 In this connection we may again cite the ex- 
 tract from The Catholic Citizen given above 
 (page 141), in which that Roman Catholic paper 
 recently asserted of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians, that " in most of the cities where 
 it is organised a faction of its members form a 
 separate and secret society, identical toith, or 
 similar to, the Clan-na-Gael, and this faction 
 attempts, inore or less, to run the local Division 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians." The same 
 paper also asserted that ''the Clan-na-Gael 
 formed a wheel within a wheel in Division No. 3 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians." 
 
 Monsignor Charles McCreedy, for many years 
 Chaplain to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of 
 New York, resigned his position as New York 
 County Chaplain of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians, because that body had not re-elected 
 the Archbishop of New York as National Grand 
 Chaplain of the Order in the United States for 
 1906. In a letter, dated August 7th, 1906, the 
 Monsignor revealed a secret plot for the cap- 
 ture of the whole Order in the United States 
 by the Clan-na-Gael. " The delegates " at the 
 Saratoga Springs Convention, he wrote, ''from 
 New York County were known to be in favour 
 
156 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 of transferring the administration of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians to a minority party, working 
 within the organisation, and this transfer has at 
 last been effected.'' ^ 
 
 Commenting on this letter. The New York 
 Sun says : 
 
 " In his letter the Monsignor also in- 
 timates that there was a political deal in 
 the Convention, and that the deal was made 
 primarily in order that Matthew Cummings, 
 of Boston, might be elected National 
 President of the Order, and incidentally that 
 the Clan-na-Gael — to which the 3Ionsignor 
 refers in his letter as a ' minority 'party ' — 
 might gain control of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians." ^ 
 
 This looks very mnch as though Mr. Matthew 
 Cummings, the newly elected National President 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, is himself a 
 member of the Clan-na-Gael. The New York 
 Herald, later on, asserted, in its comment on 
 the quarrel, that : 
 
 '^ Puel was added to the fire a few weeks 
 after Matthew Cummings was elected 
 National President, when some one sent 
 Monsignor McCreedy a handbill announc- 
 ing that the Clan-na-Gael of Boston would 
 hold a grand reception of the newly elected 
 President of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians." ^ 
 
 Mr. Cummings did visit Boston on November 
 14th, 1906, and received there a great ovation 
 
 ^ New York Irish World, Sept. 22nd, 1906. 
 2 Ihid. 
 § Ihid. 
 
THE A.O.H. IN CANADA 157 
 
 and dinner, the proceedings at which are 
 fully reported in The National Hibernian for 
 December, but no mention is therein made of 
 any part taken by the Clan-na-Gael in the 
 welcome to Mr. Cummings. Whether this 
 silence was the result of prudential considera- 
 tions or not we cannot say. 
 
 While writing about the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians in America, it is important to re- 
 member that we have been considering only 
 its influence in the United States, and not in 
 Canada. An official document signed by the 
 Montreal County President and County Secre- 
 tary, claims that the Order has a '' membership 
 of 350,000 in the United States and Canada 
 alone, and represents 50,000 Catholics in Mon- 
 treal.^ 
 
 The official statement of the membership in 
 the United States is 185,000 ; so tliat if the 
 statement emanating from the Order in Mon- 
 treal be accurate, it follows that there are no 
 fewer than 165,000 members in the Dominion 
 of Canada working for Irish independence, and 
 actuated by bitter hatred of England. Canadian 
 statesmen, politicians, and newspaper editors, 
 who are loyal to England, and do not wish the 
 Dominion to come under the rule of the 
 American P^epublic, may profitably take these 
 facts into account. 
 
 ^ Montreal Daily Star, Jan. 12th, 1907. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 PHESENT-DAY WORK IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 No expressions of regret for the past criminal history of the 
 Order — The Secret Inner Circle — Mr. James Nugent praises 
 O'Donovan Eossa — Modern leaders of the Order praise its 
 past history without exception— Testimony of The Northern 
 Star, and the Monaghan Division of the Order — The Order 
 has ever been disloyal to England — A recruiting-ground for 
 the Fenians— Gave birth to the Fenians — Remarkable state- 
 ment by a leading Fenian — The disloyal work of the Order 
 in Ireland — The National Treasurer asserts that the Order 
 was formed to " drive the English Government and garrison " 
 out of Ireland— The National Secretary of the Order says 
 that the " one supreme movement " in Ireland is that of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians — He further declares that the 
 Order aims at "making every nation hate and destroy 
 the power of England" — A National Vice-President of the 
 Order affirms that it will not give up the struggle " till the 
 last bit of British rule is exterminated in Ireland" — A 
 County Vice-President of the Order says that " no man con- 
 nected with the English Government could be allowed into 
 its ranks" — Opposed to young men joining the British 
 Army. 
 
 It is necessary to supplement the information 
 already given as to the recent operations of 
 the ; Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ireland, 
 England, and Scotland, and to repeat here a 
 few points already referred to. One looks in 
 vain through the reports of its proceedings at 
 the present day for any expression of regret or 
 repentance for its past criminal history. On 
 the contrary, everything tends to show that, as 
 an organisation, it glories in its past history, and 
 boasts that the principles which moved its 
 founder, E-ory Oge O'More, in the sixteenth 
 century, are identical with those which it holds 
 
 158 
 
PRAISING o'dONOVAN ROSSA 159 
 
 to-day. It would not, of course, be fair to 
 charge all its members with still retaining those 
 views. A large proportion of the Order join 
 its ranks for the sake of the sick pay and funeral 
 expenses which it pays to its members — a por- 
 tion of its work for which it deserves praise. 
 And many others join who are entirely ignorant 
 of its blood-stained past, and know only that 
 portion of it which their leaders choose to tell 
 them. But the Ancient Order of Hibernians, in 
 its corporate capacity, as it exists to-day in the 
 United Kingdom, cannot be said to be reformed 
 in theory, even though it is admitted that it no 
 longer in practice undertakes the mu.rders and 
 criminal work which disgraced it from its birth 
 down to the end of the first seventy years of the 
 nineteenth century. Yet, even its most reticent 
 advocates admit that it is still as disloyal to 
 British rule as ever it was. It is, however, the 
 inner and secret section of the Order v/hich really 
 rules its operations. That section may be com- 
 paratively quiet for the present ; but who can 
 trust it for the future ? How long shall we 
 have to wait before the more violent spirits will 
 make their influence powerful in its ranks ? 
 Why has Mr. James Nugent, the present 
 National Treasurer of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians Begistered Society, so loudly sounded 
 the praises of that would-be murderer, O 'Dono- 
 van P^ossa, a man whom the late Mr. Michael 
 Havitt termed a '' blatant ass " and " a cowardly 
 low ruffian " ? ^ 
 
 This man,Bossa, was one of the most prominent 
 personages in promoting the dynamite explosions 
 in London a quarter of a century ago. He once 
 said at a public meeting held in honour of one 
 of the invincible murderers : ''I hold that 
 every Englishman who goes into Ireland for the 
 
 ^ Official Report of the Parndl Commission^ vol. xi., p. 245. 
 
160 THE UNKNOWN POWEU 
 
 purpose of administering English law should be 
 slain within twenty-four hours." ^ 
 
 The man who uttered this bloodthirsty speech 
 has never apologised for his utterance. Yet it 
 is of him that Mr. James Nugent, at a meeting 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, held in 
 Belfast, on September 10th, 1905, " delivered," 
 says TJie Irish Neivs of September 12th, '' an 
 eloquent and patriotic address, touching in sym- 
 pathetic words on the life of O 'Donovan Rossa, 
 and in conclusion moved : 
 
 '' ' That we, the members of Division 
 No. 18, Ancient Order of Hibernians, in 
 meeting assembled, tender to the Cork 
 County Council our heartiest appreciation 
 for their kind, patriotic, and Christian-like 
 action, in securing a position /br Ireland's he- 
 loved and almost forgotten patriotic soldier, 
 O' Donovan Ilossa,t]ius enabling the old Irish 
 veteran to spend his days, which we hope 
 will be long and happy, on the soil of the 
 land for which he suffered so much ; and 
 further, that our fervent prayer will be that 
 such a patriot of Erin as O 'Donovan Eossa 
 will yet live to see that for which he has 
 suffered so much realised — viz. Ireland a 
 free and independent nation.' " 
 
 The Board of Erin section, however, must 
 not be held responsible in any way for Mr. 
 James Nugent' s utterances, who, it may be here 
 remarked, must not be confused with Mr. John 
 D. Nugent, National Secretary of the Board of 
 Erin. 
 
