Captain Timothy DeasyDeputy Central Organizer of the Irish Republic
By Colonel Bob Bateman
Editor’s Note: Our Distinguished Brother( https://aoh-division-18.org/member-biographies/), former National AOH Historian, and descendant of Captain Deasy, went home to the Lord in 2021.
Captain Deasy was no accident, nor was what he did with his life accidental. Irish Nationalism and Irish Republicanism in the Deasy family was generational, having spanned several generations. In more recent times, they had been active members of the United Irishmen, the Young Ireland Movement, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.), The Fenian Brotherhood, Irish Republican Army (IRA), and the Clan na Gael. He was yet another link in that unbroken chain.
Timothy Deasy was born in Farran, the Ring, Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland, on 20 February 1839. Like Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, as a young boy Tim was an eyewitness to the devastating horror of the “Great Hunger” (An Gorta Mór) / an t-Ár Mór (the Irish Holocaust) in West Cork. The horror became a reality to his own family with the tragic death of his baby sister Hanora in 1847. This profound experience greatly affected his later years and created in him a deep distrust and hate for the English and their colonial authorities. It also helped to develop his immensely strong desire for Irish freedom and independence. He emigrated, with his family, to the United States in late 1847, ultimately settling in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was educated in the Lawrence public school system. Through the influence of his father, Michael, who had been a member of the Young Ireland movement (circa 1846), he and his younger brother, Cornelius, became interested and active in several Irish civic, fraternal and political societies and military organizations.
During the 1850’s, the exiled Irish in America were becoming more and more militant in their outlook concerning the liberation of their homeland. The beginning of the Crimean War in 1854 was viewed by many as the time to strike. As William D’Arcy wrote at the time, “England’s difficulty would prove Ireland’s opportunity.” To that end, the Irishmen’s Civil and Military Republican Union, the first pre-Fenian Society was organized in New York in April 1854. The Emmet Monument Association called for the invasion and liberation of Ireland – they used participation in the militias of the several States as vehicles for military training.
In 1857, back in Ireland, James Stephens, (the Wandering Hawk), was traveling about the country organizing. In Dublin, on 17 March 1858, Stephens, along with Joseph Denieffe and Thomas Clarke Luby, founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood (the IRB). In New York in early 1859, the Irish scholar and officer in the 1846 rebellion in Ireland, John O’Mahony, finding inspiration in the legend of the ancient Gaelic warrior Finn MacCumhail and his elite legion Na Fianna, named the American branch of the IRB the Fenian Brotherhood. The organization spread quickly throughout the cities of the northeast and Midwest with hundreds of young Irishmen drawn to its political and military philosophy of physical force as the only means to secure Irish independence. It was at this time that Timothy Deasy and his younger brother Cornelius took the Fenian Oath, and Tim set about assisting in the recruitment and development of the Fenian circle in Lawrence.
With the outbreak of the American Civil War in April, 1861, thousands of Irishmen such as Deasy believed that service in the Union Army would help prepare them for the inevitable fight with England. Thus, in June 1861, he and his brother Connie enlisted, in Boston, Massachusetts, in Company I (“McLellan Rifles”), 9th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry-the “Irish Fighting Ninth”, serving through thirty-two engagements. Following the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, 27 June 1862, at which all the commissioned officers of Company I were killed, he received a battlefield commission as a captain, and was appointed company commander. Both he and Connie would be wounded at the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House, May 5-19, 1864, Connie on May 5th and Captain Deasy on May 8th. Although suffering a severe head wound he remained in command of his company until the fighting ended for the day. Only then would he report to the regimental doctor for treatment of his wound with stitches that would leave him with a scar for the rest of his life. He and Connie mustered out of the Union Army on 21 June, 1864. By this time he was combat hardened, battle tested and militarily prepared to take his place in the Fenian Brotherhood. He was deliberate and relentless in his beliefs regarding Irish freedom and Fenianism. John Rutherford, author of The Secret History of the Fenian Conspiracy, described Captain Deasy as a “desperado of the McCafferty type.” Those familiar with Captain John McCafferty’s temperament will fully understand this compliment made to Captain Deasy. Timothy Deasy knew from the example of his ancestors and from his personal experience of command in combat, no matter the personal cost, freedom is always worth fighting for. If a people, or country, are ready to declare independence, they had better be prepared to fight for it. Those who fought alongside Tim and Connie Deasy bore witness to their unbridled courage and total lack of fear in the face of their enemies on the battlefield.
