Denis Cashman

Denis B. Cashman (1842-1897 Dungarvan) was a Fenian who was transported to Western Australia as a political prisoner and wrote of his experiences in a diary .

Cashman was enlisted as a Fenian in 1858 aged just 16. By the age of 25 he was working as a Law Clerk in Waterford when he was arrested and convicted of Fenian membership and transported to Fremantle aboard the Hougoumont.

During the journey Cashman kept a diary detailing the day-to-day activities aboard ship and proving a detailed account of the feelings of the convicts and prisoners on the ship. Cashman was also involved in the production of The Wild Goose, the onboard newspaper.

Like most of the civilian Fenians, Cashman was pardoned on the 15 May 1869. In late October 1869, Denis B. Cashman and 14 other Fenians boarded the ship Baringa and sailed from Sydney Australia to San Francisco. Cashman took the Central Pacific Railroad out of California and headed to Boston to meet up with his wife Catherine, his son William P., and good friend and fellow Fenian John Boyle O'Reilly. While in Boston, he worked in the book and publishing department, and later as the business manager of the Boston Pilot. He also worked as a top salesman of Donahoe's Magazine, and later as the superintendent of Waste Water Department in Boston.

Cashman strongly supported Cogadh na Talún and agrarian agitation in Ireland, so in 1881 he published the first biography of Michael Davitt, one of the founders of the Irish National Land League. The biography of Davitt was very timely, and came at a period of intense military presence, continued Anti-Catholicism in Ireland, all while the government passed the Irish Coercion Bill. Cashman's The life of Michael Davitt was published the same year Davitt was again imprisoned for his speech, when he had accused the chief secretary of Ireland W. E. Forster of "infamous lying".

A true Irish patriot, Denis Cashman was involved in the initial stages of planning the Catalpa rescue of 6 Fenians from Western Australia. After hatching the scheme with Thomas McCarthy Fennell, John Devoy, the well known leader of the Clan na Gael traveled to Boston to meet with John Boyle O'Reilly and Cashman. As former prisoners, the two Boston Fenians had intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Fremantle Prison and their contributions helped lead to the success of the rescue mission.

His diary was donated to East Carolina University where Professor of English Charles Sullivan III edited it and in this form it was published in 2003. The diary contains poems by Cashman, John Boyle O'Reilly and John Flood. The diary is currently housed in the East Carolina Manuscript Collection in Joyner Library at East Carolina University. A finding aid can be found at this link. Cashman's Hougoumont Diary

• Musician and local historian Brendan Woods authored a play about the breakout titled The Catalpa. On the 15 November 2006 The play premiered to a sellout audience at Fremantle Town Hall the play ran until 25 November. The play is based on the diaries of Denis Cashman, with the poetry of John Boyle O'Reilly set to music and dance supported by a five-part Musical ensemble.