 '' To-day," says The Northern Star of Sep- 
 tember 2nd, 1905, *' the organisation is banded 
 together throughout the world for the same 
 
 ^ Official Report of the Parnell Commission, vol. i., p. 216. 
 
'' A NOBLE AND GLORIOUS HERITAGE " 161 
 
 purpose for which the Society was originally 
 founded," 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of Erin Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians, at Magherafelt, father 
 McKinley, National Chaplain of the Order, said : 
 '^ We have in the history of the Order a noble 
 and glorious heritage to maintain." ^ 
 
 In a brief history of the Order, written 
 evidently by a member, which appeared in the 
 Irish Neivs of January 23rd, 1906, Eory Oge 
 O'More, the Defenders, and the Ribbonmen are 
 mentioned in terms of admiration, and then it 
 is added : 
 
 ^' They have passed away, and we are the 
 inheritors of their glory. Let us hope that 
 we shall be able to sustain it," 
 
 In an address issued to the public by the 
 Monaghan Division of the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians, No. 255, on July 22nd, 1906, 
 it is stated that the Hibernians in the past 
 '^ adopted various names, amongst which were 
 ^ Happarees,' ' Ribbonmen,' etc., but whatever 
 name they went under tJieir policy tvas the same 
 — ' Paith and Patherland.' So it is to-day, trans- 
 planted to many lands — the old spirit of Rory 
 Oge permeates the members of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians — fidelity to religion and country."^ 
 What the " spirit " of Eory Oge was, and what 
 the '' policy " of the Eapparees and Eibbonmen 
 was, thus held up to the admiration and imita- 
 tion of modern Hibernians, we have already 
 shown, and the sight is not a pleasant one to 
 behold. A similar statement was made by 
 another member of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians in The Claire Chmnpion of September 29th, 
 1906. He wrote : 
 
 1 Irish News, July 3rd, 1906. 
 
 2 Dundalk Democrat, July 28th, 1906. 
 
 11 
 
162 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 '' The Ancient Order of Hibernians has 
 undergone many changes and different 
 names, some of them being ' Rapparees/ 
 'Defenders,' ' Eibbonmen,' 'St. Patrick's 
 Benevolent Society,' ' Sons of the Sham- 
 rock,' etc. But it has always adhered to 
 its principles through thick and thin, through 
 rough and smooth — they stand to-day as 
 they did when B^ory Oge O'More first 
 organised them — Faith and Patherland. 
 They fought in the breach of Limerick, 
 defended the bridges, Athlone and Finea, 
 and died beside the 'Eagle of the North,' 
 and are ready and loilling to die again, if 
 need heT 
 
 And, as we have already seen, its National 
 Chaplain has declared, " Individuals might have 
 gone astray, but as a body they (the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians) had always been right. ''^ 
 
 The Ancient Order of Hibernians is certainly 
 still the same as it has ever been in disloyalty 
 to England. Mr. Michael Davitt asserts that, 
 when known as Ribbonmen, the Hibernians 
 " exercised very considerable influence upon 
 the subsequent up-building of the Eenian 
 Brotherhood"^; and that: "James Stephens 
 found the E,ibbon Lodges one of the best 
 recruiting-grounds for his democratic revolu- 
 tionary Brotherhood. His Eenian movement 
 largely absorbed the younger members of the 
 pro-agrarian Society." ^ 
 
 John Mitchell, the well-known Irish rebelj 
 even goes so far as to assert that Eibbonism 
 gave birth to the Eenians.^ 
 
 In A Personal Narrative of the Irish Hevolu* 
 
 ^ Fall of Feudalism in Ireland^ p. 41. 
 
 2 Ihid., p. 42. 
 
 ^ Mitchell's ZTwtor^/ of Ireland^ vol. i., p. 144. 
 
THE A.O.H. AND THE FENIANS 163 
 
 tionary Brotherhood, published in New York 
 in 1906, its author, Mr. Joseph Denieffe, one of 
 the earliest promoters of the Penian Brother- 
 hood, tells us that when, in 1858, it was in 
 course of formation, Colonel John O'Mahony 
 (subsequently President of the Brotherhood) 
 '' saw some of the leading men of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians, and solicited their co- 
 operation. They advised him to have some of 
 us (Eenians) join their organisation, and then 
 we could bring up the matter regularly for 
 their consideration. O'Mahony, Corcoran (sub- 
 sequently Eenian Brigadier-General), Eoche 
 (subsequently Treasurer of the Penian Brother- 
 hood), and myself joined the Order, and were 
 initiated. Before leaving I got a letter from 
 the Secretary to their head man in Liverpool, 
 introducing myself and explaining the object of 
 my visit " (page 22). 
 
 During a visit of Mr. Davitt to America 
 in 1880, he received an address of welcome 
 from the Civic and Military Organisations of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians at Chicago, in 
 which he was reminded that '' the hand that 
 ca^rried the gift of charity Avas ready, when the 
 call came, to seize the rifle." The report of the 
 proceedings states that — 
 
 ^' Mr. Davitt responded briefly, but with 
 feeling, referring to the noble work of the 
 Order both here and in Ireland, in its 
 charitable as well as its political aspects. 
 It had been the first organisation, as such, 
 that sympathised with the people of Ireland 
 in the warfare against Irish landlordism. 
 If necessary, he was sure that the hands 
 which now dispensed charity Avould dispense 
 blows to the enemies of Ireland, and that 
 if the people there were ever in a position 
 
164 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 to strike a blow for independence, tlie 
 Order would nobly resj)ond to their call. 
 (Applause.)" ^ 
 
 As a member of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians, Mr. Dayitt was qualified to give an 
 oj)inion on such a subject. 
 
 Several proofs have already been given 
 showing that the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 of the present day is labouring in Ireland in 
 favour of Irish independence, like their brethren 
 in America. At a great meeting of the Order, 
 at which several of its leading officials were 
 present, a Brother Hugh Byrne, National 
 Treasurer of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 declared that " the organisation was also 
 formed for the purpose of driving the English 
 Government and garrison out of this old land 
 of ours."^ 
 
 In an official ''Address of National Officers," 
 issued by the Board of Erin in October, 1905, 
 the desire for independence is expressed : '' The 
 time is at hand," they declared, "when a well- 
 directed movement is destined to take place in 
 the struggle for Irish independence. It behoves 
 every brother Irishman, therefore, to enrol him- 
 self under the banner of Hibernianism." ^ 
 
 Mr. John T. Donovan, at an Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians' meeting held at Kilrea on August 
 15th, 1905, many leading officials being present, 
 was loudly cheered when he said : '' They as 
 Catholics only wanted their equal rights, and 
 the peo23le of this country should be allowed to 
 carry on their own government according to 
 their own ideas, freed from the hligJiUng 
 rule of England.'' ^ At Herrygonnelly, in 
 
 ^ Official Report of the. Parnell Commission, vol. i., p. 197. 
 2 Ulster Herald, April 21st, 1906. 
 ^ Irish News, Oct. 9tli, 1905. 
 ^ Ihid., August 16tli, 1905. 
 
"make every nation hate ENGLAND" 165 
 
 August, 1906, Mr. John D. Nugent, National 
 Secretary of the Board of Erin, boldly affirmed 
 that : 
 
 ^' The Ancient Order of Hibernians did not 
 profess a revolutionary programme or resort 
 to arms — that was impossible at the present 
 time — but their strength and support lay in 
 urging their countrymen who lived abroad to 
 make every nation hate and destroy the power 
 of England ; in keeping America, in keeping 
 France and Spain, and every other country 
 against her, and by letting her see that 
 Ireland, although small and powerless in 
 itself, could yet bring her power to its 
 knees without the aid of a rifle or the 
 boom of a cannon. (Cheers.) While other 
 Nationalist organisations might be, and 
 were, doing good work, the one supreme 
 movement in this country was the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians.'' (Cheers.)^ 
 
 Disloyal utterances such as these are quite 
 common at meetings in Ireland of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians. Mr. John Dillon, of 
 Tyrone, National Vice-President of the Board 
 of Erin, at a meeting held at Dumbarton, 
 on August 25th, 1906, '' expressed delight at 
 being surrounded by thousands of such true 
 and sterling Hibernians, and urged them to 
 stand loyally together, and never give up the 
 glorious struggle till the last hit of British rule 
 ivas exterminated in Ireland.'' ^ 
 
 There is no intention on the part of the 
 authorities to give up their disloyal agitation, 
 if we may judge by the utterances of Mr. John 
 Muldoon, B.L., at an Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians' meeting at Irvinestown, on November 8th, 
 
 ^ Ulster Herald, August 25tli, 1906. 
 " Derry People, Sept. 1st, 1906. 
 