In January 1865, as a delegate from the Lawrence circle, he participated in the Irish Republican Brotherhood convention in Cincinnati, Ohio; and in August 1865, like Colonel Thomas J. Kelly, was one of the 300 combat experienced Civil War offices selected to be sent to Ireland to help train and prepare for the promised rising, and where he would play a leading role in many of the most dramatic, and historic, military actions of the Irish Revolutionary Movement.
Shortly after his arrival, he was arrested in Skibereen, with a number of military documents in his possession. Under highly unusual circumstances he was taken to jail in England to be interrogated. And in another unusual move was released after a short time with the mandate he leave England and return to America. Ignoring the mandate, he traveled back to Clonakilty where he received orders from Colonel Kelly to report to Dublin where he narrowly escaped arrest by the Special Branch and played a significant role, with John Devoy and Thomas Kelly, in the rescue of James Stephens from Richmond Goal on 24 November 1865. Following the rescue he accompanied Kelly and Stephens to France, and thence to America, before returning to Ireland. It was during the time spent in Dublin, prior to Stephens’ rescue, Captain Deasy was selected by Colonel Kelly, to become a member of the “Secret Circle” of officers he established to deal with spies, informers and traitors - not unlike the “Squad” Michael Collins would put together in Dublin during the War for Independence some seven decades later. The British derisively referred to this circle as the Irish American Assassination Company, or the Shooting Circle, and went to great lengths to discover the identities of its members.
As Colonel Kelly’s representative, he, along with his brother Connie, was involved in the 1866 Fenian Invasion of Canada. After initial military success at Fort Erie and at the Battle of Ridgeway (2 June 1866), where the Fenian forces under the Command of General John O’Neil engaged, and put to rout, a superior force of combined Canadian Militia and British Regular troops, and where the term “Irish Republican Army” was used, and an Irish Tricolour carried, for the first time in Irish military action. Like Morgan Llywellyn’s telling of the Easter Rising in her 1916, historian Peter Berresford Ellis, in The Rising of the Moon (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), uses the vehicle of the historical novel, to tell the story of the 1866 Fenian invasion of Canada. This well-written, thoroughly researched novel is rich in extraordinarily accurate historical, political and military details. O’Neil and his force were ultimately forced to withdraw back across the Niagara River, due in large part, to the political wavering and eventual military intervention of the United States government.
In January 1867, Captain Deasy was among the battle-tested Civil War veteran officers who sailed from New York bound for England and Ireland with revolution on their minds, and hope for Ireland’s freedom in their hearts. Along with Colonel Kelly (10th Ohio – the “Bloody Tenth”), now the titular Head Centre of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, sailed Colonel Ricard O’Sullivan Burke, (154th New York Engineers), Captain Michael O’Brien, (13th New Jersey Light Artillery), Captain John McCafferty (Morgan’s Raiders, Confederate Cavalry) and Captain Timothy Deasy. (Irish 9th Massachusetts). Before any rising could proceed, weapons and ammunition would have to be secured. On the afternoon of Monday, 11 February 1867, Captain McCafferty, with Captain Deasy participating, led the daring, yet abortive, raid on Chester Castle with the intent of capturing a large quantity of British weapons stored there. Frustrated by treachery, the plan of the raid had been betrayed by John Joseph Corydon an Irish-American Civil War veteran who had served in General Michael Corcoran’s Irish Legion, and a sworn Fenian, but who was now in the pay of the British government as a turncoat spy and informer. The planned Rising for February was postponed and a new date of 5 March 1867 (the day after Robert Emmet’s birthday) was set. By 1 March, orders had been given to the various IRB military commanders. William Halpin was to command in Dublin, Dunne and Moran in the County of Cork, William Mackey Lomasney and Michael O’Brien in Cork City, McClure in Middletown, and Timothy Deasy would command a battalion of Fenian troops in Millstreet. Beginning the evening of 5 March and continuing on and off for the rest of the month, Fenian troops attacked military and police barracks throughout Ireland. Ultimately the Rising was doomed to fail with the last military action between British and Fenian forces taking place 31 March in a running gun battle among the trees of Kilclooney Wood in County Tipperary.
