the nature of the oath and find some person who will dispose to it and the individuals concerned in administering it’.14 They received confirmation from a former member, Robert Cusack, that the Phoenix Society was oath-bound. Police believed the oath to be:
I [NAME] to sincerely swear in the presence of God that I renounce all allegiance to the Queen of England and that I will yield implicit obedience to the commands of my superiors and that I will keep secret regarding this brotherhood. That I will take up arms and fight at a moment’s warning and finally that I take this oath without any mental reservation. So help me God.15
Examining the validity of this oath, police discovered that there was no set oath as such, but confirming that Cusack’s recollection of an oath was correct, police discovered the following verse, which Cusack had omitted: ‘That I will do my upmost at any risk to make Ireland an independent Democratic Republic.’16
Sub Inspector Mason, rather ominously, warned Dublin Castle that ‘the society is spreading. Not long ago they did not number over a dozen in the town and are now over 100, it is also spreading in the country.’17 F. J. Davies, a Royal Magistrate at Bantry, wrote to Dublin Castle of a system of intimidation with a base in Skibbereen ‘endeavouring to coerce persons to join the Phoenix Society’.18 Consolidating this report, at Bantry, Sub-Inspector Caulfield, on the basis of an informant’s information, warned of a conspiracy with access to widespread rifles and pikes. His information had warned that the Phoenix Society was committed to an uprising and when the time would come, ‘police barracks would be first attacked and if the men gave up their arms they would not be injured, but if not they would be severely dealt with’.19 The weapons he spoke of were supposedly purchased by ‘a considerable sum of money’ collected in America.20 In this regard the local police were convinced that:
The object of the Phoenix Society is to keep alive a spirit of hatred to the British Crown and government. [It] was formed under the direct of and is in close communication with a similar one in America which supplies funds. [They] are making every exertion to procure arms and are having pikes made.21
According to the police network, Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa was the ringleader of the Phoenix Society and needed close observation.22 He was officially regarded as ‘one of the strictest members at Skibbereen’.23 Relying on the statement of Robert Cusack, police could establish O’Donovan Rossa’s recruiting role in the society, with Cusack recalling that:
About the middle of April Jeremiah O’Donovan (Rossa) and McCarty or Carte called in a covered car for Cusack and took him to Clonakilty, where they collected a number of tradesmen, had drink and swore them in. It was supposed this was the beginning of society in Clonakilty.24
These constabulary reports were forwarded to the government, and new Resident Magistrate, George Fitzmaurice, was purposely sent down from the North to monitor their activities, taking residence in Skibbereen in December. Having interviewed the local constabulary and magistrates, Fitzmaurice expressed his desire to put down secret societies in Cork. Upon arrival it had been recommended to him that he should enforce crime and outrage acts against the Phoenix Society or introduce a proclamation offering a large reward for information. Fitzmaurice was against both and insisted that if he could get someone within the movement to act as a spy, to give him regular information and break the movement from within, ‘he would take care of him’.25
One of these informers that Fitzmaurice began to ‘take care of’ was Dan O’Sullivan Goula, a process server originally from Kenmare, who had been sworn into the movement in August 1858. O’Sullivan Goula had moved from County Kerry to Skibbereen where he took rooms in Morty Dowling’s pub. Befriending Dowling, O’Sullivan Goula quickly joined the Skibbereen Phoenix men. He was placed within the movement at the behest of George Fitzmaurice to gather intelligence as to who the society consisted of, what it was doing and where they would meet. Parallel to the work of Fitzmaurice and O’Sullivan Goula, the new Resident Magistrate also moved in extra police to the locality in preparation for moving against the Phoenix Society.26 Rossa recollected how he regularly met with Goula and saw him playing with Dowling’s children, and in hindsight recalled how this endearing man entertaining his friends’ children was actually engaged in swearing Dowling and his comrades into jail. Parallel to official concern as to the activities of the Phoenix Society, there was growing recognition within the local Catholic clergy that something was afoot in the community. The Catholic Church had steadfastly opposed all secret societies and forms of oath taking, particularly in Skibbereen where the Eucharist had been politicised and men known to the clergy of being active in the Phoenix Society were in some cases refused the sacrament of Eucharist and absolution from confession unless they renounced their oath.
At Caheragh, County Cork, the parish priest, Fr David Dore, threatened his congregation with excommunication from the Catholic Church if they took an oath to the Phoenix Society. A police constable in attendance at the sermon noted how Dore was an energetic opponent of secret conspiracy, exclaiming how it was ‘folly to try and separate Ireland from England’.27 In nearby Kerry, at Listowel, the Rev. McCormick ‘told his flock to hand over to Police anyone who might ask them to be sworn’.28 At Kenmare, Fr John O’Sullivan was of a similar opinion and regularly denounced the Phoenix Society and any ambition to lead a rising against Britain. In one powerful sermon, O’Sullivan denounced the ambition of revolution and conspiracy, holding that ‘the laws of England are better than those of France’.29 So powerful were his sermons against secret conspiracy that a Phoenix man came to him to confess that he had taken an oath. Learning from the communicant in the confessional that the Phoenix Society was now being organised as a secret, oath-bound society, O’Sullivan informed Dublin Castle of what he understood to be an extensive conspiracy, telling them that he had the names of men involved and the oaths they had taken. These oaths were forwarded on to Dublin Castle, with the names of what he termed ‘misguided young men’.30 On 3 December 1858 Dublin Castle issued a proclamation acknowledging the danger posed by secret societies. Such was the extent of the government’s determination to undermine secret societies, that the state offered a reward of £100 for information leading to the conviction of individuals who had administered oaths. The substantial reward was consolidated by an offer of £50 for the arrest of anyone who was proven to be a member of a secret society.31
Aside from his political activity, O’Donovan Rossa had applied to become the Skibbereen postmaster in November 1858. His interest in the job had been spurred by the former postmaster, Owen Leonard, who, after an administrative error, was forced to resign his position. Writing an application to the British government, it was evident that he did not take the job seriously and wrote a poem to Lord Colchester, the Post Master General. In his application to Colchester, he stated in verse:
I trust I’ll meet with no disaster,
Till you address me as postmaster,
Excuse my Lord, the wish most fervent,
I have to be your lordships servant!32
O’Donovan Rossa received a curt response stating that the position was not yet open for recruitment. By 6 December 1858, George Fitzmaurice had made up his mind to move against the Phoenix Society and arrest all of those suspected of active membership in the organisation. Fitzmaurice and F.J. Davies, the Resident Magistrate at Bantry, agreed that the arrests of the Phoenix men were to take place simultaneously, and in a major blow to the morale of the organisation, were to take place in Kerry, Bantry and Skibbereen.33 The arrests were spurred by a police report from a Sub-Inspector Curling, stationed at Kenmare, who claimed that 300 pikes had been smuggled into Skibbereen and were passed to leading figures within the Phoenix Society. According to the Sub-Inspector, the pikes were to be followed by arms and were going to be distributed throughout neighbouring Bantry, Glengarrif and Kenmare. The following morning at 4 a.m., police stormed O’Donovan Rossa’s home, and from memory he wrote that:
I went to bed and was soon aroused from sleep by a thundering knocking at the hall door. When it was opened a dozen
