The Catalpa Escape Podcast Series - Episode 1

Episode 1 sets the scene for the 1876 Catalpa Escape of ‘military’ Fenians from Fremantle, Western Australia.

The failed Fenian Rising of 1867 in Ireland, in which many Irish rose up against British Rule in the years after the Great Famine, saw many Fenians charged and imprisoned in Britain. They included ‘military’ Fenians, those who had serving in the British armed forces at material times.

Some, like Fenian leaders John Devoy and O’Donovan Rossa, later found their way to the USA.

But others, like those transported to Fremantle as convicts, were not so lucky.

Some of the Fremantle Fenians story is told in our 2018 series of articles celebrating the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Hougoumont in Fremantle on 10 January 1868. It was the last vessel to transport convicts to Australia and carried a number of Fenians, including ‘military’ Fenians.

Ultimately, the ‘military’ Fenians brazenly escaped custody in Fremantle. It’s quite a story, one we tell in this podcast series.

There was a warm up act for the Catalpa Escape, however: the 1869 escape of another Fenian, John Boyle O’Reilly, on the Gazelle – a New Bedford USA whaler – from Bunbury, south of Fremantle.

In 1869 and 1871, pardons had been issued to many of the imprisoned Fenians. But not to the ‘military’ Fenians who remained in Western Australia’s penal system. However, they were never forgotten by their companions.

Many schemes were hatched, in Ireland, in Australia and in the USA, to free them. Money was collected and various plans were made, although the Fremantle Fenians were unaware of this.

In 1873 and again in 1874, James Wilson, one of the Fremantle ‘military’ Fenians, wrote a smuggled letter to John Devoy in New York, declaring that they were in a living tomb and begging him to help release them.

In Episode 1 of the Catalpa Escape Podcasts, Margo O’Byrne relates events leading up to Wilson sending his letter to Devoy, thereby setting the scene for what follows.

By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping News

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