Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Duffy, Edward

1172268Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 16 — Duffy, Edward1888Gordon Goodwin

DUFFY, EDWARD (1840–1868), Fenian leader, was born at Ballaghaderreen, county of Mayo, in 1840. In 1863 he gave up a situation and devoted himself to spreading Fenian principles in Connaught, becoming in fact ‘ the life and soul of the Fenian movement west of the Shannon.’ He was arrested 11 Nov. 1865, with James Stephens, Charles J. Kickham, and Hugh Brophy, at Fairfield House, Sandymount, but after a brief imprisonment was released on bail in January 1866, in the belief that he was dying of consumption. He again applied himself to the organisation, was rearrested at Boyle on 11 March, tried 21 May 1867, and sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude. He was found dead in his cell at Millbank prison, 17 Jan. 1868. The concluding sentences of his speech delivered in the dock before conviction have been inscribed on his tomb in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.

[T. D. Sullivan's Speeches from the Dock, 23rd ed. pt. i. pp. 208–10; A. M. Sullivan's New Ireland, 6th ed. p. 264; Webb's Irish Compendium, p. 160.]

G. G.