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The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England
A brilliant work of historical true crime charting a pivotal event in the l9th century, the Phoenix Park murders in Dublin, that gripped the world and forever altered the course of Irish history, from renowned journalist, former New Yorker London editor, and Costa Biography Award finalist Julie Kavanagh.
One sunlit evening, May 6 l882, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary and Undersecretary for Ireland, were ambushed and stabbed to death while strolling through Phoenix Park in Dublin. The murders were funded by American supporters of Irish independence and carried out by the Invincibles, a militant faction of republicans armed with specially-made surgeon's blades. They ended what should have been a turning point in Anglo Irish relations. A new spirit of goodwill had been burgeoning between British Prime Minister William Gladstone and Ireland's leader Charles Stewart Parnell, with both men forging in secret a pact to achieve peace and independence in Ireland--with the newly appointed Cavendish, Gladstone's protégé, to play an instrumental role in helping to do so. The impact of the Phoenix Park murders was so cataclysmic that it destroyed the pact, almost brought down the government, and set in motion repercussions that would last long into the 20th century.
In a story that spans Donegal, Dublin, London, Paris, New York, Cannes and Cape Town, Julie Kavanagh thrillingly traces the crucial events that came before and after the murders. From the adulterous affair that caused Parnell's downfall; to Queen Victoria's prurient obsession with the assassinations; and the investigation spearheaded by Superintendent John Mallon, also known as the "Irish Sherlock Holmes," culminating in the eventual betrayal and clandestine escape of leading Invincible James Carey and his murder on the high seas, The Irish Assassins brings us intimately into this fascinating story that shaped Irish politics and engulfed an Empire. This is an unputdownable book from one of our most "compulsively readable" (Guardian) writers.
One sunlit evening, May 6 l882, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary and Undersecretary for Ireland, were ambushed and stabbed to death while strolling through Phoenix Park in Dublin. The murders were funded by American supporters of Irish independence and carried out by the Invincibles, a militant faction of republicans armed with specially-made surgeon's blades. They ended what should have been a turning point in Anglo Irish relations. A new spirit of goodwill had been burgeoning between British Prime Minister William Gladstone and Ireland's leader Charles Stewart Parnell, with both men forging in secret a pact to achieve peace and independence in Ireland--with the newly appointed Cavendish, Gladstone's protégé, to play an instrumental role in helping to do so. The impact of the Phoenix Park murders was so cataclysmic that it destroyed the pact, almost brought down the government, and set in motion repercussions that would last long into the 20th century.
In a story that spans Donegal, Dublin, London, Paris, New York, Cannes and Cape Town, Julie Kavanagh thrillingly traces the crucial events that came before and after the murders. From the adulterous affair that caused Parnell's downfall; to Queen Victoria's prurient obsession with the assassinations; and the investigation spearheaded by Superintendent John Mallon, also known as the "Irish Sherlock Holmes," culminating in the eventual betrayal and clandestine escape of leading Invincible James Carey and his murder on the high seas, The Irish Assassins brings us intimately into this fascinating story that shaped Irish politics and engulfed an Empire. This is an unputdownable book from one of our most "compulsively readable" (Guardian) writers.
493 pages, Hardcover
First published August 3, 2021
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March 19, 2021
I recommend that you start this interesting book by reading the author's note at the end. It begins on page 357 (Kindle location 4799) of the free electronic advance review copy that Grove Atlantic Press and Netgalley generously provided me.
This advice doesn't apply to everybody, only to readers like me. I am a non-historian history nerd and an American of Irish heritage but, somehow, this whole sad and murderous episode escaped my attention up until now. It certainly wasn't taught in history classes I attended. I felt bad until I checked with the Long-Suffering Wife (smarter than me, also a nerd of Irish heritage) and found that she had never heard of it, either.
I imagine that people receiving a normal education in Ireland – and perhaps in the UK as well – get at least a quick run-through of this episode at some point. You all can start at the beginning.
(Starting at the end leads straight to some spoilers, of course, but since the book centers around a pair of 1882 murders which are adequately documented in many places on the internet, I feel that I can reveal some of the story below without annoying those in search of nail-biting suspense.)
In addition, this author's note is much more interesting than many. The author has written two biographies, one of a ballet star and the other of a 19th century courtesan, so you wouldn't necessarily expect to find her writing next about a pack of Fenian thugs and their English colonial overlords. But she was inspired when she found, in the papers of her late father, a decades-old load of laborious, hand-written, pre-internet research on this episode, which became the kernel of this book.
Reading the author's note first also provides a summary of what goes on in the previous 356 pages, which I found handy as I tend to read books in the spare minutes over lunch or before sleeping, sometimes without giving my full attention, so I might have gotten a little lost in the thicket of fairly similar-sounding English and Irish names.
The author defies what I consider to be a narrative structure which has been used so often in popular history books that it has become something of a cliché. In this structure, the author starts the first chapter in the moments before the most dramatic event, that is, the one referred to the book's title. An author employing this type of structure might begin a book about this episode like this: “The assassins gathered near Phoenix Park in the early afternoon twilight of May 6, 1882”. Then begins several chapters of backstory, moving from years before toward the moment previewed in the first chapter.
I like books with this start-in-the-middle structure, but I recognize that it has been overused. I like it because it is familiar, like a old blanket. I think that some of the potential audience for this book feel this same. The decision not to use this structure is a courageous decision – although I don't know if it was an intentional choice by the author. In any event, this authorial decision makes it doubly rewarding to read the book-summarizing author's note at the end first, because you start with a better idea of the direction that the book will eventually lead you.
The first five chapters are the backstory, and you learn a lot about Gladstone and Parnell – suited me well, I don't know as much about them as I should. The actual murderers aren't introduced until Chapter Six – again, I thought it an interesting authorial decision to hold off so long. The actual murder takes place in Chapter Eight. The subsequent investigation and trial takes a few more chapters. However, about this time, the observant reader may notice that there is a big fat chuck of the book left, meaning, lots of stuff happens after the trial is over.
It does – there is indeed another murder, followed by investigation, political maneuvering, and another trial. If I had not read the author's note first, this would have been a bit of a surprise but, as I had informed myself already, I understood what I was in for.
As the Long-Suffering Wife will tell you, I am not very big on surprises.
So, in summary, the sort of book which pleases me – one that drags a historic incident, big news at the time but now no longer taught in many places, into the light and gives it an airing out. In addition to moving the author's note to the beginning, I might have also included a “cast of characters” to help the distracted reader, but the lack of these things are not a great drawback, now that we all have the computing power of the world at our fingertips.
I received a free electronic advance review copy of this book from Gross Atlantic Press and Netgalley. Thanks to all for your generosity.
This advice doesn't apply to everybody, only to readers like me. I am a non-historian history nerd and an American of Irish heritage but, somehow, this whole sad and murderous episode escaped my attention up until now. It certainly wasn't taught in history classes I attended. I felt bad until I checked with the Long-Suffering Wife (smarter than me, also a nerd of Irish heritage) and found that she had never heard of it, either.
I imagine that people receiving a normal education in Ireland – and perhaps in the UK as well – get at least a quick run-through of this episode at some point. You all can start at the beginning.
(Starting at the end leads straight to some spoilers, of course, but since the book centers around a pair of 1882 murders which are adequately documented in many places on the internet, I feel that I can reveal some of the story below without annoying those in search of nail-biting suspense.)
In addition, this author's note is much more interesting than many. The author has written two biographies, one of a ballet star and the other of a 19th century courtesan, so you wouldn't necessarily expect to find her writing next about a pack of Fenian thugs and their English colonial overlords. But she was inspired when she found, in the papers of her late father, a decades-old load of laborious, hand-written, pre-internet research on this episode, which became the kernel of this book.
Reading the author's note first also provides a summary of what goes on in the previous 356 pages, which I found handy as I tend to read books in the spare minutes over lunch or before sleeping, sometimes without giving my full attention, so I might have gotten a little lost in the thicket of fairly similar-sounding English and Irish names.
The author defies what I consider to be a narrative structure which has been used so often in popular history books that it has become something of a cliché. In this structure, the author starts the first chapter in the moments before the most dramatic event, that is, the one referred to the book's title. An author employing this type of structure might begin a book about this episode like this: “The assassins gathered near Phoenix Park in the early afternoon twilight of May 6, 1882”. Then begins several chapters of backstory, moving from years before toward the moment previewed in the first chapter.
I like books with this start-in-the-middle structure, but I recognize that it has been overused. I like it because it is familiar, like a old blanket. I think that some of the potential audience for this book feel this same. The decision not to use this structure is a courageous decision – although I don't know if it was an intentional choice by the author. In any event, this authorial decision makes it doubly rewarding to read the book-summarizing author's note at the end first, because you start with a better idea of the direction that the book will eventually lead you.
The first five chapters are the backstory, and you learn a lot about Gladstone and Parnell – suited me well, I don't know as much about them as I should. The actual murderers aren't introduced until Chapter Six – again, I thought it an interesting authorial decision to hold off so long. The actual murder takes place in Chapter Eight. The subsequent investigation and trial takes a few more chapters. However, about this time, the observant reader may notice that there is a big fat chuck of the book left, meaning, lots of stuff happens after the trial is over.
It does – there is indeed another murder, followed by investigation, political maneuvering, and another trial. If I had not read the author's note first, this would have been a bit of a surprise but, as I had informed myself already, I understood what I was in for.
As the Long-Suffering Wife will tell you, I am not very big on surprises.
So, in summary, the sort of book which pleases me – one that drags a historic incident, big news at the time but now no longer taught in many places, into the light and gives it an airing out. In addition to moving the author's note to the beginning, I might have also included a “cast of characters” to help the distracted reader, but the lack of these things are not a great drawback, now that we all have the computing power of the world at our fingertips.
I received a free electronic advance review copy of this book from Gross Atlantic Press and Netgalley. Thanks to all for your generosity.
September 19, 2021
When one thinks of the terms ethnic cleansing or genocide usually the following comes to mind: the Nazi Holocaust; the Turkish massacre of Armenians before, during, and after World War I; Pol Pot and the killing fields of Cambodia in the early 1970s; Serbian ethnic cleansing during the Yugoslav civil war of the 1990s; the Rwandan genocide of 1994; but few people place English policy toward the Irish over a period of centuries in this category.
One constant in England’s attitude toward the Irish throughout history has been one of subjugation and exploitation, either by out and out extermination and ethnic cleansing, or policies designed to benefit the rich landowners at the expense of the Irish peasantry, and of course the Great Famine of 1845 fostered in large part by England’s laissez-faire economic doctrine that decimated the Irish countryside. By the late 1870s rural Ireland’s small land holders, again threatened with starvation and eviction began to rise up and fight for their ancestral home. The story of the land war that ensued between 1879-1882, the major characters involved, Prime Minster William Gladstone’s attempt to bring peace and eventual independence to Ireland, and the assassination of May 6, 1882, that ended that hope is told in Julie Kavanagh’s latest book, THE IRISH ASSASSINS: CONSPIRACY, REVENGE, AND THE PHOENIX PARK MURDERS THAT STUNNED VICTORIAN ENGLAND.
Kavanagh’s effort has a number of key components. After she provides an overview of Irish-English relations covering centuries she zeroes in on the 1870-1880s period. It was a time that the Irish were still plagued by poor potato crops and the inhumanity of English property owners and their expectations from tenant farmers. Certain characters dominate the narrative. Charles Parnell, a progressive Avondale landowner who supported Irish independence emerges as the leader in Parliament and among the Irish people. William Gladstone, leader of the Liberal party who returned to the Prime Ministership defeating Benjamin Disraeli and the Conservatives sought to bring peace between the tenants and their landowners by agreeing to improve the plight of the peasantry. William Forster, Chief Secretary to Gladstone an empathetic man who felt for the Irish people, but with the Irish boycott and in the increased violence by the radical wing of the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s “Invincibles” he turned against reform. Patrick O’Donnell, an Irish Republican accused of the murder of James Carey who turned out to be an “Invincible” snitch that led to the execution of five Irish Republicans. Queen Victoria who despised the Irish and did little to ameliorate their situation. Katharine O’Shea, Parnell’s lover who had a deep impact on the thought process of the Irish leader. Patrick Egan and Patrick Ford who worked from America to raise money for the Irish cause and had profound influence over the Irish cause through their leadership of the Clan na Gael, the American sister of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
The author does a credible job introducing the main characters in the Irish drama recounting their backgrounds and the important roles they would play. By 1880 the west of Ireland verged on a catastrophe as disease struck the potato crop once again resulting in starvation and hypothermia for the Irish peasants. According to Kavanaugh the 1880 disaster was worse than the earlier Great Famine reflected in the lives of people in western Ireland who had little to show for their labors. Many more would emigrate to the United States resulting in the loss of many talented people for Ireland. Another important aspect of the new decade was that the English government now faced a new generation than those who were “spineless victims” of the Great Famine – now they faced a semi-revolutionary group of young men who led the Land League and instituted a boycott against landlords and anyone who supported them. In October 1880 Parliament voted to suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus allowing suspects to be imprisoned without trial. Commonly known as the “Coercion Act” it would fuel Irish violence and move the Invincibles toward further assassinations.
The actions of Parliament and the Irish extremists would make it difficult for Parnell and Gladstone to consummate their agreement, the Kilmainham Treaty in which the Irish leader pledged to work diplomatically with Gladstone for peace and the eventual independence of Ireland. What followed was planning that resulted in the assassination of Timothy Burke, Secretary to William Gladstone and Frederick Cavendish who replaced Forster as Chief Secretary which ended any hope for peace.
In one of Kavanagh’s best chapters “Coercion in Cottonwool” the author traces the planning and assassination attempts against English officials in great detail. She introduces the perpetrators and the results of their actions. She explores their thought processes as well as those of the victims. It even reached the point that Forster hoped for his own assassination which would put him out of his misery of dealing with the Irish. Once Parnell and his cohorts are arrested and released from prison and the Phoenix Park murders occur, Kavanaugh details the testimony of Invincible, James Carey, his trial and those he fingered, the revenge murder of Carey by Patrick O’Donnell, and his subsequent conviction. In all areas Kavanagh offers intricate details which at times can be overwhelming.
A case in point was the relationship between Katharine O’Shea, her husband William, a member of Parliament, and Charles Parnell. This segment of the book could be written as a historical novel by itself. William O’Shea sought to be the intermediary between Gladstone and Parnell to enhance his career, so he allowed his own cuckoldom. Further once Katharine became pregnant, William sought to reassert his husbandly rights, but the child was Parnell’s. This aspect of the narrative is a bit much.
The book has so many aspects to it that Kavanagh should have been a little clearer in linking them to enhance the reader’s understanding. With the substantial number of characters, many with their own agenda’s Kavanagh needed to improve how each character and events fit into the larger paradigm of the story which told in two parts. First, Kavanaugh dissects the policies of Parliament and the Gladstone government and their internal debates that produces the opposition of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Land League. Second she focuses on the legal drama that resulted from the assassinations and trials that followed. The book can be confusing at times, and it would have helped if the monograph contained as series of maps that would allow the reader to follow the story from western Ireland, London, Paris, South Africa, and the United States.
The subject matter is of the utmost importance because of its impact on Irish-English relations for the century that followed. It is a story that needed to be told and I praise Kavanagh’s effort, particularly her integration of primary materials whose personal excerpts allows the reader to understand the positions of the major characters. But overall, though parts of the book read as a page turner, other parts are slow to develop and can tax the reader.
P.S. Julie Kavanagh’s work was personally satisfying as she picked up on the work of her father, a noted journalist who had researched the O’Donnell trial for a number of years.