166 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 1906. He empliatically asserted : " The Order 
 would not cease its energies until the last 
 vestige of British misrule had disappeared from 
 this country." ^ 
 
 The Order's hatred of England is shown in 
 many ways. Mr. Bernard MGriskin, County 
 Vice-President of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians, told a meeting of the Order at Kilty- 
 clogher, in Noyemher, 1906 : '' No man con- 
 nected with the English Government could he 
 allowed into their ranks — no policeman, police 
 pensioner, soldier, or militiaman, or any other 
 man connected in any way with English rule in 
 Ireland could he a member of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians." ^ 
 
 Mr. M'Griskin went on to explain the reason 
 of this rule. "They did not," he said, "want 
 policemen or other tools of the Goyernment 
 to knoiD their bttsiness." No doubt in this he 
 spoke the truth. It would hardly be safe for 
 the Hibernians were such a thing allowed. But 
 why are the Hibernians so afraid of the light ? 
 Is it because their deeds are eyil ? " The last 
 resolution " passed at an Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians' meeting at Hrummullan, County 
 Tyrone, on March 17th, 1905, condemned "in the 
 strongest possible language the action of young 
 Irishmen in joining the ranks of the British 
 Army, and called upon the youth of the country 
 to refrain from enlisting." ^ 
 
 Even English games are hated by the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians, as though they conveyed 
 a plague to Irishmen. The County Board of 
 Tyrone, on September 23rd, 1906, " unanimously 
 resolved that any member of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians in County Tyrone taking part in 
 
 1 Ulster Herald, Nov. 10th, 1906. 
 
 2 Fermanagh News, Dec. 1st, 1906. 
 
 3 Irish News, March 18th, 1906. 
 
''the saxok swine" 167 
 
 any foreign [English is meant] games, after 
 being cautioned by his Divisional President, is 
 liable to fine or expiilsioii.'' ^ The Derry Feople, 
 of October 6th, 1906, informs us that no fewer 
 than sixty-five Divisions of the Order were 
 represented at the meeting when this resolution 
 was carried. 
 
 In Ireland the Order started a new and official 
 monthly organ of its own in Eebruary, 1907. 
 It declares : 
 
 " The Hibernian Order is devoted to the 
 work of uplifting our country into the 
 place that it ought by right to occupy, and 
 which, please Providence, it will occupy 
 in the near future, mnongst the self-govern- 
 ing nations of the tvorld.^'^ 
 
 The same issue of this magazine contains a 
 reprint of a poem by Gavan Duffy, entitled, 
 '' The Muster of the North," in praise of the 
 Irish Eebellion of 1641. Two verses from this 
 poem will serve to show its disloyal and insult- 
 ing character : 
 
 Joy, joy, the day is come at last, the day of hope 
 
 and pride, 
 And see, our crackling bonfires light old Bann's 
 
 rejoicing tide. 
 And gladsome bell and bugle-horn, from Newry's 
 
 captured tow'rs, 
 Hark, how they tell the Saxon swine, this land is 
 
 ours — is ours ! 
 ***** 
 Come, trample down their robber rule, and smite its 
 
 venal spawn. 
 Their foreign laws, their foreign Church, their ermine 
 
 and their lawn. 
 With all the specious fry of fraud that robbed us of 
 
 our own, 
 And plant our ancient laws again beneath our lineal 
 
 throne. ^ 
 
 ^ Irish News, Sept. 27th, 1906. 
 
 2 Hibernian Journal, February, 1907, p. 6. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 9. 
 
168 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 In an article which appears in the April, 
 1907, issue of this very disloyal magazine, those 
 Irishmen are sternly denounced who seek for 
 honours and titles from 'Hhe King of Eng- 
 land." 
 
 " We cannot," it declares, '' for one 
 moment admit that the title-seeker is a 
 Nationalist in any sense of the word, nay, 
 we go further and say, that he is worthy of, 
 and deserves the treatment which all traitors 
 to any movement or cause earns [sic'].'' 
 
 The article then proceeds to comment on a 
 rumour that the King is favourable to the 
 Nationalists. 
 
 '' But," it asks, '^ granting that the King 
 is favourable to our aspirations, is that 
 any reason why we should profess loyalty 
 to a foreign monarch and ignore the pro- 
 fessed feelings of our own people ? " 
 
 And then it adds these words : 
 
 '' IVe oioe JEngland neither loyalty nor 
 respect. We want to make her feel, that 
 not alone in Ireland, but also in Australia, 
 South Africa, and America generally, there 
 is a large and daily increasing party who 
 do not disguise the fact of their hatred and 
 contempt of England's misgovernment of 
 Ireland. That combination of feeling is 
 daily increasing, and it will presently reach 
 such a formidable stage that the usually 
 stolid Englishman will realise that Ireland's 
 disaffection is more dangerous to the solidity 
 of England and her dominions, than either 
 the Elack Sea fleet of E^ussia or the military 
 power of Germany." ^ 
 
 ^ Hibernian Journal, April, 1907, pp. 8, 9. 
 
HATEED OP BRITISH RULE 169 
 
 In the May, 1907, issue (page 12), the 
 poisonous hatred of Enghmd by the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians is still more strikingly 
 exhibited in a poem entitled '' To England." 
 Erom it we take the subjoined verses : 
 
 Yes, here's a hand for England, a pledge for England's 
 
 Crown, 
 A pledge of deathless hatred, a hand to strike her 
 
 down ; 
 If ties of blood unite us, 'tis blood that calls and calls, 
 Erom Wicklow's grave-starred valleys and Limerick's 
 
 ruined walls. 
 
 Aye ! here's a heart for England — the heart she sought 
 
 to break ; 
 Let England claim our loyalty, 'tis hers — for vengeance' 
 
 sake. 
 Old bygones now are bygones — and well they're so, 
 
 we say; 
 But bygone wrongs were living wrongs, if England 
 
 dared to-day. 
 
 Think you, robber nation, whose plundering hands 
 
 have spread 
 A blight o'er half creation, if we forget our dead ; 
 Who cursed you in their dying, and off their trampled 
 
 sod 
 Brought up a cry of blood for blood to the Justice Bar 
 
 of God ? . . . 
 
 Take, then, our answer, England ; we speak it straight 
 
 and true : 
 We have but hands to strike you, and hearts of hate 
 
 for you ; 
 As we cast off your bondage from backs that would 
 
 not bow, 
 We cast your bland advances back to the givers now. 
 
 These, be it remembered, are the latest official 
 utterances of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 and not the mere opinions of its private 
 members. They prove that the Order is at the 
 present moment as full of hatred to British 
 rule as it ever has been during three centuries 
 and a half of its disloyal history. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE UNITED IRISH LEAGUE AND THE ANCIENT 
 ORDER OF HIBERNIANS 
 
 The Order is the " Great Unknown Power " behind the United 
 Irish League — Remarkable statement of Mr. John E. Red- 
 mond, M.P. — Remarkable statements of William O'Brien, 
 M.P. — Says that a "secret Ribbon Lodge" dictates the policy 
 of the United Irish League — Representatives of the Order a,re 
 present at the Election Conventions of the League — The 
 Northern Star asserts that the Order is " a valuable auxiliary 
 to the United League " — The Order said to be " the head, 
 shoulders, and body of the United Irish League " — The Sher- 
 cock Division, and the Wallsend-on-Tyne Division of the 
 Order refuse to admit any one as a member who is not first a 
 member of the League— Schism in the Irish ranks of the 
 Order — The Scottish section of the Order under the ban of the 
 Scottish Roman Catholic Bishops — Said to have a connection 
 with the Clan-na-Gael and the Fenians — The whole strength 
 of the Irish Nationalist Party given to the Order in Scotland 
 — Blessed by Pope Pius X. — Supported in Ireland by many 
 Roman Catholic Bishops — The Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 exists in England, Scotland, Ireland, United States ^ of 
 America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, 
 South America, Mexico, Honolulu, and the Philippine 
 Islands — Concluding observations. 
 
 Ample evidence has already been given to prove 
 that the Ancient Order of Hibernians is at the 
 back of the disloyal, boycotting, and intimidating 
 United Irish League at the present time. Yet, 
 owing especially to a recent utterance of Mr. 
 John E. Hedmond, M.P., the leader of the 
 Nationalist Party, and Chairman of the United 
 Irish League, it may be useful to supplement 
 the information already given. At a meeting 
 reported in The Freeman's Journal, of October 
 9th, 1906, Mr. Redmond said : 
 
 170 
 
" A FOECE HIDDEN AND UNKNOWN " l7l 
 
 '' I have always held the view that it 
 was a strength to the National movement, 
 and not a weakness, thafc England should 
 realise that there loas behind the men who 
 were conducting the constitutional movement 
 on the floor of the House of Commons a 
 GREAT UNKNOWN POWER waiting for an 
 opportunity which might arise to have 
 recourse, if necessary, to other methods 
 to advance the cause of Ireland." 
 
