Catalpa flag to go on display for first time
As part of the celebrations of a daring Fenian prison break in Australia, the flag of a ship involved is to go on public display at the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks this weekend.
During the rescue, 6 Irish Fenians were broken out of a convict establishment in a British penal colony in Western Australia in what became known as the Catalpa ship rescue. Among them were Michael Harrington and Thomas Hassett from Goleen and Doneraile.
On Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 April, the ship’s flag, which played a key role in the success of this rescue mission, will go on display in the Palatine Room at Collins Barracks. This will be the first public exhibition of the flag since it was donated to the National Museum in October 1972.
The flag measures 4.5 x 3 metres and bears 36 hand-sewn stars, and is the largest flag in the national collection. It was the official flag of the United States of America between 4 July 1865 and 4 July 1867 and was the flag of the Catalpa at the time of the Fenian rescue in 1876. It is one of the last remaining artefacts of the prison break that took place between 17 and 19 April 1876.
Thomas Darragh, James Wilson, Martin Hogan, Michael Harrington, Thomas Hassett, and Robert Cranston, were among 62 Irish Republican Brotherhood leaders and supporters transported to Fremantle in Western Australia in the aftermath of the Fenian uprising of 1867. By 1875, while most had been released, these men were still incarcerated.
John Devoy, leader of Clan na Gael in New York, and John Boyle O’Reilly and Thomas McCarthy Fennell, who had both been imprisoned in Fremantle, initiated the rescue of the prisoners by arranging the purchase of the Catalpa and its re-fitting as a whaling ship to send to Western Australia to bring the Fenians to the United States.
In April 1876, after 11 months, the Catalpa, under the command of Captain George Anthony, arrived at Western Australia and awaited the escapees.
As the six Fenians finally boarded the Catalpa, the Georgette, a ship of the British authorities in Fremantle, gave chase, threatening to fire on the Catalpa unless the crew surrendered the prisoners.
When Captain Anthony raised the ship’s US flag and warned the Georgette that they would be firing on the United States, the Georgette returned to Fremantle to avoid an international incident and the Catalpa returned safely to New York.