14/09/2024
Fenian prisoner Thomas Duggan (Pictured), who was a teacher in Ballincollig NS on Station Rd, and who was arrested in Ballincollig for swearing British soldiers into the Fenian Movement in1865. He was sentenced to 10 years transportation to Australia, where he was to spend the rest of his life.
As of yet there is no monument to his memory in Ballincollig.
Thomas Duggan was born in 1822 at Parkmore, Cloughduv, Co. Cork. In his late teens he trained as a primary school teacher and taught in Ballincollig National School, Co. Cork. He married Lucinda O’Driscoll who was born in 1829. They had six children, Thomas (8/101851), Ellen Maria (13/11/1853), Anne (2/12/1855), Edmond (20/2/1858), Frederick (6/5/1860) and Michael (24/4/1862).
Thomas Duggan became active in the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians) and used the Ballincollig branch of the Catholic Young Men’s Society as a cover to recruit young men to the cause of Irish nationalism. His activities were reported to the Commissioners of Education by Rev. Mr. Cahill, a Protestant clergyman and the Head Inspector was instructed to proceed to Ballincollig and investigate the allegations. Head Inspector Sheridan reported that the allegations were substantiated and that the Parish Priest, Canon David Horgan, had, as a result, withdrawn as Spiritual Director and Patron of the Catholic Young Men’s Society. Significantly for Thomas, Canon Horgan was also Manager of Ballincollig
Male and Female National Schools.
The Society was now, as far as the Commissioners of Education were concerned, proven to be a political society and when Thomas Duggan persisted in his membership, he was dismissed from his teaching post on 21 February 1862.
Thomas left Ireland for the United States after his dismissal and it is believed that he took part in the Civil War on the Confederate side. The American Civil War lasted until May 1865 and it was around that time that Thomas Duggan returned to Cork. He resumed his activities with the I.R.B. As far as the authorities were concerned he was a marked man and he was arrested in Moxley’s Bar (now the Angler’s Rest) Carrigrohane, a short distance from Ballincollig.
Notorious Judges, Keogh and Fitzgerald, having presided over a series of Fenian trials in Dublin, were sent to Cork to try another batch of cases, including that of Thomas Duggan. The trial of Thomas Duggan opened on 19 December 1865. His co-accused was Jeremiah O’Donovan, who had an address at The Hydro, Blarney. The prosecution case depended on two witnesses, Thomas Cain and Thomas Murphy. They were both privates with the 4th Dragoon Guards and were stationed in Ballincollig Barracks.
The Fenian organisation was organised into cells to guard against informers and Cain and Murphy stated that Duggan was a ‘Centre’ and that he had sworn them into the Brotherhood.
The trial lasted less than a day. Despite being defended
by Isaac Butt, the Home Rule politician and brilliant barrister, Duggan was found guilty of membership of the
Irish Republican Brotherhood and was sentenced to ten
years transportation. Duggan did not mince his words in
criticising the way in which the jury had been selected.
Not a single Catholic served on the jury. Thomas Duggan
said, ‘I appeal to any intelligent man for his opinion, that
the manner in which the jury list was made out for
these trials clearly shows that in this country, political
trials are a mere mockery.’
For further information on Thomas Duggan there are 2 excellent articles in Ballincollig produced magazines. See Times Past 2014, page 28 for Thomas Duggan 1822-1913, Teacher and Fenian by Mary O Leary and the Journal of the Ballincollig Community School Local History Society, page 4, for The Duggan Family of Ballincollig and Ballyheeda, Co. Cork by Mary Daly.