 We have not the slightest douht that this 
 ^' great unknoion poiver'' is the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians. It certainly was '' unknown " 
 outside of Ireland until we called attention to 
 its existence and work in the December, 1906, 
 issue of Grievances from Ireland ; and even in 
 Ireland very little was known about it, except 
 the fact that it is a benefit society for the good 
 of its members. We have all heard of the 
 Jesuits as '' the PoAver behind the Pope " ; it 
 now looks as though the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians is '* the Power behind the United 
 Irish League." 
 
 In a public debate between Sinn Peiners and 
 a local Branch of the United Irish League, 
 held at Glasgow on March 27th, 1907, Mr. 
 O'Keeffe significantly said : 
 
 " He had never associated Hibernianism 
 either with the Sinn Pein policy or the 
 Irish Parliamentary Party. What he did 
 say was that there was in Ireland to-day 
 
 A FORCE HIDDEN AND UNKNOWN, and if they 
 
 failed by Parliamentary measures to gain 
 their ends, that force tcould be revealed.'' ^ 
 
 Mr. William O'Brien, M.P., has recently 
 made some very remarkable statements about 
 
 ^ Glasgow Observer, Feb. 2nd, 1907. 
 
172 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 this '^ unknown power." During the Mid-Cork 
 Election in December, 1906, he referred several 
 times to this subject in speeches on behalf of 
 the candidature of Mr. D. Sheehan. At Mac- 
 room, on December 23rd, 1906, he said : '' Mr. 
 Sheehan is standing to save the great majority 
 of the Irish Party" from " a secret despotism" 
 worked by '' secret conspirators." 
 
 "My friends," added Mr. O'Brien, "Mr. 
 Sheehan is going back into the Irish Party 
 in spite of the bosses. He is going to 
 enforce genuine majority rule ; he is going 
 to insist that the Party shall be consulted 
 — shall be called together ; that they shall 
 
 put down THIS SECRET RIBBON LOD&E that at 
 
 present dictates their policy and their fate, 
 and shall enforce the principle that every 
 elected representative of the people in that 
 Party shall have as good a right to funds 
 subscribed for Parliamentary purposes as 
 this UNKNOWN SECRET CONSPIRACY — this Un- 
 known secret ring." ^ 
 
 In The Irish Feople of January 5th, 1907 
 (which is Mr. W. O'Brien's organ), it is asserted 
 that Mr. Sheehan " was the most obnoxious to 
 the Rihhon Lodge in the Whip's Boom " of the 
 Irish Party ; and it is urged that " the con- 
 spirators should throw off their masks. The 
 Ribhonmen could he identified. '' These are re- 
 markable statements, coming from such a source. 
 
 The close connection of the Nationalist Party 
 with the Ancient Order of Hibernians is further 
 seen in the fact that at the Election and other 
 Conventions of that Party representatives of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians are admitted, 
 allowed to speak on all subjects, and also to 
 
 ^ Corh Examiner, December 24th, 1906. 
 
THE A.O.H. AND UNITED IHISH LEAGUE 173 
 
 vote. The Hoscommon Herald, a Nationalist 
 paper, in its issue for April 15tli, 1905, distinctly 
 states : '* The Divisions (of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians) are entitled to representation 
 at United Irish League Conventions on the 
 same basis as Branches of that organisation, 
 and in Ulster they always utilise this right." 
 '' We aimed," says The Northern Star of May 
 13th, 1905, '' at making it (Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians) a valuable auxiliary to the United 
 Irish League, and thus it was that we viewed 
 with delight the action of Father Cannon, of 
 Donegal, in getting the Order recognised offici- 
 ally by the Directory of the United Irish 
 League as entitled to representation at Con- 
 ventions for the selection of candidates for 
 Parliamentary representation." This applies 
 only to the Eoard of Erin section; the other 
 rival section, of which we shall hear more 
 presently, entirely ignores the Irish Parliamen- 
 tary Party and United Irish League. 
 
 Mr. William Skelton, President and Provincial 
 Delegate of the Ancient Order of Hibernians for 
 Connaught, declares : 
 
 " The Ancient Order of Hibernians can 
 claim to be the head, shoulders, and body 
 of the United Irish League." ^ 
 
 " It affords me," writes a regular contributor 
 to The Dundalk Democrat, of November 24th, 
 1906, ''great pleasure to know that there is a 
 resolution on the books of the Shercock Division 
 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians refusing 
 admission into that Order of any person, no 
 matter how great he may be otherwise, who is 
 not a qualified member of the United Irish 
 League." The Wallsend-on-Tyne Division of 
 
 ^ Leitrim Observer^ Dec. 22nd, 1906. 
 
174 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians, No. 41, has 
 decided that membership of the United Irish 
 League ''would in future be a qualification 
 for membership in the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians." ^ 
 
 It is said that no fewer than 3,000 members of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians who met at 
 Bell's Hill, Lanarkshire, on the last Sunday in 
 August, 1905, passed a resolution — 
 
 " Eenewing our allegiance to the cause 
 of Ireland a nation, and unswerving con- 
 fidence in Mr. John E^edmond as Chairman 
 of the Irish Party, and we pledge him and 
 the United Irish League the loyal support 
 of every member of our Order." ^ 
 
 The Drumkeeran Division, No. 221, of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, met on June 23rd, 
 1906, when : 
 
 " All members were cautioned not to deal 
 with any person violating the rules of the 
 United Irish League." ^ 
 
 It is certain that there exists no other 
 organisation which answers to Mr. John Red- 
 mond's descrijDtion of the '' Great TInhnown 
 'Power " behind the League, excepting the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, which, it seems, 
 is " waiting for an opportunity which might 
 arise to have recourse, if necessary, to other 
 methods " than those which are " constitutional," 
 "to advance the cause of Ireland." This Order, 
 as well as the United Irish League, will be 
 greatly strengthened in its disloyal work by 
 any increase of political power which may be 
 
 ^ Irhh News, August lltb, 1905. 
 
 ^ Dundalk Democrat, Sept. 2nd, 1905. 
 
 ^ Sligo Champion^ June SOtli, 1906. 
 
SCHISM IN THE A.O.H. 175 
 
 granted to it by thoughtless and reckless 
 legislators. 
 
 The Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ireland 
 was, early in 1904, one united body ; but 
 towards the close of that year a split took place 
 in its ranks which has not yet been healed, 
 though arbitrators have been appointed on both 
 sides to settle differences. The section which 
 withdrew is by far the smaller body of the two, 
 the larger body retaining the title of the Board 
 of Erin Order of Hibernians Priendly Society, 
 while the other is known as the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians Benefit Society. If anything, 
 the latter is more violently anti-British than 
 the former, while both are pledged to labour 
 for the independence of Ireland, free from 
 British rule. In this book we have given only 
 one quotation from the utterances of the smaller 
 body, all the others, relating to work in the 
 United Kingdom, are exclusively from the 
 Board of Erin. It is noteworthy that while 
 many of the American and Irish Roman Catholic 
 prelates have given their blessing to the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians, the Scotch Homan Catholic 
 prelates have placed a ban upon it. A note- 
 worthy statement upon this point appeared in 
 The Northern JFhig of January 14th, 1907, in 
 which we read : 
 
 '' It was reported in Boman Catholic 
 clerical circles in Glasgow yesterday that 
 the ban upon the society known as the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians is to be main- 
 tained, notwithstanding the strenuous 
 efforts of various parties to have it re- 
 moved. This Society is of a friendly 
 character, only registered in recent years 
 under the Eriendly Societies Act, and it 
 is not banned in Ireland or in America. 
 
176 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Among the B^isJi in Glasgow it has about 
 5,000 memhers^ many of them most repre- 
 sentative men, including doctors and 
 lawyers, and indeed right-hand lay workers 
 in the Church. 
 
