Growing progressively anxious as to Fenian activity, it was by now inevitable that the British Government was going to move against Fenianism. Turning to Nagle, his handlers stressed upon him the necessity of finding clear and accurate information as to what the IRB planned. On this occasion, Nagle provided value for money: within one month of O’Mahony’s Final Call, Nagle produced a letter signed by James Stephens stating ‘there is no time to be lost. This year – and let there be no mistake about it – must be the year of action. I speak with a knowledge and authority to which no other man could pretend; and I repeat the flag of Ireland – of the Irish Republic – must this year be raised.’21 Nagle had received the letter from a Clonmel Fenian who was the worse for alcohol after he had called to the offices of the Irish People. The production of the letter delighted Ryan, considering that Nagle, as an informant, could not be used for evidence against the IRB. Taking the letter to Dublin Castle, Ryan demanded immediate action from his superiors lest they lost the opportunity to move against the Fenians. The letter unnerved the Castle so much that the Irish Privy Council was summoned and agreed to suppress The Irish People and arrest leading Fenian activists.
On the evening of Friday 18 September 1865, Dublin Castle authorised the suppression of The Irish People. The task was to be carried out by the B Division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, assisted by Daniel Ryan, Nagle’s handler in G-Division. The police had placed a cordon around Parliament Street and quickly cleared the area of all civilians. Having done so, G-Division detectives approached the offices of The Irish People and there was a standoff of sorts when the occupiers of the office refused to allow them enter the premises. Eventually forcing in the door, the G-men stormed the building, where they found a number of Fenians, including Pierce Nagle. At the time of the suppression, O’Donovan Rossa had been drinking at No.82 Dame Street, and had learned of the suppression through a colleague, Patrick Kearney. Kearney and Rossa mulled over the possibility of fighting the police, but O’Donovan Rossa urged caution as they had few weapons with which to take on the G-men. O’Donovan Rossa left for the offices of The Irish People, and searching his pockets, he removed some letters and a pistol which could incriminate him when he would be eventually searched. Arriving in Parliament Street, he was immediately arrested and taken through Dublin Castle to Chancery Lane Police Station. G-Division detectives then smashed up the printing press, seized the typeset and forensically searched the building, including the pulling of floorboards and chimneys – nothing was to be left for granted. Newspapers, legers and bank books were also seized and taken to the headquarters of the B Division in the nearby lower Castle Yard, within the Dublin Castle complex. Finally, the state issued a freeze on the newspaper’s bank account, which was a stifling blow to the Fenian movement. The Irish People newspaper had come to an abrupt end.
O’Donovan Rossa had lived at No. 62 Camden Street, within a stone’s throw of The Irish People offices, and had previously given his wife, Mary Jane, instructions to destroy any materials that connected him to Fenianism if he were arrested. When her husband had been arrested she had been packing his bag, as O’Donovan Rossa was due to leave for America on a Fenian errand ordered by James Stephens. Mary Jane was heavily pregnant and she was due to leave with her husband the following day for Cork as he departed for America. She had learned of his arrest through James O’Callaghan, who had been sent to the O’Donovan Rossa home to clarify that she had no documents which could subvert the IRB and be used against her husband. O’Donovan Rossa had given her a letter from James Stephens for Fenian activists in Carlow. The activists had requested his presence at the Ballybar Races in the first week of September, but Stephens had forbidden Rossa from going and instructed him to go to America instead. On O’Callaghan’s suggestion, Mary Jane burned the letter; shortly afterwards her house was raided. Overall, ten individuals including Thomas Clarke Luby, John O’Leary, Pierce Nagle and O’Donovan Rossa were arrested during the suppression of The Irish People. It was necessary that the state arrested Nagle with the others for reasons of cover and to protect his. However, O’Donovan Rossa’s suspicions had been roused when the prisoners had asked to see their wives. The authorities declined, but O’Donovan Rossa commented that Nagle had been allowed to see his wife. He initially put this down to Nagle being friendly with a police officer, until he realised the real reason and became aware of the deception. The prisoners were charged with Treason Felony and attempting to levy war upon the Queen, but later their sentence was increased to High Treason, an offence punishable by death. On learning this, O’Donovan Rossa became convinced that he was going to be hanged by the state, and preparing himself for death, he recalled how he was ready to die, pledging to ‘defy them to the bitter end’.22 Eventually brought before a Magistrates Court, O’Donovan Rossa and his comrades were taken to Richmond Prison in the outer Dublin suburbs to await trial as prisoners on remand. He was concerned for Mary Jane and wrote her a letter suggesting she should leave for America. Explaining why she should emigrate, he suggested that her life in Ireland, due to his imprisonment, would be frightening: ‘I would rather have you live there than die, or (what is much the same to you or me) be dependent upon anyone here.’23
Arriving at Richmond Prison, O’Donovan Rossa remembered his time in Cork Prison. He noted, however, that the experience in Dublin was far worse – he recalled that upon entry to the institution, ‘they stripped me naked, took my clothes… I was told I would be allowed to pay for my board, but if I did not pay I should work’.24 Once in prison, he was treated to a system of silence, supervision and separation, where prisoners were not allowed to speak to each other and were held in separate cells. He was allowed one hour of exercise in the prison yards, supervised by prison authorities. He recalled that ‘the most rigid precautions were taken lest we should carry on any kind of conversation during this hour’.25 As previously mentioned, O’Donovan Rossa was worried about Mary Jane’s welfare, as well as that of his family. O’Donovan Rossa strongly believed that he was going to be convicted and sentenced to either imprisonment or execution, and in this vein recommended to Mary Jane the importance of taking the family to America. He concluded that while in Ireland, there would be a vendetta against his family because of their convict father, and they would have a greater chance of survival in America within the Irish-American network. He told Mary Jane to use whatever resources she had to leave Ireland and suggested she come to Richmond Prison and collect his watch and chain for pawning. While Mary Jane resolved to go to America while he was in prison, she was determined to remain in Ireland for the duration of her husband’s trial and actively played a leading role in the establishment of a Ladies Committee seeking the release of the arrested Fenian prisoners.
The committee had sought to bring popular attention to their case and argue on the behalf of their husbands and brothers. The committee effectively waged a propaganda campaign, albeit couched in terms of charity rather than politics, on behalf of the imprisoned Fenians through The Irishman newspaper. It had also functioned as a means of maintaining communication within the broader IRB organisation following the arrests, aided by the fact that the police were anxious not to question the women, believing such behaviour was ‘very ticklish work’.26 Commending the activities of the Ladies Committee, John Devoy later noted:
In Ireland there was no regular organisation of Fenian women, but a large number of them worked as well as if they had been organised. They took no pledge, but were trusted by the men, were the keepers of important secrets, travelled from point to point bearing important messages, and were the chief agents in keeping the organisation alive in Ireland.27
On 28 October 1865 the committee released a statement entitled ‘An Appeal to the Women of Ireland’, holding that the prisoners were innocent of any crime ‘even in the eye of English law’. The Ladies Committee asked whether Irishwomen could stand by and allow the families of the prisoners to fall into destitution.28 Mary Jane worked as secretary to the Ladies Committee and developed a strong friendship with Letitia Frazier Luby and Eileen O’Leary, wife and sister of Thomas Clarke Luby and John O’Leary respectively. The Ladies Committee had hoped to establish branches throughout the city to actively campaign for the families of the prisoners and for the release of the imprisoned men. Membership was open to all women and the committee was defined as strictly non-political, although it did not ‘seek to conceal our sympathies are wholly with the prisoners’.29 Defining itself as a charitable organisation, the Ladies Committee boldly announced that: ‘their