One constant in England’s attitude toward the Irish throughout history has been one of subjugation and exploitation, either by out and out extermination and ethnic cleansing, or policies designed to benefit the rich landowners at the expense of the Irish peasantry, and of course the Great Famine of 1845 fostered in large part by England’s laissez-faire economic doctrine that decimated the Irish countryside. By the late 1870s rural Ireland’s small land holders, again threatened with starvation and eviction began to rise up and fight for their ancestral home. The story of the land war that ensued between 1879-1882, the major characters involved, Prime Minster William Gladstone’s attempt to bring peace and eventual independence to Ireland, and the assassination of May 6, 1882, that ended that hope is told in Julie Kavanagh’s latest book, THE IRISH ASSASSINS: CONSPIRACY, REVENGE, AND THE PHOENIX PARK MURDERS THAT STUNNED VICTORIAN ENGLAND.
Kavanagh’s effort has a number of key components. After she provides an overview of Irish-English relations covering centuries she zeroes in on the 1870-1880s period. It was a time that the Irish were still plagued by poor potato crops and the inhumanity of English property owners and their expectations from tenant farmers. Certain characters dominate the narrative. Charles Parnell, a progressive Avondale landowner who supported Irish independence emerges as the leader in Parliament and among the Irish people. William Gladstone, leader of the Liberal party who returned to the Prime Ministership defeating Benjamin Disraeli and the Conservatives sought to bring peace between the tenants and their landowners by agreeing to improve the plight of the peasantry. William Forster, Chief Secretary to Gladstone an empathetic man who felt for the Irish people, but with the Irish boycott and in the increased violence by the radical wing of the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s “Invincibles” he turned against reform. Patrick O’Donnell, an Irish Republican accused of the murder of James Carey who turned out to be an “Invincible” snitch that led to the execution of five Irish Republicans. Queen Victoria who despised the Irish and did little to ameliorate their situation. Katharine O’Shea, Parnell’s lover who had a deep impact on the thought process of the Irish leader. Patrick Egan and Patrick Ford who worked from America to raise money for the Irish cause and had profound influence over the Irish cause through their leadership of the Clan na Gael, the American sister of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
The author does a credible job introducing the main characters in the Irish drama recounting their backgrounds and the important roles they would play. By 1880 the west of Ireland verged on a catastrophe as disease struck the potato crop once again resulting in starvation and hypothermia for the Irish peasants. According to Kavanaugh the 1880 disaster was worse than the earlier Great Famine reflected in the lives of people in western Ireland who had little to show for their labors. Many more would emigrate to the United States resulting in the loss of many talented people for Ireland. Another important aspect of the new decade was that the English government now faced a new generation than those who were “spineless victims” of the Great Famine – now they faced a semi-revolutionary group of young men who led the Land League and instituted a boycott against landlords and anyone who supported them. In October 1880 Parliament voted to suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus allowing suspects to be imprisoned without trial. Commonly known as the “Coercion Act” it would fuel Irish violence and move the Invincibles toward further assassinations.
The actions of Parliament and the Irish extremists would make it difficult for Parnell and Gladstone to consummate their agreement, the Kilmainham Treaty in which the Irish leader pledged to work diplomatically with Gladstone for peace and the eventual independence of Ireland. What followed was planning that resulted in the assassination of Timothy Burke, Secretary to William Gladstone and Frederick Cavendish who replaced Forster as Chief Secretary which ended any hope for peace.
In one of Kavanagh’s best chapters “Coercion in Cottonwool” the author traces the planning and assassination attempts against English officials in great detail. She introduces the perpetrators and the results of their actions. She explores their thought processes as well as those of the victims. It even reached the point that Forster hoped for his own assassination which would put him out of his misery of dealing with the Irish. Once Parnell and his cohorts are arrested and released from prison and the Phoenix Park murders occur, Kavanaugh details the testimony of Invincible, James Carey, his trial and those he fingered, the revenge murder of Carey by Patrick O’Donnell, and his subsequent conviction. In all areas Kavanagh offers intricate details which at times can be overwhelming.
A case in point was the relationship between Katharine O’Shea, her husband William, a member of Parliament, and Charles Parnell. This segment of the book could be written as a historical novel by itself. William O’Shea sought to be the intermediary between Gladstone and Parnell to enhance his career, so he allowed his own cuckoldom. Further once Katharine became pregnant, William sought to reassert his husbandly rights, but the child was Parnell’s. This aspect of the narrative is a bit much.
The book has so many aspects to it that Kavanagh should have been a little clearer in linking them to enhance the reader’s understanding. With the substantial number of characters, many with their own agenda’s Kavanagh needed to improve how each character and events fit into the larger paradigm of the story which told in two parts. First, Kavanaugh dissects the policies of Parliament and the Gladstone government and their internal debates that produces the opposition of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Land League. Second she focuses on the legal drama that resulted from the assassinations and trials that followed. The book can be confusing at times, and it would have helped if the monograph contained as series of maps that would allow the reader to follow the story from western Ireland, London, Paris, South Africa, and the United States.
The subject matter is of the utmost importance because of its impact on Irish-English relations for the century that followed. It is a story that needed to be told and I praise Kavanagh’s effort, particularly her integration of primary materials whose personal excerpts allows the reader to understand the positions of the major characters. But overall, though parts of the book read as a page turner, other parts are slow to develop and can tax the reader.
P.S. Julie Kavanagh’s work was personally satisfying as she picked up on the work of her father, a noted journalist who had researched the O’Donnell trial for a number of years.
May 6, 2021
On May 6, 1882, Irish assassins murdered Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke in Dublin's Phoenix Park. These men were sent by Britain to broker an acceptable peace in Ireland. The shockwaves set the peace process back by decades. This is what a simple historical outline would show us. History is never this tidy.
In "The Irish Assassins" Julie Kavanagh brings the news and climate of 1880's Ireland alive. Centuries of abuse and ethnic cleansing by Britain created an atmosphere that could no longer be tolerated. Famine and mass evictions left the Irish with few options: starve to death, leave for America, or fight for independence. Irish leader Charles Parnell and British Prime Minister William Gladwell were trying to finesse a transition to Irish home rule but the rage of the people did not conform to their diplomatic timetable. The Invincibles, assassins financed by Irish American money, found their opportunity to strike and, in doing so, upset the carefully laid-out political work.
Parnell's amazing background is fleshed out, as is Queen Victoria and all the other players in this story. We see the motivation of both sides in this drama. "The Irish Assassins" reads like a novel, you do not need to have a vast knowledge of the subject ahead of time to enjoy and appreciate it. I highly recommend it.
Thank you very much Grove Atlantic, NetGalley, and Julie Kavanagh for the ARC in exchange for this review.
In "The Irish Assassins" Julie Kavanagh brings the news and climate of 1880's Ireland alive. Centuries of abuse and ethnic cleansing by Britain created an atmosphere that could no longer be tolerated. Famine and mass evictions left the Irish with few options: starve to death, leave for America, or fight for independence. Irish leader Charles Parnell and British Prime Minister William Gladwell were trying to finesse a transition to Irish home rule but the rage of the people did not conform to their diplomatic timetable. The Invincibles, assassins financed by Irish American money, found their opportunity to strike and, in doing so, upset the carefully laid-out political work.
Parnell's amazing background is fleshed out, as is Queen Victoria and all the other players in this story. We see the motivation of both sides in this drama. "The Irish Assassins" reads like a novel, you do not need to have a vast knowledge of the subject ahead of time to enjoy and appreciate it. I highly recommend it.
Thank you very much Grove Atlantic, NetGalley, and Julie Kavanagh for the ARC in exchange for this review.
June 17, 2023
This book provides context to areas of Irish history that have often been in the shadows for me. The fight for home rule under William Gladstone, England's PM, the rise and fall of the great Irish leader, Charles Stewart Parnell, and the prejudices and pettiness of Queen Victoria.
Without recounting the story, the book revolves around the murder in the Phoenix Park in Dublin of two English officials sent to oversee Irish affairs. One was an Irishman, the other an Englishman, whom all accounts considered to be peace loving and kindly toward the Irish. It was the murder of the latter that generated the most emotion because he was so beloved and because there seemed to be no reason for his murder.
The book focuses on the investigation into the murders which in typical English fashion blamed any Irish person or group which advocated for the independence of the Irish state. Victoria was particularly interested in the case and used it to interfere in William Gladstone's government and display her prejudice against the Irish and her own ignorance when it came to anything involving Ireland. Gladstone was the PM who devoted his professional career to bringing home rule to Ireland, and to Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Irish Party who was also fighting for home rule. Parnell has been described as a political genius by many and no one can dispute the earnestness and dedication with which he fought for his cause.