 '' The Scottish hierarchy, however, has for 
 a very long period insisted that the use of 
 signs and passwords constituted the Society 
 a secret one, and they have always declined 
 to recognise associations of that character. 
 Some time ago a Commission of priests 
 was appointed hy Archbishop Maguire, of 
 Glasgow, to inquire into the status and 
 working of the society, and it is stated 
 that on the strength of the report of this 
 Commission his Grace does not feel it his 
 duty to remove the ban, the effect of which 
 is that members are deprived of all sacra- 
 mental privileges, and practically put in 
 the position of people who are excommu- 
 nicated. The Commission examined a 
 number of leading Hibernians, and the 
 evidence, it is stated, suggested a connection 
 between the Society and the Clan-na-Gael 
 of America and other Fenian physical force 
 organisations, although this was strenuously 
 denied by several of the witnesses. 
 
 ''The decision is likely to be fought by 
 the Order, which has the influence of practi- 
 cally the whole strength of the Irish JPar- 
 liamentary party and of the Irish Bishops 
 and most of the Irish priests, and while it 
 has also in its ranks the officials of the 
 United Irish National [sic'\ League in 
 Glasgow, the membership extends not only 
 throughout all the districts of Glasgow, 
 but throughout all the towns and villages 
 of Lanarkshire, Dumbartonshire, and Een- 
 frewshire." 
 
POPE PHIS X. BLESSES THE A.O.H. 177 
 
 It would be well if the rest of the Roman 
 Catholic Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops 
 were to follow the excellent example of their 
 Scottish brethren. But this is not the case. 
 When the International Convention of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians met at Saratoga 
 Springs, New York, on July 17th, 1906, a letter 
 was read by Monsignor McCready from Arch- 
 bishop Parley, of New York, dated Home, 
 June 20th, 1906, in which occurred the follow- 
 ing statement : 
 
 '^The Holy Pather sends his cordial 
 blessing to those assembled at the opening 
 ceremony — the High Mass. You will 
 please, therefore, give the Pontifical bene- 
 diction on that occasion." ^ 
 
 On July 20th the Convention received the 
 following telegram from Cardinal Merry Del 
 Val, Papal Secretary of State, addressed to 
 '' Mr. Dolan, President of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians, Saratoga, N.Y. — Holy Patlier 
 sends his blessing and thanks for sentiments 
 of love and devotion expressed to him."" 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons, writing to the National 
 President of the Order, in July, 1906, remarks : 
 
 '' I avail myself of this occasion by 
 expressing my hearty appreciation of the 
 great work that has already been accom- 
 plished by your Order in the cause of 
 religion, benevolence, and patriotism, and 
 it is my conviction that your noble Organi- 
 sation will be as conspicuous in the future 
 as it has been in the past in the cause of 
 God and countrv." ^ 
 
 ^ National Hibernian^ August, 1906. 
 
 2 Ihid. 
 ' Ibid. 
 
 12 
 
178 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 Cardinal Logue is also claimed by the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians in Ireland as being in its 
 favour. At a meeting of the Order at Ardglass, 
 on March 17th, 1905, the following resolution 
 was i3assed : 
 
 "That we congratulate the members of 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians on having 
 received from his Eminence Cardinal Logue, 
 the most Eev. Dr. Henry, and the most 
 Hev. Dr. Clancy, their kind support, and 
 that amount of recognition that is never 
 given to any organisation that is not a 
 strictly Church organisation." ^ 
 
 At a meeting of the Order in Glasgow, in 
 May, 1905, Mr. Owen Kiernan, National Dele- 
 gate of the Board of Erin, said : 
 
 " They were also aware that from the 
 great and eminent High Cardinal Priest 
 (Logue) and Metropolitan of all Ireland, 
 who sat in the ancient and historic Chair of 
 St. Malachy, in the regal city of Armagh, 
 down to the youngest and humblest Curate 
 in Ireland, all were in favour of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians, as it is presently 
 constituted." ^ 
 
 Cardinal Moran is Grand Chaplain of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians in Australia.^ 
 
 Archbishop Parley, of New York, was National 
 Grand Chaplain of the Order in the United 
 States until July, 1906. He has not withdrawn 
 his approval, though no longer Chaplain.^ 
 
 ^ Irish News, March 18th, 1905. 
 
 2 Ibid., May 3rd, 1905. 
 
 3 Northern Star, August 12th, 1905. 
 " National Hibernian, August, 1906. 
 
EPISCOPAL PRAISE OE THE A.O.H. 179 
 
 The late Eoman Catholic Archbishop of 
 Chicago (Dr. Feehan) said : 
 
 "Cut off the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians ! If you do, you cut off your right 
 hand."^ 
 
 The Eev. Eather M'Kinley, National Chaplain 
 of the Board of Erin in Ireland, said at a 
 meeting of the Order in July, 1906 : 
 
 ''The Archbishop of Chicago has truly 
 said that the Hi'oernians of America are 
 the bulwark of the Catholic Church." ^ 
 
 The Coadjutor Archbishop of Boston, Dr. 
 O'Connell, writing on August 20th, 1906, to the 
 President of the Order, in reply to an invitation 
 to attend its International Convention, said : 
 
 '' Nothing short of most urgent duties 
 elsewhere could deprive me of the pleasure 
 of meeting the assembled Hibernians in 
 Convention, and of addressing them. I still 
 look forward to such an opportunity later. 
 
 J5 3 
 
 The Archbishop of Philadelphia (Dr. Eyan), 
 speaking for the American Boman Catholic 
 hierarchy, has termed the Order '' a most 
 desirable Society." ^ 
 
 The Bishop of Syracuse, United States (Dr. 
 Ludden), was named as one of ilie State Chaplains 
 of the Order in September, 1906.' 
 
 The Bishop of Winona, United States (Dr. 
 Cotter), addressed the Minnesota State Con- 
 
 ^ Dundalk Democrat, July 12th, 1906. 
 
 2 Irish News, July 3rd, 1906. 
 
 ^ National Hihernian, September, 1906. 
 
 ■* Histoin/ of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, p. 148. 
 
 ^ National Hihernian, October, 1906. 
 
180 THE UNKNOWN POWEB 
 
 vention of the Order in September, 1906. He 
 said : 
 
 " He felt that the Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians was as faithful to-day to its 
 principles of defending and protecting 
 Catholicity as it was many centuries ago." ^ 
 
 There are Roman Catholic Bishops in England 
 who favour the Order. At a meeting of the 
 Order at Eallycastle, in January, 1907, Eather 
 M'Kinley, National Chaplain, boasted : 
 
 ^' In the English dioceses ecclesiastical 
 authorities welcome and encourage the 
 Order, recognising in it a potent factor for 
 the promotion of every good. Two of our 
 warmest friends in the three Kingdoms are 
 Dr. Whiteside, Bishop of Liverpool, and 
 Dr. Casartelli, Bishop of Salford."^ 
 
 The Roman Catholic Bishop of Elphin (Dr. 
 Clancy) gives to the Order a qualified approba- 
 tion. He wrote on March 29th, 1906 : 
 
 " As yet I see nothing in the Order, as 
 it exists here, to merit condemnation ; but 
 in other parts of Ireland its members do 
 things which cannot win approval, and 
 example is contagious." ^ 
 
 The Roman Catholic Bishop of Raphoe 
 (Dr. O'Donnell) is also mentioned as a warm 
 friend of the Order. At a meeting of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians at Ballybofey, in 
 August, 1905, Canon M'Eadden, P.P., said : 
 
 '' They could not fail to recognise that 
 their thanks were due to the great Bishop 
 
 ^ National Hihernian, October, 1906. 
 
 ^ Irish News, Jan. 8th, 1907. 
 
 ^ Sliqo Champion, April 7th, 1906. 
 
WHERE THE OEDER EXISTS 181 
 
 of Eaphoe, Most Rev. Dr. O'Donnell, for 
 the way he advocated the claims of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians." ^ 
 
 The Order exists not only in England, Ireland, 
 Scotland, the United States, and Canada,- but 
 has Branches also in Australia,^ New Zealand,^ 
 Tasmania,^ South Africa,^ South America,' 
 Mexico,^ Honolulu,'^ and even in the Philip- 
 pines/^ Its magnitude and evil history may 
 well secure for it the watchful attention of the 
 British Government. It certainly cannot be 
 trusted, and as it is now growing larger every 
 year at a very rapid rate, it may at any moment 
 be productive of very serious evils at home and 
 in our colonies and dependencies, as well as in 
 the United States. It is far more dangerous to 
 the peace of Ireland than the United Irish 
 League and the Nationalist Parliamentary Party 
 combined. It is the ^' Power behind the 
 Throne." In these pages it has been drawn 
 into the light of publicity for the first time. 
 The difficulty of getting reliable information 
 has been great, for no consecutive history of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians has ever been 
 issued by its friends in this country. McGrath's 
 History of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an 
 American book, which we have frequently 
 quoted, contains but a very limited amount of 
 information. It is stated that a full history has 
 been placed by the Order in competent hands, 
 
 ^ Donegal Independe.nt, August IStli 1905. 
 