There is a significant and poignant similarity between the Fenian Rising of 1867 and the Easter Rising only a short 49 years later in 1916. In both instances, the leaders recognized the probability of military failure, but understood the tremendous historical implications in the need for continuity with 1798 and earlier armed resistance to English rule, and for tangible, and visible, direct action on the part of the IRB/Fenian Movement, lest the Irish people view it, and them, with contempt. They had taken an oath to rise and rise they did! Despite its military failure the lasting tribute to those who rose up in arms was, on 5 March, the issuance by the IRB, of the 1867 Proclamation to the Irish People of the World establishing and Proclaiming the Irish Republic.
With the suspension of Habeas Corpus, the large number of Fenians subsequently being arrested and the freedom of movement and overall security dramatically reduced, Colonel Kelly decided to move the IRB leadership and the next phase of the movement to England. Kelly set up his headquarters in London.
Colonel O’Sullivan Burke who had been in charge of purchasing arms for the movement was placed in command of the organization in London while, according to Joseph Denieffe’s Recollections of the I.R.B., Captain Deasy was placed in command for Manchester and Liverpool.(both of which cities had very substantial Irish emigrant populations).
For his part, Colonel Kelly became convinced the Fenian movement in America, with its continuing and on-going internal bickering and political intrigue, had abandoned the organization’s original purpose, and he was determined to formally sever ties with it. To that end, Kelly called for a meeting to be held in Manchester. The meeting was held in early September 1867, with some 150 delegates from all over England attending. Captain James Murphy, formerly of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and Colonel Ricard O’Sullivan Burke, co-chaired the meeting - at which Colonel Kelly was formally appointed Chief Executive and Central Organizer of the Irish Republic.
Through the strength of his personality, and persuasiveness, Kelly accomplished, and exercised, what had eluded James Stephens – absolute control of the organization. The delegates overwhelmingly approved Kelly’s motion to separate from the American organization and initiate a relationship with a new Irish-American Organization, Clan na nGael. Kelly mandated, however, Clan na nGael would have no policy role with the IRB. The delegates likewise appointed Captain Deasy, in addition to his command position for Manchester and Liverpool, Colonel Kelly’s Aide-de-Camp and Deputy Central Organizer of the Irish Republic thus making Colonel Kelly and Captain Deasy the top two leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In his book THE MANCHESTER MARTYRS (Cork: Mercier Press, 2012), Joseph O’Neill writes of the strong working relationship between Kelly and Deasy. “Deasy was Kelly’s ideal second in command, and the Fenian leader was delighted with his appointment. They shared the same formative experiences and inhabited the same mental world. They could sit in silence knowing exactly what the other was thinking.”
