Cornelius O'Mahony

Cornelius O'Mahony (1840 – 5 March 1879) was a Gaelic scholar, teacher, Fenian and staunch supporter of Irish independence. He was tried and convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to prison, only to be later transported to Australia. Early life O'Mahony was born about 1840 in Macroom, County Cork, Ireland but later moved to Dublin. He grew up in a time where starvation and disease were commonplace, particularly in the countryside, during the period commonly referred to as the Great Famine. Given his later pursuits, it is fair to say he came from a family which either owned land or had the money with which to educate him. The Fenian movement By the time O'Mahony was 20 years old he had become a close follower of James Stephens and his fight to create a free and independent Ireland by removing the perceived tyranny of the British. To this extent, he became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood or IRB. Joseph Denieffe (1906) writes of him as "good and earnest Cornelius O'Mahony ...an unsophisticated but gifted school teacher". In 1862 O'Mahony was working as a schoolmaster in the 'training school' located in Marlborough Street, Dublin, and was useful in introducing like-minded educated young men to the cause.