Parnell's life became complicated by the relationship he formed with Katherine O'Shea, the wife of a military man who, when he learned of the relationship, encouraged it for his own purposes only to later use it to try to score points- a prince of a man- The murders at Phoenix Park were found, for the most part, and the leader of the conspirators turned and gave evidence against his co-conspirators only to be murdered onboard the ship he boarded under a different name after the British government put him into witness protection.
The story is a complex, ever changing saga about an eventful time in Irish politics. Katherine O'Shea divorced her husband and married Parnell but he died soon after. Gladstone continued to fight for home rule only when it seemed close, it was put on hold with the beginning of the First World War, and Victoria died, a bitter and bigoted woman whose behavior provides for me at least, yet another reason that leaders should be elected and not inherit their positions.
This is a great read whether or not you have any interest in this period of history. Amongst the many things I learned from the book had to do with the way that Katherine O'Shea was referred. When studying Irish history as an undergraduate, she was always referred to Kitty O'Shea and that is how I would have referred to her. What the author pointed out was that Kitty was a woman that the Brits gave prostitutes. In other words, it was an attack on the woman- perhaps not surprising that she would be referred to in that manner in hypocritical Victorian society. The book was the continuation and completion of the research that the authors father had done and is very well researched.
Without recounting the story, the book revolves around the murder in the Phoenix Park in Dublin of two English officials sent to oversee Irish affairs. One was an Irishman, the other an Englishman, whom all accounts considered to be peace loving and kindly toward the Irish. It was the murder of the latter that generated the most emotion because he was so beloved and because there seemed to be no reason for his murder.
The book focuses on the investigation into the murders which in typical English fashion blamed any Irish person or group which advocated for the independence of the Irish state. Victoria was particularly interested in the case and used it to interfere in William Gladstone's government and display her prejudice against the Irish and her own ignorance when it came to anything involving Ireland. Gladstone was the PM who devoted his professional career to bringing home rule to Ireland, and to Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Irish Party who was also fighting for home rule. Parnell has been described as a political genius by many and no one can dispute the earnestness and dedication with which he fought for his cause.
Parnell's life became complicated by the relationship he formed with Katherine O'Shea, the wife of a military man who, when he learned of the relationship, encouraged it for his own purposes only to later use it to try to score points- a prince of a man- The murders at Phoenix Park were found, for the most part, and the leader of the conspirators turned and gave evidence against his co-conspirators only to be murdered onboard the ship he boarded under a different name after the British government put him into witness protection.
The story is a complex, ever changing saga about an eventful time in Irish politics. Katherine O'Shea divorced her husband and married Parnell but he died soon after. Gladstone continued to fight for home rule only when it seemed close, it was put on hold with the beginning of the First World War, and Victoria died, a bitter and bigoted woman whose behavior provides for me at least, yet another reason that leaders should be elected and not inherit their positions.
This is a great read whether or not you have any interest in this period of history. Amongst the many things I learned from the book had to do with the way that Katherine O'Shea was referred. When studying Irish history as an undergraduate, she was always referred to Kitty O'Shea and that is how I would have referred to her. What the author pointed out was that Kitty was a woman that the Brits gave prostitutes. In other words, it was an attack on the woman- perhaps not surprising that she would be referred to in that manner in hypocritical Victorian society. The book was the continuation and completion of the research that the authors father had done and is very well researched.
July 19, 2021
Dreadfully overwritten, this narrative wanders all over the place, gathering characters and quotations like emojis, while its putative subject is held at bay from the reader to the point of exasperation. Kavanagh goes for 'colour' over nuanced history, but this does not the make the story any easier to follow; there are just too many digressions into inessential aspects, random details, flip judgements. The chronology, as a result, switches back and forth relentlessly and confusingly. The author's knowledge and feeling for Irish history leave much to be desired. For instance, we are told that, up until 1880, 'Ireland had never interested' Queen Victoria. 'Interested' is a fuzzy word. What we know for a fact is that in 1849 the monarch made the first of her four visits to the country. It may be true, as some scholars argue, that Victoria evinced limited knowledge or sympathy for 'poor Ireland', as she referred to it at least once, but to suggest that she only started to pay attention in the fifth decade of her reign is plain wrong.
September 4, 2024
Fascinating account of the campaign for Irish Home Rule in Victorian England and the 1882 assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
The murder itself is unusually positioned almost half way through the book, and this gives the narrative a symmetry that really helps to put the event into context. The early chapters explain the background to the campaign for an independent Ireland and the establishment of the Land League, introduce the political positions of key figures such as Gladstone and the Irish MP Charles Parnell, and show how Irish emigration to the US formed support there for the aims of the Home Rule campaigners. The killings are then reported in this context.
Following the deaths, the narrative turns to the fate of the conspirators, a tale of betrayal and revenge. From the English side, politicians grapple with how to resolve a situation that is daily growing more toxic and challenging. Queen Victoria herself decides to get involved and exerts pressure on the politicians. On the Irish side, the conspirators scrabble to save their skins and the police encourage them to turn Queen’s evidence to bolster the Crown’s case. Eventually a surprising encounter on the other side of the world brings the story to a head.
This was well researched and very informative, and for the most part presented in a balanced and thoughtful way. The book helped to deepen my understanding of this particular aspect of British and Irish history, and explained how prejudices and political posturing led to decisions being made that in hindsight could be seen to deepen the distrust and hostility between the two sides. Excellent read.
The murder itself is unusually positioned almost half way through the book, and this gives the narrative a symmetry that really helps to put the event into context. The early chapters explain the background to the campaign for an independent Ireland and the establishment of the Land League, introduce the political positions of key figures such as Gladstone and the Irish MP Charles Parnell, and show how Irish emigration to the US formed support there for the aims of the Home Rule campaigners. The killings are then reported in this context.
Following the deaths, the narrative turns to the fate of the conspirators, a tale of betrayal and revenge. From the English side, politicians grapple with how to resolve a situation that is daily growing more toxic and challenging. Queen Victoria herself decides to get involved and exerts pressure on the politicians. On the Irish side, the conspirators scrabble to save their skins and the police encourage them to turn Queen’s evidence to bolster the Crown’s case. Eventually a surprising encounter on the other side of the world brings the story to a head.
This was well researched and very informative, and for the most part presented in a balanced and thoughtful way. The book helped to deepen my understanding of this particular aspect of British and Irish history, and explained how prejudices and political posturing led to decisions being made that in hindsight could be seen to deepen the distrust and hostility between the two sides. Excellent read.
August 15, 2023
This book about Ireland’s fate and betrayal by the English monarchy is so very sad and enlightening.
With every book or story about Ireland, I learn more about the history and politics, and I still cannot believe the continual horrors inflicted on the Irish people who struggled to survive under the tyranny of the English from the 1600’s through the 1900’s.
While the author’s research is superb, it is also very long and detailed. If you read it on audiobook, you’ll be gifted to hear the male narrator who fabulously reads like an old time radio show report or series. I found it was a fun and interesting take on the delivery of highly detailed information and dates.
I took a break every couple of days and was happy to get back into it!
With every book or story about Ireland, I learn more about the history and politics, and I still cannot believe the continual horrors inflicted on the Irish people who struggled to survive under the tyranny of the English from the 1600’s through the 1900’s.
While the author’s research is superb, it is also very long and detailed. If you read it on audiobook, you’ll be gifted to hear the male narrator who fabulously reads like an old time radio show report or series. I found it was a fun and interesting take on the delivery of highly detailed information and dates.
I took a break every couple of days and was happy to get back into it!
July 4, 2021
An historical true crime from the 19th century
On the evening of May 6, 1882, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary and Undersecretary for Ireland were strolling through Phoenix Park, Dublin. They were ambushed and were both stabbed to death. Who murdered them and why?
To answer these questions, Ms Kavanagh takes us on a journey through history, through the events that led to the murders and through their consequences.
