Here I shall drop Rossa and his Skirmishing Fund for the moment, to say a few words about Ford. The opportunity seems a favourable one for dealing with a man whose name has been so prominent of late years, and clearing up a few of the many misconceptions which appear to exist regarding him. Like O’Donovan Rossa, his colleague at this time in skirmishing matters, Ford’s position in Irish revolutionary affairs has been quite misunderstood in British quarters outside the Parnellite party. As a matter of fact Ford is not, and never has been, a member of the Clan-na-Gael. True it is that he was a member of the old Fenian organisations which preceded it—as, for instance, the Irish Confederation, but in the membership of the last and most powerful of all the branches of the Irish-American conspiracy, the editor of the Irish World has had no place. The secret of his position and influence lies in his paper. This, from the very moment of its start, has been a pronounced success, reaching a high-water mark of influence and circulation, which threw the puny efforts of its competitors completely into the shade. The paper came into existence at the proper moment for itself; it was well edited, well printed, and splendidly equipped with news from every quarter, and on every point. It caught the public fancy and “went” amazingly. Ford, originally a printer and a man of no mean attainment, gathered round him a staff of equally clever writers, established correspondents at every important centre, and working at very high pressure, was on the point of failing on several occasions, only to escape through the assistance of friends, politicians, or capitalists, willing to oblige for certain considerations. Indeed, if I am not very much in error, matters are not in the most favourable way for the paper at this very time.
Patrick Ford, according to Michael Davitt, is a most worthy disciple of the Christian principles, and a man whose life would serve as a model for very many of those who criticise this dynamite advocate’s character in no enthusiastic vein. Speaking of the man simply “on the view” as the American phrase has it, Davitt’s observations are not so far-fetched as they would appear to be at the first blush. In appearance and manner, the editor of the Irish World is quite the opposite of the man you would figure to yourself after reading his dynamite appeals and exordiums in his own journal. Quiet and unobtrusive alike in look and speech, he is as mild a mannered man as ever scuttled a ship. Of medium height, spare of build and spare of feature, without any ferocity whatever marking the outer man, he gives the observer the idea of being a quiet, sedate, and rather retiring business person. Although a vigorous and effective writer, he is not remarkable for his platform utterances, and while a good talker, is by no means an orator.
Associated with Patrick Ford in his connection with Irish-American affairs have been his brother Augustine and his nephew Austin. Augustine, whose name comes into prominence with Rossa in the Skirmishing Fund affair, was the publisher, as distinct from the editor, of the Irish World; while Austin, then a young fellow, was afterwards to become a member of the Clan-na-Gael, and to serve as the medium of communication between the leaders of the Revolutionary organisation and his uncle, the editor of what was undoubtedly, though unofficially, their mouthpiece, the Irish World. There were many reasons for an alliance, unofficial though it might be, existing between the Irish World and those charged with the conduct of the vast secret conspiracy known to the initiated as the V.C. For what the Irish World, with its extended popularity, its great influence, and its enormous circulation, championed in public, the Clan-na-Gael worked for in private. Ford and his fellow-workers, in a different path, understood each other full well; and when, within a year after the establishment of the Skirmishing Fund, it became desirable that the Clan-na-Gael should take charge of it, there was no more ardent advocate of the change than he. And as in the early, so in the later years. When the new departure came to the front, Ford and his Clan-na-Gael friends were of the same mind as to its importance, and the necessity for supporting it. When dynamite came to be the order of the day, he was its loud-tongued apostle; and when, later still, “martyrs” like Brady and Curley suffered in Ireland the just consequences of their fiendish part in the Phœnix Park murders, the editor of the Irish World was first to fill the gap with a fund on behalf of their families, excluding from its benefits all connected with those who had had the good sense, though bad patriotism, to plead “guilty” to their part in the fell transaction.
XXVI.
To return, however, to Rossa and his Skirmishing Fund. As a prominent Fenian of “the old guard,” and a member of the Clan-na-Gael, Rossa’s influence, backed up by Ford’s advocacy, succeeded in getting together no less than 23,350 dollars by the 14th March following the issue of the appeal—in something less than twelve months in fact. Although, however, this large sum had been accumulating during this period, and portions of it had been ready at different times for use if required, no skirmishing or pretence at skirmishing had taken place, and some little dissatisfaction commenced to manifest itself at the non-fruition of the many promises which had been held out of “hurting England.” There then occurred the transfer of the fund to the Clan-na-Gael under very mysterious circumstances, which have never been thoroughly explained or understood. The nearest approach to an explanation was afforded by a communication from Rossa, which appeared in the Irish World of the 21st April 1877, which, I think, I cannot do better than quote here.
“When I started this Skirmishing Fund, the council-men of the two Irish revolutionary societies in America—the Fenian Brotherhood and the Clan-na-Gael—took it into their heads that I was going to interfere with the regular revolutionary work, that I was going to play the deuce with everything, and they gave me no friendly help. I have been doing all I could to convince them that I am not the very desperate character I was in prison or out of prison; and some six months ago, being telegraphed to visit a convention of one of those societies, I went there. I there proposed to receive into the trusteeship and Executive Council of the Skirmishing Fund one or two of their body, provided that the one or two meant skirmishing work such as was laid down in our programme. This proposition of mine was accepted, and all passed off harmoniously.
“Here is how things stand now:—Mr. James J. Clancy, who acted as treasurer of the fund, got married a few weeks ago and ceased his connection with the Irish World. Then Austin Ford wrote me (on 14th March) the following note:—
“‘I told you that, at a certain Irish convention, I had consented to admit to the trusteeship of the fund some members of their body. They gave me several names to select from; and looking about for men who meant work, I took the names of John J. Breslin, who rescued the Australian prisoners, and who was the principal actor in the rescue of James Stephens in 1865; of Doctor William Carroll, of Philadelphia, who left his professional business (and being a particular friend of John Mitchell), came to New York when Mitchell was going to Ireland two years ago, went on board the steamer to see him off, went on the steamer with him to Ireland, having no other idea in his head but to take care of him. The other name I took was that of James Reynolds of Newhaven, Connecticut. He is the man in whose name the Catalpa was registered, and he mortgaged his property to raise $4000, when it was needed at a crisis in connection with the expedition. Now Mr. Clancy and Mr. Ford have resigned, I have in connection with these three men I have mentioned taken into the trusteeship John Devoy, Thomas Clarke Luby, and Thomas Francis Bourke.’