On the evening of Wednesday, 11 September 1867, another meeting was to take place in Manchester. Colonel Kelly and Captain Deasy were being asked to rule on the possibility of holding a court-marshal of a local Fenian. Once the meeting had been concluded to everyone’s satisfaction, Kelly and Deasy left the meeting site and were on their way to a safe house located on Oak Street, abutting Smithfield Market. In a strange coincidence of fate, Captain Deasy’s home back in America was located on Oak Street, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Unknown to them the house was under surveillance by the Manchester Police and Special Branch. They left the house around midnight and almost immediately knew they were being followed. Within minutes a police whistle was sounded and few moments later Kelly and Deasy were under arrest and brought to the Albert Street Police Station, charged with loitering and booked as Mr. Wright and Mr. Williams. The following day, Thursday, 12 September, with their real identities still not known, they were brought to Bridge Street Magistrates’ Court and charged again under their assumed names with loitering and remanded to the Belle Vue Gaol.
They continued to hope they might still be released without their real identities becoming known. However, within the next few days, Detective McHale of G Division – Counter –Subversion of the Dublin Police arrived in Manchester to identify Kelly and Deasy and take them back to Dublin to be tried for their involvement in the March Rising.
W ith the arrest s of Kelly and Deasy, the IRB leadership in Manchester set about making plans for their rescue. Those involved with formulating and approving the plan included Colonel Ricard O’Sullivan Burke, Captain Michael O’Brien and Captain Edward O’Meagher Condon. With Condon responsible for its tactical implementation and detailing the role each participant would play. The names of the 15 other Fenains who made up the rescue party were Thomas O’Bolger, Joseph Keely, James Cahill, William Melvin, James Laverty, John Neary, Peter Ryan, Michael Larkin, Timothy Featherstone, Charles Moorehouse, Peter Rice, William Philip Allen, Patrick Bloomfield, John Stoneham and John Ryan.
In an interesting note, the IRB/Fenian leaders Kelly, Deasy, O’Sullivan Burke, O’Brien and Condon, all American citizens and combat veterans of the American Civil War, were also members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America; while Allen, O’Brien, Condon, Burke and Deasy were all from County Cork.
Wednesday, 18 September 1867, the rescue plan was put into operation. During the rescue, (“THE SMASHING OF THE VAN”), Sergeant Charles Brett, a Manchester Police veteran of some twenty-five years, was accidently shot and killed. Following the successful rescue of Kelly and Deasy, a number of the Fenian rescue party and dozens of completely innocent local Irishmen were arrested and brought to trial for Brett’s alleged murder. All tolled, of the eighty persons initially arrested fifty were charged with having taken part in the rescue with twenty-three ultimately remanded to trial and five, Allen, Larkin, O’Brien , Condon and a Thomas Maguire, charged with murder. John Devoy would later write in his memoir that of the twenty-three men ultimately tried, only four were actually members of the rescue party.
For days after the rescue the police continued to make raids into suspected Fenian safe houses in Manchester and Liverpool with no success in finding and capturing the two most wanted Irish “criminals” in the country. It was as though Kelly and Deasy had simply vanished into thin air. In fact, after having been taken to an initial safe house and provided with a new set of clothes, for their safety and security they were separated and spirited to a number of successive safe locations in the Irish sectors of Manchester and subsequently taken to Liverpool where Captain Deasy boarded the ship City of Paris which was bound for New York. Colonel Kelly paid a clandestine visit (in the guise of a brown-robed Franciscan monk), to his mother in Mountbellew, County Galway, en route to the City of the Tribes, whence he too took ship to America and Freedom.
Deasy’s ship arrived in New York City on 27 October, with Captain Deasy given a magnificent reception a few days later by the IRB and Clan na Gael in New York City, and again in Boston and Lawrence, Massachusetts, as he made his way home. On Saturday, 27 September, the “show -trial” commenced in Manchester with little doubt as to what the eventual outcome would be. On 28 October 1867, William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, Captain Michael O’Brien, Thomas Maguire and Captain Edward O’Meagher Condon (none of whom had pulled the trigger) were convicted of Brett’s “murder” and sentenced to death by hanging.