 ^ National Hibernian, Dec. 15tli, 1906. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
 ' Northern Star, Sept. 2nd, 1905. 
 
 ^ Dnndalk Democrat, July 28th, 1906. 
 
 ^ Irish News, June 5tli, 1906. 
 
 ^ National Hibernian, August 15th, 1906. 
 
 s Ibid. 
 
 ^ National Hibernian, Dec. 15th, 1906. 
 
 ^^ National Hibernian^ August 15th, 1906 
 
182 THE UNKNOWN POWER 
 
 but when it is likely to appear, or by whom it 
 will be written, is not yet known to the public. 
 Whenever it aj)pears it should be an interesting 
 work, though probably a great deal of reserve 
 in communicating knowledge will be practised 
 by its author. It would never do to tell too 
 much, or to reveal too many, of the secrets of 
 this secret society. It will be observed that in 
 what we have written we have quoted mainly 
 from authorities favourable to the Nationalist 
 cause, and as a rule we have allowed the 
 authorities and members of the Ancient Order 
 of Hibernians to speak for themselves. There 
 will be no peace in Ireland until the Order is 
 dead and buried. 
 
INDEX 
 
 " A force hidden and un- 
 known," 171 
 " A gang of wretches spirited 
 
 up by hell," 39 
 " A hideous organisation of 
 outrage and murder," 
 106 
 " A midnight, dark-lantern, 
 and murderous-minded 
 fraternity," 116 
 American Ancient Order of 
 Hibernians, The, new 
 rules and constitution of, 
 138 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 The, founded by Eory 
 Oge O'More, 20 
 various aliases of, 20-22. 
 
 34, 35, 47-9, 74 
 early history of, 22-33 
 its members must be Eo- 
 man Catholics and of 
 Irish birth or descent, 10, 
 11 
 religious basis of, vii 
 no one connected with the 
 English Government ad- 
 mitted into, 166 
 motto of, 2 
 is a benefit society, 2 
 ceremony of admission into, 
 
 118-21 
 terrible oaths of, 3 
 oath of a member of, 120 
 is a secret organisation, 
 14-20, 123, 139-41, 166, 
 171 
 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 The, is governed by "un- 
 written law," 125 
 
 passwords, grips, and signs 
 of, 14, 17 
 
 the members of, not to be 
 known to outsiders, 17 
 
 difficulty in obtaining the 
 rules of, 17 
 
 the " Goods " of, 18, 19 
 
 a great political society, 4 
 
 formed to drive the British 
 Government out of Ire- 
 land, 4 
 
 is the leading Nationalist 
 organisation in Ireland, 
 4, 165 
 
 address from the National 
 Trustees of, 4 
 
 pledged to support the Irish 
 Nationalist Parliamen- 
 tary Party, 7 
 
 Ladies' Auxiliarv of, 13, 14, 
 140 
 
 and newspaper reports, 16, 
 17 
 
 the " Great Unknown 
 Power" is, vii, 1-21, 
 171, 174 
 
 Pope Pius X. said to be the 
 most powerful friend of, 
 12 
 
 blessed by Pope Pius X., 
 \dii, 13, 177 
 
 is a " bulwark of the 
 Catholic Church," 179 
 
 is a Eibbon organisation, 109 
 
 183 
 
184 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 The, its membership in 
 the United States, 2 
 
 its membership in Ireland, 
 England, and Scotland, 2 
 
 its membership in Canada, 
 157 
 
 the United Irish League 
 and, 8, 170-74 
 
 the " head, shoulders, and 
 body" of the United 
 Irish League is, 173 
 
 the Clan-na-Gael and, 141, 
 153-7, 176 
 
 is a " force, hidden and 
 unknown," 171 
 
 the Irish Roman Catholic 
 Episcopate recognise, 13 
 
 the Scottish Roman Catho- 
 lic Bishops place a ban 
 on, 175-6 
 
 and O'Donovan Rossa, 159, 
 160 
 
 influence of, on the Fenian 
 Brotherhood, 162, 163 
 
 Mr. Michael Davitt on the 
 political work of, 163 
 
 hatred of England by, 165, 
 167-9 
 
 has never publicly censured 
 the murders committed 
 by the Molly Maguires, 
 130 
 
 said to have paid assassins 
 to murder detectives, 128 
 
 the Molly Maguires part 
 and parcel of, 129 
 
 alliance of the German- 
 American Alliance with, 
 146, 147 
 
 military work of, 148-50 
 
 Irish independence the ulti- 
 mate goal of, 150-52 
 
 refuses England either 
 loyalty or respect, 168 
 
 present-day work of, 133- 
 41, 158-69 
 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 The, " from root to 
 branch rotten and cor- 
 rupt," 129 
 seven priests condemn, 131, 
 
 132 
 no faith to be placed in the 
 promises or denials of, 132 
 in Austraha, 136-8 
 
 Archbishop Butler terms the 
 Whiteboys a " gang of 
 wretches," and "vic- 
 tims of the devil," 39 
 
 Archbishop Farley, Grand 
 Chaplain of American 
 A.O.H., 178 
 
 Archbishop of Boston, Co- 
 adjutor, The, letter of, to 
 A.O.H., 179 
 
 Archbishop of Chicago, The, 
 says the American A.O.H. 
 is a " bulwark of the 
 CathoKc Church," 179 
 
 Archbishop of Philadelphia, 
 The, terms the A.O.H. 
 " a most desirable so- 
 ciety," 179 
 
 Ardglass, A.O.H. meeting at, 
 12 
 
 Ardpatrick, Roman Catholic 
 Synod at, condemns the 
 Tories, 32 
 
 Australia, The A.O.H. in, 12 
 
 Australian A.O.H., The, 136- 
 38 ; guarantees £1,000 to 
 the Irish Election Fund, 
 6, 137 
 agreement of, with the 
 Irish A.O.H., 137, 138 
 
 Beagham, James, his warning 
 
 to Protestants, 67 
 Bishop Doyle denounces the 
 
 Ribbonmen, 72, 73 
 denounces the Whitefeet 
 
 combination as a " tissue 
 
 of iniquity," 91, 92 
 
INDEX 
 
 185 
 
 Bishop Troy asserts that 
 Whiteboys are " rotten 
 members of our Holy 
 Church," 41 
 
 Bishop of Down and Connor, 
 The (Dr. Henry), recog- 
 nises and supports the 
 A.O.H., 12 
 
 Bishop of Elphin, The. praises 
 the A.O.H., 3 
 recognises and supports the 
 
 A.O.H., 12 
 gives quahfied praise to the 
 A.O.H., 180 
 
 Bishop of Liverpool, The 
 (Dr. Whiteside), said to 
 be one of the warmest 
 friends of the A.O.H., 
 180 
 
 Bishop of Raphoe, The, a 
 tower of strens^th to the 
 A.O.H., 12 
 advocates the claims of the 
 A.O.H., 181 
 
 Bishop of Salford, The, ap- 
 proves of the Rules of the 
 A.O.H. in Manchester, 
 10 
 said to be one of the 
 warmest friends of the 
 A.O.H., 180 
 
 Bishop of Syracuse, The, is 
 a State Chaplain of the 
 A.O.H., 179 
 
 Bishop of Trenton, arbitrator 
 for American A.O.H., 
 136, 138 
 sanctions new rules and 
 constitution for Ameri- 
 can A.O.H., 138 
 
 Bishop of Winona, The, 
 praises the A.O.H., 179, 
 180 
 
 Board of Erin, 110, 123-4, 
 134-7, 173 
 
 Brown, Major George, on 
 Whitefeet's Oaths', 83 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons terms the 
 A.O.H. a " noble organ- 
 isation," 177 
 
 Cardinal Logue recognises and 
 supports the A.O.H., 12, 
 178 
 
 Cardinal Moran, Grand Chap- 
 lain of the Australian 
 A.O.H., 12, 178 
 Mr. Joseph DevKn's inter- 
 views with, 138 
 
 Castleblayney, meeting of the 
 A.O.H. at, 20 
 
 Clan-na-Gael, The, vii, 176 
 the A.O.H. and, 141, 153-7 
 secret plot of, to capture 
 the A.O.H., 155-7 
 
 Cummings, Mr. Matthew, Pre- 
 sident of the A.O.H. in 
 the United States, 34 
 
 Dalrymple, on the outrages 
 
 of the Rapparees, 30 
 Davitt, Mr. Michael, vi, 1 
 on the Whiteboys, 45, 46 
 on the military work of the 
 
