Manchester Martyrs - Aftermath

Aftermath

Most of the British press had demanded "retribution swift and stern", not because the men were Irish, but because they were Fenians; "the public demand for the death penalty was not simply an expression of anti-Irish sentiment, but rather a product of the Fenian panic and popular feelings of insecurity and the desire for order." The Daily Telegraph, for instance, although like most of its contemporaries describing Brett's death as "a vulgar, dastardly murder", nevertheless supported reform in Ireland; "we may hang convicted Fenians with good conscience, but we should also thoroughly redress those evils distinctly due to English policy and still supported by English power."

Many mock funerals were held in Ireland and even in a few British cities during the weeks following the executions, sometimes attracting crowds of thousands. These demonstrations of support for the three Fenians further outraged British public opinion, and "reinforced the prevailing sentiment that the Irish moral compass was somehow off-center". The executions gave rise to an enormous groundswell of feeling among Irish communities the world over; according to Christy Campbell, Ireland drenched itself in martyred indignation. Cardinal Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, "and his supporters took a firm line against religious services for 'dead terrorists'". Bishop Moriarty of Kerry declared: "when we look down into the fathomless depth of this infamy of the heads of the Fenian conspiracy, we must acknowledge that eternity is not long enough, nor hell hot enough to punish such miscreants", and prohibited such displays in his parish.

The executions were the inspiration for the song "God Save Ireland", Ireland's unofficial national anthem, since replaced by "Amhrán na bhFiann" ("The Soldier's Song"). They were also "incalculable" in their influence some years later on the "political awakening" of Charles Stewart Parnell, founder of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Speaking in the House of Commons ten years after the executions Parnell told the House of Commons that "I wish to say as directly as I can that I do not believe, and never shall believe, that any murder was committed in Manchester".