Friday 21 August 2015

Was your Limerick ancestor a Fenian marcher in 1867?

If you have ancestors from Limerick you might like to check if they appear in a list of men who took part in a Commemorative March through the City on 8 December 1867. The parade was held in honour of the “Manchester Martyrs” – William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O’Brien – who had been hanged two weeks earlier for trying to rescue two Fenians en route to Manchester City Gaol.

Hard-working historian Sharon Slater, who runs the terrific blog LimerickLife.ie, has compiled an online list of the 430 marchers identified by police. As she explains, this number represented less than 15% of the total who took part in the parade that day.

The list includes full name and occupation, and an address if the man (they are all men) lived outside the City.