| THE
RELEASED FENIANS.—Last night Mr. O'Connor
Power, M. P., addressed a meeting of representatives of the Irish Organizations of London, called by
the Political Prisoners Visiting Committee to welcome Messrs. Ahearne and Clancy, who were recently
released by order of the Home Secretary, after having undergone 11 years' penal servitude for
offences connected with Fenianism. In proposing a resolution of welcome the hon. gentleman
congratulated the meeting on the fact that Messrs. Clancy and Ahearne were the last of the
patriotic Irishmen who were confined in Great Britain. He attributed their release and that of their
colleagues who had proceeded them to the healthy public opinion created, to the revelations of the
prison treatment made by the exertions of the committee, the constant attention devoted to their cases
by the people of Ireland here and at home, and to the ventilation of the subject in Parliament. The
release was a tardy concession to public opinion, which could not atone for the sufferings needlessly
inflicted. Two other Irishmen were confined in the United Kingdom for their devotion to the cause for
which Messrs. Ahearne and Clancy had suffered, and he was happy to say from communications made
by Mr. Lowther, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, he was led to believe that these two, confined in Spike
Island, would shortly be added to the list of liberated men. Mr. Clancy, in ackowledging the resolution,
in an eloquent address, complained that for a great period of his imprisonment he was treated with
much greater severity than the ordinary convict, and he attributed his release and that of his comrades
not to any feeling in their favour by the Government officials, but to the feeling of reprobation which
had been aroused among his countrymen by the exertions of the Visiting Committee and the advocacy
of Mr. O'Connor Power and his friends in Parliament. Mr. Ahearne also expressed his thanks. A
considerable sum had been collected by the Irish societies in London for presentation to the
released men, whose release occurred before the time originally anticipated, and a committee has
been formed for the purpose of holding a public meeting at which Mr. Clancy will be invited to narrate
his prison experiences. Mr. Ahearne, who is in exceedingly delicate health, is about to reside for a
time in Ireland on a private visit to his family. |