“The Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey”
Description
"Kilmainham's blood is avenged" by the murder of James Carey on board the Melrose. "So traitors all beware I say, And innocent blood don't take away, For vengeful hands shall you repay"
Notes
Per notes to broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(452): "Carey, James, 1845-1883 "
Zimmermann p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads."
Zimmermann p. 63 notes that, in the chorus of this broadside, the executed men have become "those martyrs brave."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(452) is the basis for the description.
Double-dyed: "Dyed twice; thoroughly or intensely colored; hence; firmly fixed in opinions or habits; as, a double-dyed villain." (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) at the Online Dictionary site) - BS
Historical references
- The Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmermann, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
- May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
- January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
- James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
- Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
- July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
- Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-Labrador)
Cross references
- cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
Broadsides
- Bodleian, Harding B 26(452), "A New Song on The Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey ("In a far off land, 'neath an African sun "), unknown, n.d.
References
- Zimmermann, p. 63, "A New Song on the Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey" (references only)
- BI, BrdMDDIJ