Catalpa rescue
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The Catalpa rescue was the escape, on 17–19 April 1876, of six Irish Fenian prisoners from the Convict Establishment, a British penal colony in Western Australia. They were taken on the convict ship H
The Catalpa under sail with escapees approaching in whaleboat
John Devoy
The main cellblock of Fremantle Prison
Captain George Anthony, circa 1897
John Boyle O'Reilly
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John Boyle O'Reilly was an Irish poet, journalist, author and activist. As a youth in Ireland, he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenians, for which he was transported to Western
Catalpa rescue
…to New York City journalist John Devoy, who worked to organize a rescue. Using donations collected by Devoy from Irish-Americans, Fremantle escapee John Boyle O'Reilly, then living in Boston, purchased a merchant ship, Catalpa, and sailed her to international waters off Rockingham, Western Australia. On 17 April 1876…
O'Reilly in 1871
Photograph of imprisoned O'Reilly, 1866
News clipping from the Perth Gazette and West Australian Times, 17 January 1868, announcing the arrival of the Hougoumont in Fremantle
John Boyle O'Reilly Tombstone Holyhood Cemetery Brookline Massachusetts USA