At the time of the murders, Charles Stewart Parnell, an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament between 1875 and 1882 and acted as the Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882, and British Prime Minister William Gladstone had been working together to try to achieve peace and independence in Ireland. Lord Frederick Cavendish, as Gladstone’s protégé, was to play an instrumental role. These two murders destroyed the possibility of peace for decades, and almost brought down the government.
But, as Ms Kavanagh details, the story begins much earlier. Centuries of oppression, famine and mass evictions left the Irish with few choices. The people could starve, emigrate, or fight for independence. Many of those who emigrated (especially to America) supported Irish independence and provided funds for the fight. The murders of Cavendish and Burke were carried out by two assassins, members of the Irish National Invincibles, using surgical knives.
The investigation was led by Superintendent John Mallon, and by playing suspects off against each other, several were arrested and subsequently hanged.
Those are essentially the facts, but Ms Kavanagh brings the period to life with her descriptions of the key players and significant events in their lives. We learn of Queen Victoria’s interest, of Gladstone’s struggles to broker a deal, of Charles Stewart Parnell’s affair with Katharine O’Shea. But my particular interest was in the background and lives of people, such as Michael Davitt.
The author’s note, at the end of the book, is a particular highlight.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
On the evening of May 6, 1882, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary and Undersecretary for Ireland were strolling through Phoenix Park, Dublin. They were ambushed and were both stabbed to death. Who murdered them and why?
To answer these questions, Ms Kavanagh takes us on a journey through history, through the events that led to the murders and through their consequences.
At the time of the murders, Charles Stewart Parnell, an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament between 1875 and 1882 and acted as the Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882, and British Prime Minister William Gladstone had been working together to try to achieve peace and independence in Ireland. Lord Frederick Cavendish, as Gladstone’s protégé, was to play an instrumental role. These two murders destroyed the possibility of peace for decades, and almost brought down the government.
But, as Ms Kavanagh details, the story begins much earlier. Centuries of oppression, famine and mass evictions left the Irish with few choices. The people could starve, emigrate, or fight for independence. Many of those who emigrated (especially to America) supported Irish independence and provided funds for the fight. The murders of Cavendish and Burke were carried out by two assassins, members of the Irish National Invincibles, using surgical knives.
The investigation was led by Superintendent John Mallon, and by playing suspects off against each other, several were arrested and subsequently hanged.
Those are essentially the facts, but Ms Kavanagh brings the period to life with her descriptions of the key players and significant events in their lives. We learn of Queen Victoria’s interest, of Gladstone’s struggles to broker a deal, of Charles Stewart Parnell’s affair with Katharine O’Shea. But my particular interest was in the background and lives of people, such as Michael Davitt.
The author’s note, at the end of the book, is a particular highlight.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
March 2, 2021
Julie Kavanagh thoroughly researches, and dramatically captures, the intense and often shockingly violent relationship between England and Ireland over the course of their troubled history. Violence that, more often than not, spilled the blood of farmers and families and commoners rather than soldiers on battlefields.
Tracing that relationship over the course of hundreds of years may seem tedious, but Kavanagh does a masterful job telling the story through the motivations, choices and actions of a variety of colorful characters which makes each turn of events personal and compelling. One of the things that makes this book different is the voice and importance given to 3 key women at the heart of the story. These voices are often marginalized and captured in a lesser light than the male figures who tend to dominate the word count of historical books. Not here. Julie Kavanagh truly tries to humanize and validate the major and minor characters behind these events due to her unique, personal connection to the story. Readers will be pleasantly surprised by the Author's Note at the end of the book which reveals her motivation for writing it.
Eventually, the book blends history with true crime as it focuses on a brutal assassination carried out in one of the most open and public places in the heart of Dublin. But this book is so much more than the retelling of an important historical event. It captures the struggle, character and identity of an entire nation and its people.
Tracing that relationship over the course of hundreds of years may seem tedious, but Kavanagh does a masterful job telling the story through the motivations, choices and actions of a variety of colorful characters which makes each turn of events personal and compelling. One of the things that makes this book different is the voice and importance given to 3 key women at the heart of the story. These voices are often marginalized and captured in a lesser light than the male figures who tend to dominate the word count of historical books. Not here. Julie Kavanagh truly tries to humanize and validate the major and minor characters behind these events due to her unique, personal connection to the story. Readers will be pleasantly surprised by the Author's Note at the end of the book which reveals her motivation for writing it.
Eventually, the book blends history with true crime as it focuses on a brutal assassination carried out in one of the most open and public places in the heart of Dublin. But this book is so much more than the retelling of an important historical event. It captures the struggle, character and identity of an entire nation and its people.
March 30, 2021
Although well written and thoroughly researched, this is a book in search of an audience and I imagine it’s unlikely to find a receptive one. It is too academic to be a general interest history, but too general to be of use to academics. The book offers interesting insight into the Parnell/O’Shea relationship but will not be of interest to those who aren’t already well-versed in this period of Irish history.
[I received this book as an ARC from Grove Atlantic and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.]
[I received this book as an ARC from Grove Atlantic and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.]
April 27, 2024
This feels like something that would have been aided by reading it in a more compact time frame--it's a very interesting slice of history and I think the way the book is set up is very well done, but I did struggle to keep everyone and everything straight since I read it over three weeks.
September 23, 2021
The book plods a bit and is more an examination of Ireland at the time than just the murders.
What is revealed time and again by all these books that examine the Irish problem is England’s inability to understand Ireland’s desire for freedom or Britain”s unwillingness to resign itself to the loss of any of its empire.
The case has been made that in some respects America after the civil war was worse for many blacks than in the antebellum south. Slaves, while property, have worth and thus there’s an incentive for a slave owner to not damage his property overmuch, but without the protection of property, blacks are much easier to abuse, injure, and kill.
The experiences of the Irish mirror post war black life.
What is revealed time and again by all these books that examine the Irish problem is England’s inability to understand Ireland’s desire for freedom or Britain”s unwillingness to resign itself to the loss of any of its empire.
The case has been made that in some respects America after the civil war was worse for many blacks than in the antebellum south. Slaves, while property, have worth and thus there’s an incentive for a slave owner to not damage his property overmuch, but without the protection of property, blacks are much easier to abuse, injure, and kill.
The experiences of the Irish mirror post war black life.
August 2, 2021
The Irish Assassins by Julie Kavanagh is an account of the Phoenix Park murders which occurred in Dublin in 1882. At a pivotal point in talks about Home Rule for Ireland , Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke, Chief Secretary and Undersecretary for Ireland, were brutally attacked and stabbed to death by members of a militant group of Republicans called the Invincibles. This immediately disrupted the talks that had been ongoing between British Prime Minister Gladstone and Charles Stuart Parnell , and ultimately resulted in many more years of bloodshed and sectarian violence.
It is clear that the author has put a huge amount of work and research into this book, and in her notes at the end she explains that she was inspired by her father's research into this same case. The book is very detailed and quite wide in its scope, which has both benefits and drawbacks. The benefit is that she gives plenty of historical and cultural information to set the scene and try to explain the motivation for the murders, but by doing so it does mean that the book is quite slow paced and the reader must be patient.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.
It is clear that the author has put a huge amount of work and research into this book, and in her notes at the end she explains that she was inspired by her father's research into this same case. The book is very detailed and quite wide in its scope, which has both benefits and drawbacks. The benefit is that she gives plenty of historical and cultural information to set the scene and try to explain the motivation for the murders, but by doing so it does mean that the book is quite slow paced and the reader must be patient.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.
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May 25, 2021Reading this as a kindle version made it much easier to put aside - with a physical copy, I would have just skipped through to the pertinent narrative and have had done with this in less than a day.
feel free to read more here >>> Melisende's Library
feel free to read more here >>> Melisende's Library
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February 20, 2021This book is about the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke while walking in the Phoenix Park in Dublin on May 6th 1882. It contains several side stories including that of the political relationship between Gladstone and Parnell. The book takes place in several different locations such as Dublin, London, Paris and Cape Town.
This book centers around the themes of colonization and its after affects on the generations that follow. It also looks at terrorism/ civil war and how outside influences can affect the outcome of these situations.
