Anthologies of our Fenian Ancestors

Hand, Edward  (1744 - 1802)

Edward  Hand studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin and afterward enlisted as a surgeon's mate in the Royal Irish Regiment.  In 1767 he was sent to America with his regiment to serve on the Pennsylvania frontier.  Having reservations about enforcing Britain's despotic colonial  policies in America, he resigned his commission in 1774 and settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania were he practiced medicine. 

At the onset of the Revolutionary War in 1775 he was commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel in the 1st Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment. He served at the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Long Island, and the battles of Trenton and Princeton.  He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1777 and placed in  command of the American forces at Fort Pitt in western Pennsylvania . He was given command of a brigade of light infantry in Lafayette's Division in 1780 and in February of 1781 was appointed  Adjutant General of the Continental Army. 

 link to biography

 Haslet, Colonel John  (1727 - 1777)

John Haslet was born in Straw, Dungiven, Co. Derry, Ireland the son of Joseph and Ann Dykes Haslet. He attended the University of Glasgow in Scotland where he earned his degree in divinity. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1752. He married Shirley Stirling, the daughter of the Presbyterian minister in 1750. They had one daughter Mary who was born in 1752. His wife died during childbirth.

He left Ireland in 1757, settled in  Pennsylvania and shortly thereafter was commissioned a Captain in the Pennsylvania Militia. He relocated  Milford, Delaware in 1764 where he served as a Presbyterian minister and a medical doctor.

He was a veteran of the French and Indian War and an officer of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, serving as the first Colonel of the 1st Delaware Regiment. He fought in a number of battles and skirmishes including the battles of Brooklyn, Trenton and Princeton. . He was killed in action at the Battle of Princeton.   -- link to biography

Haybyrne, Patrick John  (Circa 1841 - 1900)

Patrick J. Haybyrne was born in Dublin, Ireland circa 1841. He was a barber by profession and a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). His father, James Haybyrne was president of the Davis Club and a member of the Young Ireland War Council in 1848. 

Shortly after finishing a two-year stint in the British army he joined the IRB. His barbershop in Thomas St. was used to store arms and ammunition in preparation for the impending Fenian uprising in 1867. In a letter to Thomas F. Meagher in the U.S. he stated that he and his comrades, 500 strong, were ready to fight and die for Ireland.

In December of 1865 he was arrested after the arms cache was found in his barbershop.  He was charged with treason -felony and sentenced to two years hard labor.

After his release in 1867 he came to New York where he established a hairdressing business. For the rest of his life he remained committed to Irish Freedom. He was a member of Clan na Gael and the Ancient Order of Foresters. He was also a founding member of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood Veterans Association and an active member of the Republican Party in New York.  

Heneghan, Síle (1909 - 2012)

Sίle Heneghan was born in Tontaleva, Bundorracha, Co Mayo on November 2, 1909. She was a lifelong Irish patriot who worked for and remained true to the 32-county Irish Republic proclaimed on the steps of the General Post Office by Padraic Pearse on Easter Monday 1916.

She was a young girl of six and a half when the Easter Rising took place.  The men and women of 1916 were her heroes.  Pearse, Connolly and Mac Bride were deaths she could recall.

 Through the War of Independence the Heneghan house was home to many a patriot who sought refuge while on the run from the from the Black and Tans

Síle worked in Thurles in the early 1940's where she joined Cumann na mBan.  In the mid 1950s she emigrated to United States. During her time there  she joined numerous Irish-American organizations including Irish Northern Aid (NORAID).

 As a member of NORAID she worked with George Harrison and Mike Flannery,  prominent leaders of the Irish Republican movement in the U.S.  During her year in the U.S. she corresponded with Republican prisoners in Portlaoise prison and visited with them on her trips to Ireland.

In 1983, Sίle returned to Ireland, settling in Galway city.  For the rest of her active life she was a true and fearless supporter of every Republican activity both at the local  and national levels. Every year she embarked on a pilgrimage to Wolfe Tone's grave in Bodenstown, Co. Kildare to bear allegiance to the founder of Irish Republicanism. 

She was deeply affected by the deaths of the all the hunger strikers  from 1940 through 1981 who died to preserve the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916 and ratified in 1919 by the First Dail Eireann. 

Síle passed away on February 5, 2012 and is buried in Leenane Cemetery in West Galway.

 Hodgers, Jennie Irene  (1843 - 1915)

Jennie Irene Hodgers came to the United States from Ireland in the years following the famine of the 1840's.  She served for three years in the 95th Illinois Infantry Regiment of the Union army under the name Albert Cashier and fought in some 40 battles and skirmishes including the battles of Nashville, Mobile, and Vicksburg.

 She was the only woman to serve in the Civil War for the full time that her unit served,  the only woman to receive a pension for her service during the Civil War and  the first woman to vote in Illinois. 

She was buried in a Union uniform upon her death in 1915, and her name is inscribed on the Illinois monument at Vicksburg.

Jennie life was a difficult and lonely journey driven by circumstances, mostly, beyond her control, yet, a journey undertaken with grace, courage and fortitude. She earned the respect of her peers in war and peace and a special place in the history of the United States. --- link to biography

 Holland, John P.  (1840 - 1914)

John Philip Holland was born Feb. 29, 1840 in Liscannor, County Clare, Ireland. He was educated at Limerick, Holland taught school until 1872 in Ireland and in 1873 emigrated to the United States. He was the father of the modern submarine, who designed and built the first underwater vessel accepted by the U.S. Navy.

Settling in Paterson, N.J., he taught there until 1879, when, with financial support from the Irish Fenian Society (who hoped to use submarines against England), he built the Fenian Ram, a small sub that proved a limited success in a test run. In 1895 his J.P. Holland Torpedo Boat Company received a contract from the U.S. Navy to build a submarine, and in 1898 the first truly practical submarine, was launched. The U.S. government ordered six more; similar orders came from England, Japan, and Russia. Holland’s final years were marked by litigation with his financial backers. One of his last inventions was an apparatus designed to enable sailors to escape from damaged submarines. --- link to biography

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