After Allen, O’Brien and Larkin had made their comments to the court, a manacled Condon in his speech from the doc spoke these immortal words, “You will soon send us before God, and I am perfectly prepared to go, I have nothing to regret, or retract, or take back. I can only say- ‘GOD SAVE IRELAND!’ – with one step forward his four companions rose, and, extending their hand-cuffed hands upward cried out –“GOD SAVE IRELAND!” T.D. (Timothy Daniel) Sullivan, who had been sitting in the courtroom, was inspired to write “God Save Ireland,” which, for at least the next half-century, became the virtual Irish national anthem. In November, Thomas Maguire, an uninvolved Royal Marine home on leave, was given a Royal Pardon, and Captain Edward O’Meagher Condon, because of his American citizenship, and the intervention of the American Ambassador, was given a reprieve – life at hard labor. After 11 years, in response to a unanimous vote of the United States Congress, signed by President Rutherford B. Hayes, Condon was banished for an additional 20 years and released to go to America. Condon now lies in a grave in New York’s Calvary Cemetery.
On the cold, damp, foggy morning 23 November 1867, Allen, Larkin and O’Brien were publicly hanged (“judicial murder”) on a scaffold built on the outside front wall of New Bailey Prison, Manchester, England. The bodies of these three Irish heroes, to be forever known in Irish history as The Manchester Martyrs were quickly, callously, irreverently and purposely buried in unmarked graves of quicklime in unconsecrated ground within the prison.
The execution of the Manchester Martyrs, during a turbulent period of Irish history in 1867, united the Irish people in a patriotic fervor and outrage, not matched until the aftermath of the 1916 Rising. The events surrounding the dramatic rescue of Fenian leaders (resulting in the Martyrs’ execution) attracted worldwide attention, and sparked anti-British protests across the globe. Their trial is one of the most infamous British court cases of the nineteenth century, and their hanging was Britain’s last public multiple execution. Captain Deasy believed in direct action but as the likelihood of continued military action by the IRB became less probable and the leadership of the movement began to change hands, he turned his high energy level into political action back in America.
He continued to remain close to his former Civil War brothers-in-arms and in 1871 was elected Captain, Company I, 6th Regiment, Massachusetts State Militia in Lawrence. Captain Deasy considered this a distinct honor as it had been the 6th Massachusetts that was the first Union Army regiment to come under hostile fire in the late war - being fired upon on its way to Washington, D.C. as it marched through the City of Baltimore, Maryland on 19 April 1861. Private Sumner H. Needham of Company I from Lawrence, Massachusetts becoming the first Union soldier killed in action.
Captain Deasy, a man of tremendous energy and talents, became a highly successful businessman. With the assistance of his brother Connie, he owned and ran a saloon, a liquor dealership, a hotel, and a number of rental properties. Owing to his military experience, leadership abilities, courage, and strong reputation for taking action on behalf of the Irish of Lawrence, he ran for, and was elected to the Lawrence City Council in 1872, and re-elected in 1874. His success is all the more impressive and significant given the fact that the religious, social, political and business environment were hostile in the extreme towards the Irish on the part of the majority Protestant, “Nativist” population. He soon discovered that in order to counteract the political gerrymandering that was being employed against them locally by the Nativist American political party, nicknamed the “Know Nothings,” it would be necessary for the Irish to take the fight to the state level.
After the Civil War many American cities were teeming with Irish immigrants as a result of the Great Hunger of the 1840s and the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of Irish men to serve in the Union Army. By 1875 there were over 8,200 Irish living in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Their presence caused considerable resentment among the “Know Nothings” and strong, often violent, anti-Irish Catholic sentiment continued to develop, seeking to curtail Irish immigration and keep them from becoming naturalized America citizens. Captain Deasy realized that in order for the Irish to climb the socio-economic ladder in their adopted homeland, they were once again going to have to fight for it. They would need to unite and educate themselves in the ways of the American political process in order to develop, gain, and eventually wield political power.