I enjoyed parts of this book, such as the history and information I learned. Unfortunately in some parts I felt puled out of the book with so much chop and change, I did not understand why someone would put quotes from Churchill in a book about Irish history with the atrocities he condoned. I found that the authors writing did not flow very well and the book seemed slow paced to begin with put picked up some after the assassination.
This book centers around the themes of colonization and its after affects on the generations that follow. It also looks at terrorism/ civil war and how outside influences can affect the outcome of these situations.
I enjoyed parts of this book, such as the history and information I learned. Unfortunately in some parts I felt puled out of the book with so much chop and change, I did not understand why someone would put quotes from Churchill in a book about Irish history with the atrocities he condoned. I found that the authors writing did not flow very well and the book seemed slow paced to begin with put picked up some after the assassination.
February 21, 2025
Don't know. The subject captured my interest but it wasn't able to hold it for long. I felt that the author might have made this book longer than it needed to be- not all details felt relevant, although maybe I just didn't have enough investment in the topic. I also felt that the writing style could get dull at times, despite the reviews saying that it was a captivating read even though it was history. I could actually do for more of the author's own voice to come through rather than just lay out facts; that's why I admired Zinn. There may be bias in history told like that, but I feel that this book was just not engaging enough to truly look forward to reading. Sorry to the author, it just wasn't wasn't for me!
July 8, 2021
An interesting read telling the history of the assassination of two members of the British political elite in the 1800's in the Phoenix park in Dublin. The killings came at a time when relations between Britain and Ireland were good and it seemed as if some consensus might be reached for some form of self government in Ireland. The shootings however put paid to that. Kavanagh's book is a wonderful look at the history that led to the killings and their aftermath.
May 25, 2021
This was a fascinating account of not just the murder of Thomas Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish on May 6th 1882 by the invisibles in Phoenix park, but also a meditation on why Irish/English relations turned hostile again shortly after. Overall I would definitely recommend this one, especially to history fans. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this drc available through edelweiss.
January 9, 2022
A compelling, insightful, complex but accessible account of a pivotal event in late 19th century Irish history I knew nothing about.
February 28, 2022
Oh, my. Man's inhumanity to man is definitely on display in this telling of a murder and the history of Ireland's Land War.
Read
August 18, 2021I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've heard many times about the Phoenix Park Murders and knew that they set off a chain reaction of violence in Ireland, but the detail in this book was gripping. It's a long book and takes some attention, but I felt rewarded by the time it took. There are many characters and all of the primary ones are given vivid descriptions. Their parts in the events covered in the book are clear and make sense in view of their respective personalities. The story of Parnell and Katharine O'Shea was very detailed and greatly added to what I'd previously known. Likewise with Gladstone, Lord Spencer (ancestor of Princess Diana), the police superintendent, the Invincibles and several others. The author makes very clear the major part played by Irish Americans who contributed an enormous amount of money toward Irish freedom. For anyone with an interest in late nineteenth century Irish history, I highly recommend this beautifully written book.
April 6, 2021
I was truly looking forward to reading The Irish Assassins. When I began, I expected a bit of a history lesson to explain the social and political environs of the time. This was aptly provided. The colonization if Ireland and the death and destruction that followed was horrifying, The Julie Kavanagh details more than I had previously been aware. At a certain point, I did start to feel as if I was simply reading the day to day docket of the political going on in parliament and in within Ireland. That portion did tend to drag on a bit. The story does pick up one the assassinations take place. In some way s I feel the book did not totally identify it's target audience. While obviously extremely well researched, I would not say it is a history text. Neither would I say this is a lay person's historical read, What I did find fascinating was the author's note about how she came about the story in her father's belongings and how she followed the trail upon his death, If told through her journey through that discovery and her own research, it would have been a different book, but perhaps more interesting. I do appreciate the hard work and diligence that was put into the The Irish Assassins, but in the end, it was not my favorite read,
September 9, 2021
The book is a struggle; overdone and tedious; it took almost 200 pages for anyone to get killed and the so-called "assassins" were actually an unorganized assortment of bumblers ... I had high hopes, but Victorian England was not "stunned" and I got hosed
December 7, 2025
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-irish-assassins-conspiracy-revenge-and-the-murders-that-stunned-an-empire-by-julie-kavanagh/
On 6 May 1882, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, arrived in Dublin for his first day in the job. In the evening, as he was walking from Dublin Castle to his official residence in Phoenix Park, Thomas Henry Burke, the Permanent Under Secretary who also had an official residence in the Park, spotted him from his own carriage and dismounted so that the two could have a chat as they covered the last few hundred metres to their homes on foot.
They never made it. Seven members of The Invincibles, an extremist Irish nationalist group, surrounded them and stabbed them to death with surgical knives. They had been planning to attack Burke for weeks, and did not even know who Cavendish was, but did not want to leave the red-bearded chap alive as a witness. The attackers were driven away in a cab whose driver rejoiced in the nickname “Skin-the-Goat”; he pops up in person in Chapter 16 of Ulysses as the keeper of the cabmen’s shelter at Butt Bridge where Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom get their heads together before going back to Bloom’s house for cocoa. (That’s not the only reference to the 1882 murders in Ulysses; James Joyce would have been three months old at the time, but they cast a long dark shadow.)
With all due respect to Lord Mountbatten and Kevin O’Higgins, the Phoenix Park murders were the most dramatic political assassinations ever to take place in Ireland – the victims were the British government minister responsible for Irish affairs, and the most senior civil servant in the Irish administration. On top of that, Cavendish and his wife Lucy were very close to her aunt and her aunt’s husband, who happened to be the prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone; Cavendish, whose father was the Duke of Devonshire, had been Gladstone’s private secretary for several years, and more or less ran the Treasury between the Liberals winning the election in 1880 and his appointment to Ireland in 1882. As for Burke, he was the most visible and most senior Catholic in the Irish government, and it was not until twenty years after his death that another Catholic got the job of Permanent Under Secretary.
The timing of the murders could not have been more disastrous in the delicate dance of British policy and Irish nationalism. The dominant Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell had been released from prison only a couple of days before, and Cavendish had been sent to Dublin by Gladstone with a mandate to try and find reconciliation with the Nationalist Party and the Irish Land League, which had mounted a highly successful civil disobedience campaign against the (often absentee) landlords and against the British state, bringing attention to the dire economic situation of Irish tenant farmers. They had introduced a new word to the English language, after a land agent in County Mayo who was ostracised by the local community, to the extent that local shopkeepers refused to sell anything to him or his household: the unfortunate Captain Boycott.
The immediate effect of the murders was cataclysmic. Parnell’s reaction to the news was that he must resign from politics entirely, though he was dissuaded by Gladstone among others. Nationalist politicians condemned the murders, but of course for the English (and Scottish and Welsh) public, there was a seamless connection between Nationalist parliamentary activism and the assassinations. And in fact it turned out that several of the Invincibles were also senior officials in the Irish Land League. Several years later, The Times published letters apparently from Parnell which seemed to endorse the murders, though these were dramatically proved to be forgeries.
Superintendent John Mallon of the Dublin Metropolitan Police narrowly missed being on the scene of the murders himself, and pursued a dogged investigation of the crime. From good old human intelligence, he already had a good idea who the leading members of the Invincibles were, and interrogated them all until two of them confessed, one of them James Carey, the leader of the gang. The other five Invincibles were all hanged, including the two who had actually carried out the stabbing. The getaway driver, Skin-the-Goat, was imprisoned for sixteen years but emerged in time to make his appearance in Ulysses.
There was a grim postscript to the grim story. Carey, the informer, was given a new identity by the British government and sent off to make a new life with his family in South Africa. On the boat he made friends with one Patrick O’Donnell, a Donegal man from Gweedore. When they arrived in South Africa, O’Donnell saw an account of the Invincibles trial in an English newspaper which included a recognisable portrait of Carey, even though he had subsequently shaved his beard off. O’Donnell, who was politically motivated but seems not to have had any direct connection with the Invincibles, realised that his new friend on board was in fact the notorious informer, went back to the boat and shot Carey dead. (Most of the passengers seem to have brought their own guns with them.) He was convicted of murder and hanged. Carey’s fate was then used by Arthur Conan Doyle in the fourth, and worst, of the Sherlock Holmes novels, The Valley of Fear.
