John
O'Mahony
was
born
in
Kilbeheny,
Co.
Limerick,
Ireland
in
1816
into
an
Irish
speaking,
aristocratic
family.
The
O'Mahony
family
was
one
of
the
few
Gaelic
families
in
Munster
who
held
on
to
their
ancestral
lands
after
the
plantation
of
Ireland in
the
16th
and
17th
centuries.
Members
of
the
family
had
been
outspoken
advocates
for
the
rights
of
the
native
Irish
during
the
Penal
Laws
period
of
the
late
17th
and
early
18th
centuries. O’Mahony’s
father
and
uncles
participated
in
the
United
Irishman
uprising
of
1798
and
narrowly
avoided
execution
as
a
result
of
the
death
of
their
chief
enemy,
Lord
Kingston,
a
local
landowner.
As
a
child
O’Mahony
lived
and
was
reared
on
his
family
estate.
He
would
later
inherit
the
estate upon
the
death
of
his
brother,
and
subsequently
would relinquish
it
to his
sister
with
his
involvement
with
the
young
Ireland
movement.
A
fluent
Irish
speaker
he
received
his
early
education
at
Hamlin's
school
in
Middletown.
Despite
the
Roman
Catholic
Church’s
ban
on
adherents’
attending
Trinity
College,
a
protestant
University
in Dublin,
he,
nevertheless,
enrolled
to
pursue
linguistic
studies.
Sanskrit,
Hebrew
and
Irish
were
the
languages
he
specialized
in.
After
a
number
of
years
he
withdrew
from
Trinity without
obtaining
a
degree.
Infused
with
a
strong
sense
of
national
sentiment,
no
doubt
inherited
from
his
revolutionary-minded
family,
he
became
involved
with
Daniel
O'Connell's
Repeal
Association.
He
attended
many
of
O'Connell
rallies
in
Cork
and
Tipperary.
O'Connell
was
a
friend
of
his
father. When
the
Young
Ireland
party
seceded
from
O'Connell's
Repeal
Association at
Conciliation
Hall
in
Dublin
in
1846, O'Mahony
aligned
himself
the
Young Irelanders.
It
was
the
Young
Irelander’s
belief
that
the
use
of
force
was
the
only
alternative
to
the
politically
ineffective
Repeal
Association.
This
belief
was
put
into
action
with
the
uprising
of
1848.
Unfortunately,
the
rising
was
betrayed
and
subsequently
failed.
This
dealt
a
severe
blow
to
the
Young
Ireland
leadership.
John
Mitchel
one
of
the
prominent
leaders
of
the
Young
Irelanders
was
quickly
arrested.
With
news
of Mitchel’s
arrest,
William
Smith
O'Brien
and
other
Young
Ireland
leaders
took
to
the
hills
to
avoid
capture
and
launched
a
series
of
attacks
that
eventually
petered
out
in
1849.
O'Mahony
and
his
band
of
volunteers
were
one
of
the
last
to
cease
activities.
Many
of
the
leaders
including
William
Smith
O'Brien,
Thomas
Francis
Meagher,
James
Stephens
and
Terence Bellew
MacManus
were
eventually
captured.
After
sham
trials
these
men
were
either
a
sentence
of
death,
tortured
in
English
prisons
or
exiled
to
the
infamous
prison
colony
in Van Dieman's
Land. O'Mahony,
who eluded
capture
made
his
way
to
Paris
where
he
met
up
with
other
Young Irelanders
who
also
managed
to
escape
to
refuge
in
Paris.
In
1853,
John
Mitchel
escaped
from
Van
Dieman's
Land
and
made
his
way
to
the
New
York.
Upon
learning
of
Mitchel’s
escape
O'Mahony
left
Paris
to
join
him
there.
Shortly
after
his
arrival
in
New
York Mitchel
was
chosen
to
lead the Emmet Monument Association, a U.S
based
Irish
national
movement
and
predecessor
to
the
Fenian
movement.
The
association
was
ineffective
in
influencing
events
in
Ireland.
After
Mitchel
moved
to
Tennessee
the
association
split
into
two
factions.
The
faction
that
retained
the
old
name
was
led
by
O'Mahony
and
Michael
Doheny;
the
other
faction
named
'Emigrant
Aid
Association'
was
led
by
Robert
Taylor
the
son
of
ex-President
Tyler.
During
this
time
period
O'Mahony
translated
Keating's
Foras
Feasa
ar
Éirinn
as
The
History
of
Ireland.
The
inclusion
of
notes
from
John
O'Donovan's
edition
of
the
Annals
of
the
Four
Masters
prevented
its
sale
in
Ireland.
One
of
his
own
commentaries
compared
the
modern
struggle
against
English
rule
in
Ireland
with
the
ethos
of
the
Fionn
cycle,
giving
currency
to
the
term
most
widely
used
for
the
Fenians.
In
1858,
Michael Doheny
organized
a
meeting
in
his
New
York
law
offices
of
men
committed
to
the
freedom
of
Ireland.
O’Mahony,
James
Roche,
Thomas
J.
Kelly,
Oliver
Byrne,
Patrick
O’Rourke,
and
Michael
Corcoran
were
all
in
attendance.
Out
of
this
meeting
emerged
the
Fenian
Brotherhood,
so
named
by O’Mahony.
Its
principle
objects
ware
to
supply
money
and
arms
to
the
Irish
branch
of
the
Fenians founded
by
James
Stephens
in
Dublin
on
St.
Patrick's
Day
of
that
same
year.
At
the
onset
of
the
U.S.
Civil
War,
O'Mahony
held
the
rank
of
Colonel
in
the
99th
New
York
Militia
whose
numbers
were
recruited
from
the
ranks
of
the
Fenian
Brotherhood.
The
Civil
War
gave
the
Fenians
a
great
opportunity
to
obtain
military
training.
However,
by
war's
end
the
organization
was
in
disarray
and
beginning
to
disintegrate
into
irreconcilable
factions.
O'Mahony
attempted
to
keep
the
organization
intact
but
by
the
mid
1870's
it
had
ceased
to
exist.
Due
to
the
disarray
within
the
organization,
it
was
unable
to
support
the
planned
uprising
of
1867
in
Ireland.
Instead
of
sending
trained
soldiers,
they
opted
instead
to
attack
the
British
in
Canada
with
the
aim
of
holding
Canada
hostage
for
Ireland's
freedom.
O'Mahony
helped
organize
what
was
to
become
known
as
the
Fenian
Raids
into
Canada.
O'Mahony
spent
his
final
years
in
ill
health
and
poverty.
He
passed
away
on
February
7,
1877
in
New
York
City.
He
remains
were
returned
to
Ireland
for
burial
in
the
Fenian
plot in
Glasnevin
Cemetery
in
Dublin.
Contributed by
Tomás Ó Coısdealbha
cemetery
AND
grave
location
Name:
Glasnevin Cemetery
ADDRESS:
Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11, Ireland
GRAVE
LOCATION:
Republican
Plot
HEADSTONE
click on
headstone to view inscription
