Manchester Martyrs - Trial

Trial

Proceedings began on 28 October 1867, in front of Mr Justice Blackburne and Mr Justice Mellor. Twenty-six appeared in court on the first day in front of a grand jury, which found that there was a prima facie case against all of the defendants for murder, felony, and misdemeanour. It was decided to charge the five "principal offenders" – Allen, Larkin, Gould (O'Brien), Shore (Condon), and Maguire – under one indictment. They were therefore brought back to the courtroom the following day, when their trial proper began, despite none of them having fired the fatal shot.

Allen was a 19-year-old carpenter; Larkin was a tailor, the only married member of the group, and had four children. O'Brien, who had fought in the American Civil War, was a 30-year-old shop assistant from County Cork. O'Meagher Condon, born in Cork and 32-years-old, had also fought for the Union side in the American Civil War. Thomas Maguire was a Royal Marine who had served for 10 years and had just returned home on leave.

The jury retired at 6:15 pm on the fifth day and returned at 7:30 pm to give its verdict of guilty for each of the five defendants. When asked if they had anything to say before sentence was passed, several of the convicted men made a closing speech. Allen stated his innocence, and that he regretted the death of Sergeant Brett, but that he was prepared to "die proudly and triumphantly in defence of republican principles and the liberty of an oppressed and enslaved people".

Larkin said he felt that he had received a fair trial, and that his counsel had done everything they could in his defence. He ended by saying: "So I look to the mercy of God. May God forgive all who have sworn my life away. As I am a dying man, I forgive them from the bottom of my heart. May God forgive them."

O'Brien claimed that all of the evidence given against him was false, and that as an American citizen he ought not to be facing trial in a UK court. He then went on at length to condemn the British government, the "imbecile and tyrannical rulers" of Ireland, until he was interrupted by the judge, who appealed to him to cease his remarks: "The only effect of your observations must be to tell against you with those who have to consider the sentence. I advise you to say nothing more of that sort. I do so entirely for your own sake."

O'Meagher Condon's address to the court was considered by The Times to have "excelled all the other convicts in his zeal for the Fenian cause". He admitted to having organised the attack on the police van in his role as leader of the north-west section of the movement, but claimed that he "never threw a stone or fired a pistol; I was never at the place ... it is all totally false". He went on to say that "had I committed anything against the Crown of England, I would have scorned myself had I attempted to deny it". Towards the end of his speech he shouted, "God save Ireland!", a cry taken up by his companions in the dock.

William Allen, Michael Larkin, Michael O'Brien, Thomas Maguire, and Edward O'Meagher Condon, were sentenced to death by hanging – the only punishment English law at that time allowed for murder – again crying "God save Ireland" from the dock after sentence was pronounced. Maguire was subsequently pardoned and discharged, and O'Meagher Condon's sentence was commuted on the eve of his execution.

The trial took place in what was described as a "climate of anti-Irish hysteria" by the weekly Reynold's Newspaper, which described it as a "deep and everlasting disgrace to the English government", the product of an ignoble panic which seized the governing classes. A yell of vengeance, it said, had issued from every aristocratic organ, and that before any evidence had been obtained the prisoners' guilt was assumed and their executions had been demanded.