 A.O.H., 148, 149 
 on the political work of the 
 
 A.O.H., 163 
 Ribbon oath identified by, 
 
 100 
 Defenders, The, 47-69 
 
 had their origin in the 
 
 Whiteboy organisation, 
 
 47-9 
 secrecv of, 49 
 Oath of, 49, 57 
 rules of, 50, 51 
 indulged in all sorts of 
 
 crimes, 52 
 report of the Select Com- 
 mittee on, 53 
 outrages and murders by, 
 
 51-4, 56-65 
 disloyalty of, 55-7 
 Mr. T. A. Emmet describes, 
 
 55 
 
186 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Defenders, The, Mr. Wolfe 
 
 Tone on, 56, 57 
 fiendish cruelties of, 57-9 
 outrages by, in the year 
 
 1793, 60-6 
 join the United Irishmen, 
 
 66-9 
 "Deluded victims of the 
 
 devil," 39 
 Despard, Mr. W. Wellesley, 
 
 on the Whitef eet's Oaths, 
 
 79,80 
 Devlin, Mr. Joseph, M.P., is 
 
 President of the A.O.H 
 
 in Ireland, 5 
 on the political work of 
 
 the A.O.H., 6 
 interviews of with Cardinal 
 
 Moran, 137, 138 
 Dewees, Mr. F. P. on the 
 
 "hellish acts" of the 
 
 Molly Maguires, 130 
 Dillon, Mr. John, on the 
 
 Whitefeet Oath, 82 
 Doyle, Bishop. See " Bishop 
 
 Doyle " 
 Drummullan, meeting of the 
 
 A.O.H. at, 20 
 
 Emmet, Mr. T. A. on the 
 Defenders, 55 
 
 England and America, opposi- 
 tion to an alliance be- 
 tween, 142-7 
 
 Fenian Brotherhood, The, 
 influence of the Eibbon 
 Society on, 21, 162 
 and the A.O.H., 162, 
 163 
 
 Froude, Mr. J. A., on the 
 atrocious crimes of the 
 Eapparees, 31 
 
 German-American Alliance, 
 The, alliance between 
 A.O.H. and, 146, 147 
 
 Gordon, Kev. James, de- 
 scribes the outrages of 
 the Rapparees, 29 
 On the cruelties of the 
 Whiteboys, 37 
 
 Gowen, Mr. F. B., description 
 of the murderous work 
 of the Molly Maguires by, 
 114-17 
 indictment of the A.O.H. 
 by, 129 
 
 " Great pleasure," The, of a 
 Molly Maguire on hearing 
 the " squeal " of a dying 
 man, 123 
 
 Great Unknown Power, The, 
 vi, vii, ix 
 its aims and objects, 1-21, 
 171, 174 
 
 Greene, Mr. Joseph, on the 
 Oaths of the Whitefeet, 
 75 
 
 Grievances from Ireland, v, 
 171 
 
 Heckethorn, Mr. Charles W., 
 
 on the terrible Oaths of 
 
 the A.O.H., 3 
 Hibernians, The duty of all, 
 
 to be members of the 
 
 U.I.L., 8 
 to aid in the destruction of 
 
 Alien Rule in Ireland, 8 
 are prepared to take up the 
 
 sword, 9 
 
 " Indulged in all sorts of 
 
 crimes," 52 
 Irish Nationalist Party, The, 
 
 ruled by a secret Ribbon 
 
 Lodge, 172 
 Irish Republic, advocated by 
 
 American A.O.H., 151, 
 
 152 
 Irish Roman CathoHc Episco- 
 pate, said to recognise 
 
 the A.O.H., 13 
 
INDEX 
 
 187 
 
 Jolmson, Colonel Ralph, on 
 Whitefeet Outrages in 
 Queen's County, 86-91 
 
 Julian, Mr. John, produces a 
 copy of the Eibbon Oath, 
 99 
 
 Kiernan, Mr. Owen, on the 
 duty of members of the 
 A.O.H., 8 
 
 Killen, Rev. Dr., on the Irish 
 Tories, 27 
 
 Ladies' Auxiliary of the 
 
 A.O.H., 13, U, 140 
 Landlords and Ribbonmen, 
 
 104, 105 
 Lecky, Mr. W. E., on the 
 Whiteboys, 35 
 on the Defenders, 54, 55 
 Loop, A.O.H. meeting at, 
 13 
 
 Madden, on the Union of the 
 
 Defenders with the 
 
 United Irishmen, 67 
 " Make every nation hate 
 
 England,'' 165 
 " Make war like the savage of 
 
 the desert," 91 
 Manchester, rules of Division 
 
 No. 188 in, 10, 11 
 approved by the Roman 
 
 Catholic Bishop of Sal- 
 ford, 10 
 McCreedy, Monsignor, 13, 155, 
 
 156, 177 
 MacFadden, Canon, on the 
 
 aims of the A.O.H., 7 
 on the passwords, grips, and 
 
 signs of the A.O.H., 
 
 14 
 on the secrecy of the 
 
 A.O.H., 139 
 McKenna, James, an alias for 
 
 McParlan, the detective, 
 
 118 
 
 M'Kinley, Rev. Father, on 
 the noble heritage of the 
 A.O.H., 3 
 
 on the relations of the 
 U.I.L. mth the A.O.H., 5 
 
 says the A.O.H. has 
 " always been right," 6 
 
 on the relationship of the 
 Irish Roman Catholic 
 Episcopate to the A.O.H., 
 12 
 McParlan, Mr. James, his 
 detective work amongst 
 the Molly Maguires, 117- 
 25 
 
 assumes the name of James 
 McKenna, 118 
 
 his adventures amongst the 
 Molly Maguires, 118-122 
 
 initiation into the A.O.H., 
 118-21 
 
 priests inform the Molly 
 
 Maguires that he is a 
 
 detective, 121, 122 
 
 " Midnight prowders and 
 
 cowardly assassins," 117 
 
 Molly Maguires, The, viii 
 
 the " helhsh acts '^ of, 130 
 
 murders by in 1877 and 
 1878, 126, 127 
 
 the fearful Oath of, 127 
 
 over 150 murders in three 
 years by, 128 
 
 the " great pleasure " of, 
 when hearing the 
 " squeal " of a dyino: 
 man, 123 
 
 said to be "a midnight, 
 dark-lantern, and mur- 
 derous-minded frater- 
 nity," 116 
 
 described as " midnight 
 prowlers and cowardly 
 assassins," 117 
 
 70 members of, arrested, 125 
 
 32 members of, convicted 
 of murder, 125 
 
188 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Molly Maguires, The, a mur- 
 der society, 109-30 
 
 list of murders alleged 
 against the, 111-14 
 
 is a secret body, 114 
 
 Mr. Gowen's description of 
 the murderous work of, 
 114-17 
 
 pray for the blessing of God, 
 when about to plan a 
 murder, 119 
 
 they honour executed mur- 
 derers as "heroes, pa- 
 triots, and martyrs," 126 
 Musgrave, Sir Richard, de- 
 scribes the outrages by 
 the Defenders in 1793, 
 59-65 
 
 on Father Roche's treacher- 
 ous conduct, 68 
 
 National Organisation, The, 
 the A.O.H. the most 
 valuable force behind, 8 
 
 *' Never pity the moans and 
 groans of the dying," 77 
 
 " No sin to kill a Protestant," 
 99 
 
 Nugent, Mr. James, praise of 
 O'DonovanRossa by, 159, 
 160 
 
 Nugent, Mr. John D., on 
 A.O.H. hatred of Eng- 
 land, 165 
 
 Oath of a member of the 
 
 A.O.H., 120 
 Oath of the Defenders, 49, 57 
 Oath of the Wexford rebels, 
 
 68 
 Oath of the Whiteboys, 36 
 Oath to exterminate all here- 
 tics, 79, 81, 82 
 Oaths of the A.O.H., 3 
 Oaths of the Ribbonmen, 95- 
 
 100 
 Oaths of the Whitefeet, 74-83 
 
 " O'Brien, Mr. Wilham, M.P., 
 on the secret Ribbon 
 Lodge that rules the 
 Irish Nationalist Party, 
 172 
 
 O'DonovanRossa, The A.O.H. 
 and, 159, 160 
 
 O'Leary, Mr. John, on the 
 A.O.H., 109 
 
 O'More. See " Rory Oge 
 O'More " 
 
 O'More, Owny, successor to 
 Rory Oge O'More, 26, 
 27 
 horrible cruelties by the 
 followers of, 26 
 
