With the 150th anniversary of the Catalpa rescue falling this week there is a renewed push to unveil a memorial to the rescue of Six Fenians from captivity in Western Australia.
That would be a memorial in Ireland.
There is a memorial in Rockingham, Western Australia. There is one in New Bedford, Massachusetts, home port of the Catalpa.
And now the Fenian Memorial Committee of America has its sights on the island that was the very reason for the existence of the Fenian Brotherhood.
The committee, which has been placing new headstones on the graves of prominent Fenians in recent years, has announced its next and arguably ultimate campaign: "A monument to the famous Catalpa Rescue, which liberated six Fenians from the infamous Fremantle Prison in Western Australia and brought them to the USA in August, 1876."
The project, according to the committee, is contingent on raising the necessary funds.
So indeed was the Catalpa rescue mission.
Said the committee in a release: "At present, there is no national monument to the Catalpa Rescue in the 32 counties of Ireland. This year (2026) is the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the daring rescue by Fenians and other Irish in America.
"On September 19, 2026 at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin there will be a dedication of the monument and a commemoration of the rescuers, planners and escapees, including John Devoy (the great Fenian in New York), the Clan na Gael, John Boyle O'Reilly (a previous Fremantle escapee who fled to Boston), Captain George Anthony (the Catalpa skipper), John Breslin (undercover Fenian agent in Australia), Father Patrick McCabe (who smuggled communications to and from Fenian prisoners in Fremantle to their liberators in America) and escapee James McNally Wilson (who wrote the 'Letter from the Tomb' that convinced Irish-American Fenians to plan the greatest escape of the nineteenth century)."
The project is being funded by the supporters of the Fenian Memorial Committee of America with the support of the National Graves Association, Dublin, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
The Fenian Memorial Committee of America is now in the midst of a fundraising campaign for the Ireland project.
The committee release added: "Over the past two decades, the Fenian Memorial Committee of America has placed headstones (five of the Catalpa escapees had none) and memorial markers for all six Catalpa escapees, four of the planners and rescuers and two 'Invincible' Fenians, all of whom are buried throughout America (in Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Minnesota).
"This current endeavor is a long overdue tribute to Irish-America and its innate link to the struggle for an independent and sovereign Irish homeland. The Catalpa monument will be a place where the Irish and Irish-Americans can visit as a source of pride and ongoing commitment to a free and united Ireland."