As a member of Division 8, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Captain Deasy was selected Grand Marshall of the Lawrence 1872 St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Dressed in his finest military uniform, he reviewed the hundreds of marchers, bands, civic, fraternal, social and military units that marched up Essex Street that day. He was fast becoming recognized as a powerful and influential Irish American figure north of Boston. The Irish political leaders of the city, as well as a delegation from the State Democrat Party, met with Deasy to request that he stand for election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He agreed to do so and subsequently placed his support behind a young Irishman, John Breen, to replace him on the City Council. Breen, who had also fought in the invasion of Canada, would ultimately rise politically to become the first Irish Catholic elected Mayor of Lawrence, and it is believed, the first in all of New England.
Of the 213 members elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in November 1876, the centenary year of the country, only 13 were Irish-born. Of the 33 members elected from Essex County, Captain Deasy was the only Irish- Catholic so elected. With this stunning political victory, he could well be described as one of the first truly significant and successful Irish leaders in New England – a powerful role model for the future generation of Irish immigrants settling in the mill cities and towns of the Merrimack Valley.
It is a disturbing twist of history that 100 years earlier, during the American War for Independence, Massachusetts, the hotbed of rebellion against the British Crown, was now discriminating against the ethnic group that had comprised a significant percentage of General George Washington’s Continental Army. The same ethnic group that despite flagrant bigotry, and continued social, religious and political intolerance was the second largest ethnic group to volunteer to fight to preserve the Union, and put an end to slavery, in the “The War of the Rebellion” (Civil War) with over 150,000 Irish veterans - some 50,000 of whom, were sworn members of the IRB/Fenians.
It was a very proud day for Captain Deasy as he looked about the Massachusetts House Chamber in Boston the day he was sworn in as a member. The same chamber that had seated some of the most famous political figures the country has known (John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Eldridge Gerry and John Quincy). It was an equally proud day for the members of his family who were seated above in the public gallery watching the proceedings. I can just imagine him looking around and thinking to himself….”not too bad for an Irishman from Farran, the Ring, Clonakilty, Ireland!” He welcomed the opportunity and challenge of representing the Irish men and women of Lawrence and the State of Massachusetts in their new fight for ethnic acceptance, religious and social tolerance and political strength. He served them well during his term in office.
It was during this time his health began to fail. From 7 June until the end of July 1878, he was a patient at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston suffering with excruciating pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis he developed from sleeping on cold wet ground during his service in the Civil War. He returned to working as best he could in his saloon and other business enterprises assisted by his brother Connie, but would have to give up politics and the travel back and forth to Boston it required. He returned to the local political limelight only once when Charles Stewart Parnell came to Lawrence, early in 1880, to raise funds for Ireland. Parnell visited for a short time with Captain Deasy who helped him raise over $1,000 from the large Irish audience that filled the City Hall to hear Parnell speak.
The evening of 9 December 1880 Captain Deasy became deathly ill and was attended by Dr. Timothy Sullivan, with whom he served in the Irish 9th Massachusetts, and Father James T.O’Riley, OSA, Pastor of St. Mary’s Parish. The Deasy family had contributed heavily to St. Mary’s Chapel building fund. Fr. O’Riley stayed with him through the night and into the early morning. His lifetime of struggle had taken its toll and with his family close by, Captain Deasy passed away at 2:30 p.m. Friday, 10 December 1880. His funeral took place Monday, 13 December 1880, at nine o’clock in the morning. A more imposing funeral had never been seen in Lawrence, and those attending the services spoke of the great respect Captain Deasy had commanded from all who knew him. The Lawrence Daily Eagle of Tuesday, 14 December 1880, wrote of his funeral:
The organizations that turned out in a body drew up in a line in front of his late residence, and after the mourners were seated in hacks, a detail of six men from Company F Ninth Massachusetts Regiment bore the casket to the church, going by way of Oak and Hampshire Streets. The escorts were the Lawrence cornet band, the regimental band of the Ninth Massachusetts and Company F Ninth Massachusetts. Following was the Needham Post 39 G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic), the Knights of St. Patrick, Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Irish Sons of Freedom. The remains were taken to the church front of the chancel and the flower tributes, which were extensive and elaborate, were placed in proper positions. During the line of march the bands played a dirge and upon the chimes of St. Mary’s, while the procession was being formed, was played the tune ‘Peace, Troubled Soul.’ The music was by the consolidated choirs of St. Mary’s and Immaculate Conception and the selections were the Gregorian Chant, John D. Mahony performing the solo and the Ave Maria.
