John Devoy (1842-1928) was a veteran Irish republican who spent 60 years of his life contributing to the Irish nationalist cause. As a young man, he was a Fenian organiser in his native Kildare and would later become one of the chief organisers of an abortive Fenian Uprising in 1866. Arrested by the British and sentenced to fifteen years penal servitude, Devoy went on prison strikes in English prisons before eventually being released and exiled to the United States. Devoy would become an instrumental figure not only in Irish-America but in Ireland itself, playing vital roles in both Clan na Gael’s alignment with the Irish Republican Brotherhood as well as the infamous Catalpa escape of six Fenian prisoners in Australia in 1875. Throughout the latter years of his life, he was visited by figures such as Pádraig Pearse and Roger Casement who sought funding for what would eventually become the Easter Rising and was an admirer of Michael Collins during the War of Independence. Devoy would die at the old age of 86 on 29 September 1928.
Writings
Letter To Editor of Freeman’s Journal (1879)
Prospectus of the Gaelic American (1903)
The Outlook (1911)