Julie Kavanagh is best known as a historian of ballet, but she has turned in a great piece of work here, not only going to the well-plumbed depths of British official sources, but also delving deep into the Invincibles and their structure, as far as one can trace it given the relative lack of written records and the mutability of some of the protagonists’ names. One unusual source that she uses extensively is the correspondence of Queen Victoria, who was deeply interested in the Irish situation, and of course hostile to the Nationalist agenda. There is one odd glitch where she starts to explore why O’Donnell was tried in London rather than South Africa, but fails to put in the actual reason why it happened that way. Otherwise this is a very readable account of a very dramatic (but nowadays overlooked) historical event.
On 6 May 1882, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, arrived in Dublin for his first day in the job. In the evening, as he was walking from Dublin Castle to his official residence in Phoenix Park, Thomas Henry Burke, the Permanent Under Secretary who also had an official residence in the Park, spotted him from his own carriage and dismounted so that the two could have a chat as they covered the last few hundred metres to their homes on foot.
They never made it. Seven members of The Invincibles, an extremist Irish nationalist group, surrounded them and stabbed them to death with surgical knives. They had been planning to attack Burke for weeks, and did not even know who Cavendish was, but did not want to leave the red-bearded chap alive as a witness. The attackers were driven away in a cab whose driver rejoiced in the nickname “Skin-the-Goat”; he pops up in person in Chapter 16 of Ulysses as the keeper of the cabmen’s shelter at Butt Bridge where Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom get their heads together before going back to Bloom’s house for cocoa. (That’s not the only reference to the 1882 murders in Ulysses; James Joyce would have been three months old at the time, but they cast a long dark shadow.)
With all due respect to Lord Mountbatten and Kevin O’Higgins, the Phoenix Park murders were the most dramatic political assassinations ever to take place in Ireland – the victims were the British government minister responsible for Irish affairs, and the most senior civil servant in the Irish administration. On top of that, Cavendish and his wife Lucy were very close to her aunt and her aunt’s husband, who happened to be the prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone; Cavendish, whose father was the Duke of Devonshire, had been Gladstone’s private secretary for several years, and more or less ran the Treasury between the Liberals winning the election in 1880 and his appointment to Ireland in 1882. As for Burke, he was the most visible and most senior Catholic in the Irish government, and it was not until twenty years after his death that another Catholic got the job of Permanent Under Secretary.
The timing of the murders could not have been more disastrous in the delicate dance of British policy and Irish nationalism. The dominant Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell had been released from prison only a couple of days before, and Cavendish had been sent to Dublin by Gladstone with a mandate to try and find reconciliation with the Nationalist Party and the Irish Land League, which had mounted a highly successful civil disobedience campaign against the (often absentee) landlords and against the British state, bringing attention to the dire economic situation of Irish tenant farmers. They had introduced a new word to the English language, after a land agent in County Mayo who was ostracised by the local community, to the extent that local shopkeepers refused to sell anything to him or his household: the unfortunate Captain Boycott.
The immediate effect of the murders was cataclysmic. Parnell’s reaction to the news was that he must resign from politics entirely, though he was dissuaded by Gladstone among others. Nationalist politicians condemned the murders, but of course for the English (and Scottish and Welsh) public, there was a seamless connection between Nationalist parliamentary activism and the assassinations. And in fact it turned out that several of the Invincibles were also senior officials in the Irish Land League. Several years later, The Times published letters apparently from Parnell which seemed to endorse the murders, though these were dramatically proved to be forgeries.
Superintendent John Mallon of the Dublin Metropolitan Police narrowly missed being on the scene of the murders himself, and pursued a dogged investigation of the crime. From good old human intelligence, he already had a good idea who the leading members of the Invincibles were, and interrogated them all until two of them confessed, one of them James Carey, the leader of the gang. The other five Invincibles were all hanged, including the two who had actually carried out the stabbing. The getaway driver, Skin-the-Goat, was imprisoned for sixteen years but emerged in time to make his appearance in Ulysses.
There was a grim postscript to the grim story. Carey, the informer, was given a new identity by the British government and sent off to make a new life with his family in South Africa. On the boat he made friends with one Patrick O’Donnell, a Donegal man from Gweedore. When they arrived in South Africa, O’Donnell saw an account of the Invincibles trial in an English newspaper which included a recognisable portrait of Carey, even though he had subsequently shaved his beard off. O’Donnell, who was politically motivated but seems not to have had any direct connection with the Invincibles, realised that his new friend on board was in fact the notorious informer, went back to the boat and shot Carey dead. (Most of the passengers seem to have brought their own guns with them.) He was convicted of murder and hanged. Carey’s fate was then used by Arthur Conan Doyle in the fourth, and worst, of the Sherlock Holmes novels, The Valley of Fear.
Julie Kavanagh is best known as a historian of ballet, but she has turned in a great piece of work here, not only going to the well-plumbed depths of British official sources, but also delving deep into the Invincibles and their structure, as far as one can trace it given the relative lack of written records and the mutability of some of the protagonists’ names. One unusual source that she uses extensively is the correspondence of Queen Victoria, who was deeply interested in the Irish situation, and of course hostile to the Nationalist agenda. There is one odd glitch where she starts to explore why O’Donnell was tried in London rather than South Africa, but fails to put in the actual reason why it happened that way. Otherwise this is a very readable account of a very dramatic (but nowadays overlooked) historical event.
May 11, 2021
I was truly looking forward to reading The Irish Assassins. When I began, I expected a bit of a history lesson to explain the social and political environs of the time. This was aptly provided. The colonization if Ireland and the death and destruction that followed was horrifying, The Julie Kavanagh details more than I had previously been aware. At a certain point, I did start to feel as if I was simply reading the day to day docket of the political going on in parliament and in within Ireland. That portion did tend to drag on a bit. The story does pick up one the assassinations take place. In some way s I feel the book did not totally identify it's target audience. While obviously extremely well researched, I would not say it is a history text. Neither would I say this is a lay person's historical read, What I did find fascinating was the author's note about how she came about the story in her father's belongings and how she followed the trail upon his death, If told through her journey through that discovery and her own research, it would have been a different book, but perhaps more interesting. I do appreciate the hard work and diligence that was put into the The Irish Assassins, but in the end, it was not my favorite read,
August 27, 2023
The book’s title refers to the assassination of Lord Cavendish and his deputy on the former’s first day as the senior British government official on Ireland in 1882. The author has undertaken extensive research but despite nearly 400 pages I am unclear what she wanted to write about. It is S if she remained undecided whether to write a complete history of the Irish quest for independence or focus on murder, as the chosen title would assume, or rather the murderer of one of the conspirators who then turned witness for the prosecution. Where the author has access to many sources she has written voluminously but other important events and personalities are glossed over. The books seems padded at times but the language is light and very readable. I would have preferred a book with a more clear objective and balanced cadence in the story telling.
August 9, 2021
A great book. Kavanagh found her father’s notes on his planned book on the Phoenix Park murders and turned them into a tour de force on Irish History!
June 22, 2022
On May 6,1882, Lord Cavendish, a special emissary to Ireland, and Thomas Burke, the Undersecretary for Ireland, where stabbed to death as they walked through Phoenix Park in Dublin by members of the Irish Invincibles, a militant republican group.
Kavanaugh uses the murder as a hook to tell the story of the rise and fall of Charles Stewart Parnell. Parnell was the leading Irish politician of the 1870s and 80s. He led the charge for land reform in Ireland and for Irish Independence. He constantly struggled to maintain his credibility with the hard-core Irish Independence movement, who were dubious, at best, that politics was the way to Irish independence. At the same time, he struggled to convince the English politicians that he could be trusted and that they could make a deal with him.
Some of the tension in the book is from Parnell trying all kinds of political maneuvering to get to his goal while, at the same time, the Invincibles and the other hard men are set on violence as the only solution.
