Today’s Rebellious Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The Fenians were a group seeking to bring an end to British rule of Ireland that had been imposed by the 1801 Act of Union. They took their name from third-century followers of rebellious Finn MacCool, whose motto was “Strength in our hands, truth on our lips, and cleanness in our hearts.” Enthusiastic support for the Fenians came from expatriate Irishmen who’d been driven out of their homeland to the United States during the famine years of the 1840s. Forerunners of the twentieth-century’s NORAID (Northern Irish Aid Committee, based in New York, which bankrolls and smuggles arms to the Irish Republican Army in its efforts to drive the English out of Ulster beginning in the 1960s), the 1867 Fenians planned an action for London in December. Unfortunately for the conspirators, two of the plotters, Burke and Casey, were arrested by Inspector Thompson of Scotland Yard and clapped into prison in the North London area of Clerkenwell. Hardly had the cell doors slammed behind them when compatriots began planning to spring them by blasting down the prison walls. A date was set: December 12.
The conspiracy leaked. An anonymous letter tipped off the commissioner. Bits and pieces of what was afoot also came to Mayne at Scotland Yard from other sources. The governor of the prison was notified. Regular police patrols around the area were increased – but only slightly.
As forecast, the plot unfolded. Two men rolled a barrel of gunpowder up to a wall, lit a fuse, and ran. Nothing happened. Mystified, the bombers scooped up the dud and fled – all of this before the eyes of a constable who didn’t bother to report it.
The next afternoon, the bombers returned. This time, the powder ignited. Four people were killed and forty injured. Great damage was done to the surrounding buildings and the prison wall was breached. But, thanks to the prison governor, Burke and Casey had been moved to another part of the lockup where they remained in custody as four of the bombers were rounded up to join them in prison, for trials, convictions, and death by hanging – the last public executions in Britain.
Inspecting the damage at Clerkenwell
The End of the Line
Culled from: Bloody Business: An Anecdotal History of Scotland Yard
Instrument of Destruction Du Jour!
Instrument of Destruction 1993 Scott Lindgren
Shadow of foetal skeleton with cranioclast used for cutting or crushing the foetal head to effect delivery, generally performed to save the life of the mother. Presented to the Museum by Dr. Ludwig Loeb, 1940.
Culled from: Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia