Murder in Phoenix Park
After numerous failures to target Forster, the group settled on a plan to kill the Permanent Under Secretary at the Irish Office Thomas Henry Burke. It was the freshly installed Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish's misfortune that he, on the very day of his arrival to Ireland, was walking with Burke when the assassins struck, in Phoenix Park, in Dublin, at 17:30 Saturday, 6 May 1882, in what was to become known as the Phoenix Park Murders.
The first assassination in the park was committed by Joe Brady who knifed Burke, followed in short order by Tim Kelly, who knifed Lord Frederick. Both men used surgical knives. The British press expressed the outrage felt by many and demanded that the "Phoenix Park Murderers" be brought to justice.
A large number of suspects were arrested. By playing off one suspect against another, Superintendent Mallon of "G" Division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police got several of them to reveal what they knew. The Invincibles' leader, James Carey, and Michael Kavanagh agreed to testify against the others. Joe Brady, Michael Fagan, Thomas Caffrey, Dan Curley and Tim Kelly were hanged by William Marwood in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin between 14 May and 4 June 1883. Others were sentenced to serve long prison terms.
No member of the founding executive, however, was ever brought to trial by the British government. John Walsh, Patrick Egan, John Sheridan, Frank Byrne, and Patrick Tynan were welcomed in America, where sentiment toward the murders was less severe, although not celebratory.
Read more about this topic: Irish National Invincibles
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