The Invincibles were not impressive. They were mostly shabby bitter men. They repeatedly failed in their assassination attempts and the Phoenix Park murders were mostly the result of dumb luck. After the murders several of them turned informers to save their own life. The story of the actual murders and the trial is actually not that exciting. there was no great drama in either of them.
There are two great stories. First, Parnell, an unmarried man had a passionate affair with Kitty O'Shea, a married woman. Her husband William was a political ally of Parnell. Many people assume that Wiliam knew about the affair and was OK with it because it helped his career. Just as there was some hope that Parnell would come to a settlement, the affair became public, and Parnell was ruined. Kitty got divorced. Kitty and Parnell got married. Parnell died shortly thereafter. It is a classic story.
The second story is about James Carey. He was one of the assassins. He testified against his co-conspirators at the trial. After the trial he and his family adopted false names and took a boat to South Africa. By coincidence, Patrick O'Donnell, an Irish activist was on the boat, and he slowly realized that the most despicable Irishman in the world is on the boat, and he decided he should kill him. It is an exciting story.
The book is somewhat digressive and wanders a bit, but Kavanaugh has done deep research and is very good at unwinding some very complicated situations.
Kavanaugh uses the murder as a hook to tell the story of the rise and fall of Charles Stewart Parnell. Parnell was the leading Irish politician of the 1870s and 80s. He led the charge for land reform in Ireland and for Irish Independence. He constantly struggled to maintain his credibility with the hard-core Irish Independence movement, who were dubious, at best, that politics was the way to Irish independence. At the same time, he struggled to convince the English politicians that he could be trusted and that they could make a deal with him.
Some of the tension in the book is from Parnell trying all kinds of political maneuvering to get to his goal while, at the same time, the Invincibles and the other hard men are set on violence as the only solution.
The Invincibles were not impressive. They were mostly shabby bitter men. They repeatedly failed in their assassination attempts and the Phoenix Park murders were mostly the result of dumb luck. After the murders several of them turned informers to save their own life. The story of the actual murders and the trial is actually not that exciting. there was no great drama in either of them.
There are two great stories. First, Parnell, an unmarried man had a passionate affair with Kitty O'Shea, a married woman. Her husband William was a political ally of Parnell. Many people assume that Wiliam knew about the affair and was OK with it because it helped his career. Just as there was some hope that Parnell would come to a settlement, the affair became public, and Parnell was ruined. Kitty got divorced. Kitty and Parnell got married. Parnell died shortly thereafter. It is a classic story.
The second story is about James Carey. He was one of the assassins. He testified against his co-conspirators at the trial. After the trial he and his family adopted false names and took a boat to South Africa. By coincidence, Patrick O'Donnell, an Irish activist was on the boat, and he slowly realized that the most despicable Irishman in the world is on the boat, and he decided he should kill him. It is an exciting story.
The book is somewhat digressive and wanders a bit, but Kavanaugh has done deep research and is very good at unwinding some very complicated situations.
February 20, 2022
Book review
No 3/2022
The Irish Assassins, Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that stunned an Empire.
This is a fantastic book, really really good. Julie Kavanagh has a unique storytelling form that weaves both a personal story and political story together as one.
I knew of the story of the Irish Invincible’s for years but not as in-depth as I could have. I started this year with Shane mc Kenna’s book on the Invincible’s and I knew I wasn’t finished. I wanted more on this subject. I saw three books associated with it and this one was next up.
I not only learned about the Invincible’s, I learned a great deal about Gladstone and also his relationship, or lack there of with Queen Victoria. It is however Pat O’Donnell that for me is the greatest part of this book. An impoverished families story of emigration too America from Gweedore, a return to Ireland and then the subsequent journey to South Africa and then ultimately the gallows in England. West Donegal is a place that is very important to me. The two names that are associated with the murder of the informer Carey would be replicated in my genealogical line. Pat O’Donnell and Susan Gallagher. Infact it goes deeper, the O’Donnell family were heavily involved in the Molly Maguires, the Pennsylvania coal strikes, the Wiggan Patch Massacre and soo much more. This books covers it all in some detail. I suppose the one part of the book that let me down was that Father James Mc Fadden, a man I have spoke on occasionally, refused a request for a monument in the grounds of Derrybeg Chapel to Pat O’Donnell. This saddens me.
There is currently a campaign for the repatriation of the bodies of the Invincible’s to Glasnevin to lie amongst our patriot dead.
Currently 23 local authorities have supported this campaign by the National Graves Association include seven Ulster council areas and I fully support the campaign.
Well done to Julie Kavanagh on this book,I will now purchase Donal Mc Cracken’s book on Sergeant Mallon’s life and career. The South Armagh man called the “Irish Sherlock Holmes” who was the man who unravelled the whole conspiracy and got the IRB men sentenced to death.
No 3/2022
The Irish Assassins, Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that stunned an Empire.
This is a fantastic book, really really good. Julie Kavanagh has a unique storytelling form that weaves both a personal story and political story together as one.
I knew of the story of the Irish Invincible’s for years but not as in-depth as I could have. I started this year with Shane mc Kenna’s book on the Invincible’s and I knew I wasn’t finished. I wanted more on this subject. I saw three books associated with it and this one was next up.
I not only learned about the Invincible’s, I learned a great deal about Gladstone and also his relationship, or lack there of with Queen Victoria. It is however Pat O’Donnell that for me is the greatest part of this book. An impoverished families story of emigration too America from Gweedore, a return to Ireland and then the subsequent journey to South Africa and then ultimately the gallows in England. West Donegal is a place that is very important to me. The two names that are associated with the murder of the informer Carey would be replicated in my genealogical line. Pat O’Donnell and Susan Gallagher. Infact it goes deeper, the O’Donnell family were heavily involved in the Molly Maguires, the Pennsylvania coal strikes, the Wiggan Patch Massacre and soo much more. This books covers it all in some detail. I suppose the one part of the book that let me down was that Father James Mc Fadden, a man I have spoke on occasionally, refused a request for a monument in the grounds of Derrybeg Chapel to Pat O’Donnell. This saddens me.
There is currently a campaign for the repatriation of the bodies of the Invincible’s to Glasnevin to lie amongst our patriot dead.
Currently 23 local authorities have supported this campaign by the National Graves Association include seven Ulster council areas and I fully support the campaign.
Well done to Julie Kavanagh on this book,I will now purchase Donal Mc Cracken’s book on Sergeant Mallon’s life and career. The South Armagh man called the “Irish Sherlock Holmes” who was the man who unravelled the whole conspiracy and got the IRB men sentenced to death.
September 7, 2021
What if the May 6, 1882 murder of Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke had not succeeded, as had the previous attempt on William Forster? Would Irish Home Rule have come about sooner, saving countless lives? The history of political intrigue and racist policies towards the Irish goes back too far to believe that would have been possible without violent insurrection. My favorite part of this sad tale is learning about the origin of the word BOYCOTT. In 1880, after William Forster introduced a new act, to force landlords to recompense unjustly evicted tenants that was overwhelmingly rejected, there was strong feelings towards violent resistance. Charles Parnell spoke to the people, asking them to shun rather than murder the land-grabbers who took over a farm of an evicted tenant. Their first victim was an English land agent, Captain Charles Boycott. All of his employees quit; farm workers, blacksmith, laundress, no one would work for him, and no shop keepers would sell anything to him. This passive resistance against tyranny and injustice quickly added violent intimidation to the Boycott methods. Thus the Land League added to their strength, along with the Irish Republican Brotherhood and soon the more sinister arm, the Irish National Invincibles. This is a tragic story that continues to this day, across the world. What this book leaves out is the ordinary people, struggling to survive in a world ruled by racist, power hungry politicians. Too much about Parnell’s love affair with Katherine O’Shea, but what happened to Susan Gallagher? And what about the people of Ireland, caught up in the endless political battles and violence? This book tells a detailed political story, from Dublin to London, Paris, NY, Chicago, South Africa… and Gweedore. But the people of Gweedore get lost in the larger tale, and that is the story I missed. Note: read the author’s note first, it helps to understand the author’s purpose.
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