In 1858, the Fenian brotherhood was founded in America and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in Ireland to work for Irish independence. Britain declared membership in that organization a crime punishable by deportation to her penal colony in Freemantle, Australia. Seldom in history can one find a story to rival the adventure that brought embarrassment to England and freedom to six Fenians who had been sentenced to that harsh penal colony for life. It all began in 1871, when John Devoy, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, and other Fenians were released from prison in England on a general amnesty … [Read more...] about The Catalpa Rescue