The service of solemn requiem Mass was very impressive. The chancel was draped in mourning, and the large audience was more than usually attentive. Rev. Father O’Riley acted as a master of ceremonies, Rev. Father Gilmore as celebrant and Rev. Fathers Ryan and Lynch as deacon and sub-deacon. At the conclusion of the Mass, Father Gilmore delivered a glowing eulogy to the memory of the deceased. In closing Father Gilmore said, ‘in behalf of the Church, in behalf of all those friends who are here today, I bid comrade Deasy a sad, a long farewell.’
After the services, the procession was reformed. His flag draped casket was born out of the church by the six pall bearers from the 9th Massachusetts and placed in the elaborate black two horse-drawn funeral carriage. His mother, sisters and brother were seated in a black hack immediately behind the funeral hearse. Hundreds marched in the funeral cortege and thousands lined the streets to watch and pay their respects. The Ninth Massachusetts, the Lawrence cornet band and an Irish Pipes and Drums Band played as church bells throughout the city rang out. At the grave site, Father O’Riley read the prayers for the dead. Last post and taps were played as the American and Fenian Irish flags were removed from the casket and a final salute was fired over his grave by a firing party from the Irish 9th Massachusetts.
The Fenian John Savage wrote of Captain Deasy in his book Fenian Heroes and Martyrs, (Andesite Press, 2015 – Reprint), “among all the noble spirits that embarked in the cause of Irish nationality during the last few years, there were none nobler than the unpretending Deasy.” Captain Deasy is buried at the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The Irish National Graves Association, in Dublin, Ireland designated the grave of Captain Timothy Deasy an Irish National Grave on 16 August 1990. Captain Timothy Deasy (of Clonakilty, Co. Cork, and Company “I”, “Irish 9th” Regiment of Massachusetts), received a new green, granite stone on his grave on 23rd November 1992, the dedication organized by Bob Bateman, great-grandson of Timothy’s brother Cornelius – also a Fenian; the principal speaker was Derek Warfield of the Wolfe Tones, himself the grandson of a Fenian.
Timothy Deasy was a man who fought oppression, tyranny, and foreign domination and for Irish freedom and independence on the battlefields of the nations. He also was a man to whom the Irish of the City of Lawrence and the State of Massachusetts looked to for leadership, direction and support. Captain Deasy served well the United States of America, Ireland, his homeland, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the City of Lawrence.
Captain Deasy was a member of the following:
Irish Republican Brotherhood/Fenians (1859 – 1880)
Captain, Irish Republican Army (1865 – 1880)
Captain, Irish 9th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (1861 – 1864)
Captain, 6th Massachusetts State Militia (1871 -1877)
Lawrence City Council (1872 – 1876)
Massachusetts House of Representatives (1876 – 1878)
Needham Post 39 G.A.R., Lawrence, MA (1864 – 1880)
Division 8, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Lawrence, MA (1871 – 1880)
Clan na Gael, Lawrence, MA (1867 – 1880)
Knights of St. Patrick, Lawrence, MA
Irish Sons of Freedom, Lawrence, MA
St. Mary’s Parish, Lawrence, MA
Captain Deasy’s brother, Cornelius, married Julia Dacey 27 September 1881 and had a daughter, Mary Ellen, was born 15 August 1883. In 1907, Mary E. Deasy would marry Joseph F. Bateman, whose family had also come to Lawrence from Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland.
“GOD SAVE IRELAND”