Cornelius O'Mahony

Cornelius O'Mahony (1840 – 5 March 1879) was a Gaelic scholar, teacher, Fenian and staunch supporter of Irish independence. He was tried and convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to prison, only to be later transported to Australia.

Early life

O’Mahony was born about 1840 in Macroom, County Cork, Ireland but later moved to Dublin. He grew up in a time where starvation and disease were commonplace, particularly in the countryside, during the period commonly referred to as the Potato Famine. Given his later pursuits it is fair to say he came from a family which either owned land or had the money with which to educate him.

The Fenian movement

By the time O’Mahony was 20 years old he had become a close follower of James Stephens and his fight to create a free and independent Ireland by removing the perceived tyranny of the British. To this extent he became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood or IRB. Joseph Denieffe (1906) writes of him as “...good and earnest Cornelius O’Mahony ...an unsophisticated but gifted school teacher...”^[1] In 1862 O’Mahony was working as a schoolmaster in the ‘training school’ located in Marlborough Street, Dublin,^[2] and was useful in introducing like minded educated young men to the cause.

O’Mahony resigned from his post with the National Board of Education, and the National schools of Ireland, in 1863 to concentrate on his work with the IRB and its newspaper The Irish People. He remained on the papers staff as assistant bookkeeper and part-time journalist until it was raided and closed down in 1865 when the British felt that an armed uprising was imminent. At that time he was arrested along with Charles Kickham, Thomas Clarke Luby, John O’Leary, Jeremiah O’Donovan and others. The charges laid at Kilmainham Gaol included, “Conspiring To Depose The Queen, To Compel Her Majesty To Change Her Measures And Counsels, To Move And Stir Foreigners To Invade Ireland”^[3] An abortive uprising known as the Fenian Rising took place in 1867 but was quickly put down.

Conviction and Transportation

For his participation in the rebellion O’Mahony was convicted at the Assizes in Dublin on January 16, 1866 following a retrial, as the first jury was dismissed by the judge. The defence implored the subsequent jury to show leniency in his case and he was eventually sentenced to five years penal servitude.^[4] His sentence was subsequently commuted to transportation to a penal colony in Western Australia. In October, 1867, along with more than 60^[5] other Fenians, including O’Donovan and Hugh Francis Brophy, he set sail on board the Hougoumont. This ship was to be the last to transport convicts to Australia.^[6] The voyage was a relatively peaceful one, monotony being one of the major concerns, and the ship docked at Fremantle on January 9, 1868.

Life in Australia

Within a year of his arrival in Australia, O’Mahony had been granted a Ticket of leave and on May 18, 1869 he received his Certificate of freedom as part of a general amnesty granted by the government led by William Ewart Gladstone.^[7] Following his freedom he was engaged as a teacher of senior grades at the Catholic Boys’ School, Perth, later known as the ‘Assisted’ school. While carrying out his teaching duties he also held the position of Honorary Secretary of the Catholic Institute in Perth which was responsible for assisting local Catholic schools and their teachers.

In 1874 O’Mahony married Mary Butler and they went on to produce two children, O’Connell Daniel, 1875, and Honora Mary in 1877.^[8] Mary, born in Kilkenny, Ireland arrived in Western Australia in 1864 at age 15 and later worked in a number of important businesses including a draper’s. Hundreds of locals, including members of government, attended her funeral in 1914 as she was a well known and well respected member of the local community.

Monument erected over the grave of the fenian, Cornelius O'Mahony

Later years

Following the birth of his daughter Honora in 1877 O’Mahony left Western Australia to seek better conditions in Victoria. He left behind both the grim reminders of his convict past and his young family. On arriving in Melbourne he chose to settle in the suburb of West Melbourne which had a large Irish population. With his prior experience he was asked to take up the position of head teacher at St Mary's Primary School, West Melbourne. In 1878 he was made an honorary member of the Melbourne branch of the St Patrick’s Society which was dedicated to supporting local Irish Catholics, promoting Irish culture and independence for Ireland.

O’Mahony worked at the school for less than two years before he was taken ill., dying shortly after of typhoid fever on March 5, 1879.^[9] A contemporary newspaper report indicated that the death rate from typhoid in the suburb was extremely high for that period and that that figure exceeded the worst statistic for equivalent towns in Great Britain during times of epidemic.^[10]

Following his death O’Mahony’s funeral took place at St Mary Star of the Sea, West Melbourne and then in procession moved to his burial at the Melbourne General Cemetery. Hundreds of people, including school children, took part, many wearing green scarves. As a sign of respect and in recognition of his life and work his friends within the Irish community, assisted by Morgan Jageurs, collected funds to construct and erect a fitting memorial for him. One such method was to raffle his personal library at the cost of one shilling per ticket.^[11] Shortly after his burial a carved Celtic cross made of local Bluestone was raised over the grave, its plaque bearing the inscription, "In Memory of Cornelius O'Mahony, Macroom, County Cork, Ireland, Released Political Prisoner, Died 5th March, 1879. R.I.P."

References

External links

• Works by John O'Mahony at Project Gutenberg
• History of the Training School in Marlborough Street, Dublin http://centralmodelseniorschool.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/150-Years-of-Tradition-in-Marlborough-Street1.pdf