 O'Reilly, Major J., produces 
 an Oath of the White- 
 feet, 77 
 
 *' Orangemen's Blood," wade 
 knee-deep in, 76, 77, 79, 
 100 
 
 Orrery, Earl of, The, Tory 
 outrages described by, 28 
 
 Passwords, grips, and signs 
 of the A.O.H., 14, 18, 19, 
 123, 124, 139 
 
 Pinkerton, Mr. Allan, 114 
 determines to unearth the 
 
 Molly Maguires, 117 
 employs McParlan as a 
 detective, 117 
 
 Plowden, Mr. Francis, on the 
 crimes of the Defenders, 
 51, 52 
 
 Plunket, Archbishop, Irish 
 Tories attempt to assas- 
 sinate, 32 
 
 Plunkett, Mr. Christopher, 
 asserts that the Ribbon 
 Society desires the exter- 
 mination of Protestants, 
 94 
 
 Pope Pius X. said to be the 
 most powerful friend of 
 the A.O.H., 12 
 
INDEX 
 
 189 
 
 Pope Pins X. sends his bless- 
 ing to American Con- 
 vention of the A.O.H., 
 13, 177 
 Prayer for God's blessing 
 when plotting a murder, 
 119 
 Priests inform the Molly 
 Maguires that McParlan 
 is a detective, 121, 122 
 Priests, seven, censure the 
 
 A.O.H., 131, 132 
 " Protestant blood," " wade 
 
 knee-deep in," 83 
 Protestant, Hugh Sparks mur- 
 dered because he was a, 
 85 
 
 clergymen, terrorised by 
 the Whiteboys, 42-5 
 Protestants, the Eibbon So- 
 ciety desires the exter- 
 mination of, 94, 100 
 
 James Beagham's warning 
 to, 67 
 
 615, murdered in Wexford 
 and Wicklow, 69 
 
 Ribbonmen attack, 72 
 
 Oath to put an end to all, 81 
 
 Whitefeet show great hos- 
 tihty to, 83 
 
 Whitefeet swear to wade 
 knee-deep in the blood 
 of, 83 
 
 outra2;es by Whitefeet on, 
 83-5 
 
 Queen's County, Whitefeet 
 outrages in, 86-91 
 
 Rapparees, The, atrocious 
 
 crimes by, 29-31 
 the Whiteboys were the 
 
 legitimate offspring of, 
 
 35 
 Redmond, Mr. John E., M.P., 
 
 on " The Great Unknown 
 
 Power," vi, vii, 171 
 
 Ribbon Lodge, a secret, said 
 to rule the Irish Nationa- 
 list Party, 172 
 Ribbonmen, The, 70-108 
 
 Mr. Thomas Wyse on, 71 
 
 Bishop Doyle denounces, 
 72, 73 
 
 Protestants attacked by, 72 
 
 Oaths of, 95-100 
 
 passwords and signs of, 
 and murders by, 101-6 
 
 landlords and, 104, 105 
 Ribbon Society, The, the 
 Whitefeet a branch of, 74 
 
 the most powerful secret 
 Irish Society, 21 
 
 influence of, on the Fenian 
 Brotherhood, 21 
 
 described as a " grand and 
 noble Society," 93, 108 
 
 the extermination of Pro- 
 testants, an object of. 
 94-100 
 
 a description of, 101-105 
 
 ^aid to be "a hideous 
 organisation of outrage 
 and murder," 106 
 
 Report of a Select Com- 
 mittee on, 106, 107 
 Roche, Father, treacherous 
 
 conduct of, 68 
 Roman Catholic, every mem- 
 ber of the A.O.H. must 
 be a, 10, 138 
 
 and must attend to his reli- 
 gious duties, 11, 138, 139 
 Rory Oge O'More, founder of 
 the A.O.H., 20 
 
 the lawless head of brigands 
 and guerillas, 23 
 
 breaks his pledged word, 23 
 
 head of plunderers and 
 insurgents, 24 
 
 abominable cruelty to a 
 prisoner by, 25 
 
 praised by modern Hiber- 
 nians, 25 
 
190 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Eory Oge O'More, the spirit 
 of, stilllivesin the A.O.H., 
 158, 161, 162 
 
 " Eotten members of our 
 Holy Church," 41 
 
 Saratoga, A.O.H., Interna- 
 tional Convention at, 13 
 
 Secret Societies and the 
 A.O.H., 15, 139 
 
 Secret Societies of all Ages, The, 
 quoted, 3 
 
 Secret work of the A.O.H., 
 14-20, 123, 139-41, 166 
 
 Secrecy of the Defenders, 49 
 
 Secrecy of the Molly Maguires, 
 114 
 
 Secrecy of the Ribbon Society, 
 21 
 
 Seed, Mr. Stephen, thinks 
 Ribbonmen desire the 
 extermination of Pro- 
 testants, 95 
 produces a copy of the 
 
 Ribbon Oath, 95-8 
 the Ribbon Society de- 
 scribed by, 101-5 
 
 Singleton, Mr. Matthew, on 
 the Whitefeet Oath, 82, 
 83 
 
 SulUvan, Mr. Alexander M., 
 terms the Ribbon Society 
 " a hideous organisation 
 of outrage and murder," 
 105, 106 
 
 " The head, shoulders, and 
 body of the United Irish 
 League," 173 
 
 " These hellish acts," 130 
 
 " This grand and noble 
 Society," 93 
 
 Tone, Mr. Wolfe, on the De- 
 fenders, 56, 57 
 
 Tories, the Irish, 23-32 
 were a criminal body, 27 
 described by Dr. Killen, 27 
 
 Tories, The Irish, murders 
 committed by, 28 
 
 outrages in Munster by, 28 
 
 proclamation by the Govern- 
 ment against, 29 
 
 condemned by Roman Ca- 
 tholic Bishops, 31 
 
 condemned by a Roman 
 Catholic Synod as lawless 
 bandits, 32 
 
 attempt to assassinate 
 Archbishop Plunket by, 
 32 
 Trench, Mr. W. Steuart, on 
 Landlords and Ribbon- 
 men, 104, 105 
 Troy, Bishop. See *' Bishop 
 Troy" 
 
 United Irish League, The, and 
 
 the A.O.H., 5-9, 170-74 
 
 the Secretary of, is President 
 
 of the A.O.H., 5 
 the A.O.H. pledged to 
 
 support, 7 
 has the same aims as the 
 
 A.O.H., 8 
 the duty of all Hibernians 
 
 to be members of, 8 
 the A.O.H. is "the head, 
 shoulders, and body " of, 
 173 
 United Irishmen, The, joined 
 
 by the Defenders, 66-9 
 Unwritten law, The, of the 
 Ancient Order of Hiber- 
 nians, 125 
 
 Verner, Lieut.-Colonel, des- 
 cribes the fiendish cruel- 
 ties of the Defenders, 
 57-9 
 on the Oath of the White- 
 feet, 78 
 
 " Wade knee-deep in Orange- 
 men's blood," 76, 77, 79, 
 100 
 
INDEX 
 
 191 
 
 "' Wade knee-deep in Pro- 
 testant blood," 83 
 ' We owe England neither 
 loyalty nor respect," 168 
 W^exford, Rapparee atrocities 
 in, 31 
 
 538 Protestants murdered 
 in, 69 
 
 Rebellion in, 67-9 
 
 fearful Oath taken by rebels 
 in, 68 
 Whiteboys, The, 34-46 
 
 the legitimate offspring of 
 the Rapparees, 35 
 
 John Mitchell on, 35 
 
 Lecky describes, 35, 37 
 
 the Oath of, 36 
 
 horrible cruelties of, 37, 38 
 
 Archbishop James Butler 
 terms them " a gang of 
 wretches " and " victims 
 of the devil," 39 
 
 termed by Bishop Troy 
 "rotten members of our 
 Holy Church," 41 
 
 Whiteboys, The, Protestant 
 clergymen terrorised bv, 
 42-5 
 Michael Davitt on, 45, 46 
 
 Whitefeet, The, a branch of 
 the Ribbon Society, 74 
 oaths of, 74-83 
 wish to expel the Protest- 
 ants, 83, 84 
 great hostihty to the Pro- 
 testants by, 83 
 outrages in Queen's County 
 by, 86-91 
 
 " Will not pity the moans or 
 groans of infancy or old 
 age," 79 
 
 Woodward, Bishop, says Pro- 
 testant clergymen were 
 terrorised by the White- 
 boys, 42-5 
 
 Wray, Mr. Hugh Boyd, on 
 the Oaths of the White - 
 feet, 76 
 
 Wyse, Mr. Thomas, on the 
 Ribbonmen, 71 
 
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