Captain William Mackey Lomasney was one of most courageous Irish soldiers to emerge during the Fenian era. He was involved in countless operations from the time of the Fenian insurrection in 1867 until his capture in February 1868. After his release from prison he worked tirelessly for the Fenian Brotherhood in the US, eventually being killed while on active service in England in 1884. It was in the county of Cork he gained most of his notoriety, especially after his attack on Ballyknockane Police Barracks in Tipperary and his raid on a Martello tower at Fota island, outside Cork City.
Captain Mackey Lomasney was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1841 to Irish parents William Lomasney and Susan Mackey. His parents had immigration from Castlelyons near Fermoy in Cork, a place where his grandfather was hanged for his role in the 1798 rebellion after been betrayed by an informer. His father had maintained the national spirit within the family and proudly passed it on to his sons while in exile in the US. His parents moved to Detroit Michigan to run a Catholic Bookstore in 1844; and both Mackey and his father fought in the American Civil War. It was here Mackey was promoted to Captain, a title he was known ever after for.
When the American Civil War ended Captain Mackey took the place of his father and volunteered to travel to Ireland to help with preparations for the planned insurrection of 1865. As many as 400 Fenian officers all with frontline battle experience travelled with Captain Mackey to Ireland, while a further 120,000 Fenian soldiers awaited for the call-to-arms in the US. The English establishment wary of the large number of Fenian commanders arriving in Ireland, made a swoop on the IRB HQ at the offices of the newspaper the ‘Irish People’, arresting many of the Fenian commanders and any known nationalists leaders in Ireland; thus temporarily thwarting the Fenian Rising for nearly two years. Captain Mackey along with his close friend Captain John Mac Cafferty were both exiled back to the US, where Mackey remained training soldiers in the Fenian Brotherhood till 1867.
At the start of 1867 Captain Mackey Lomasney returned again to Ireland in preparation for the planned rising of March 6th, and became a central figure throughout the county, being Head Centre for the Fermoy area. On March 6th he led the Fenian raid on Ballyknockane barrack in Tipperary, capturing the station and relieving the English garrison of their weaponry. When the rising failed to gain momentum across the country, especially after the informer Corydon compromised the huge arms raid at Chester in England, Captain Mackey resorted to guerrilla warfare in command of a dedicated unit of Fenian soldiers comprised mainly of Cork men and New York men. Throughout the summer months Mackey’s flying column dug up railway tracks, cut telegraph wires and attacked the homes of planter landlords in incidents that seriously embarrassed the English government in Ireland.
On November 28th 1867 Captain Mackey Lomasney carried out a raid on a gunsmiths premises in Patrick Street, Cork City, capturing over 120 revolvers and at least 8 Snider rifles. He did it so skilfully that no trace of either the weapons or the raiding party could be uncovered in the follow up search. A month later Captain Mackey Lomasney captured the Martello tower at Fota island, making prisoners of the gunners on guard duty, while capturing 300lbs of gun-powder, a quantity of fuse and other military stores along with several rifles. The ingenious and daring feats of the Fenian party under Captain Mackey was reverend right across the island, while the English establishment failed to track the whereabouts of Mackey’s flying column even with huge rewards being offered.
Four days later the Fenian ‘collectors of arms’ travelled into the heart of Cork City again, at nine in the morning and entered the gun-shop of Henry Allport in Patrick Street. The Fenian party consisting of eight men produced revolvers and cleaned out the shop of at least 72 revolvers and a large number of rifles; five of the men carried away the weaponry, with two returning to help empty the shop of its entire ammunition supply; then calmly strolled off before the alarm could be raised to the local constabulary. While the English press raged over the seemingly unstoppable Fenian group who were strongly supported by a huge Fenian network throughout Cork, three days later the flying column struck again in Ballincollig, carrying out a raid on the largest Gun Powder Magazine in Ireland, which was stationed right next to a British Army barrack. The Fenian party seized so much gun-powder in the raid, it was reported that they had even difficulty carrying away their spoils-of-war, vanishing into the countryside with absolutely no trace of their whereabouts being discovered.
It was not until the 7th of February 1868 that Captain Mackey Lomasney was eventually captured, while holding a meeting in the grocery/spirit shop of Mr. Cronin in Market Street, Cork. The building was surrounded by RIC constables who eventually rushed the door trying to capture the occupants of the building. One of the constables of a very strong build wrestled for almost twenty minutes trying to bring Mackey Lomasney to the ground. The sergeant eventually drew his gun on Mackey saying “dead or alive, I’ll take you”, whereupon Mackey replied “I have but one life to lose, and if it goes, so be it”. He drew his gun at the same time and shot the constable in the leg, inflicting a serious wound, of which the officer died a few days later. Mackey was taken prisoner and charged with murder on the 10th March at a sitting of a court in Cork. He was acquitted of the murder charge and sentenced to 12 years penal servitude in Portland prison England for his raid on Ballyknockane barrack’s and the Martello tower in Cobh. Eventually he was freed under the prisoner amnesty three years later and exiled for life to the US.
For the next few years Captain Mackey Lomasney worked tirelessly for the Fenian Brotherhood and Clan na nGael and had several children with his wife Susan O’ Connell. He remained in close contact with all the various factions of the Fenian Brotherhood, being a close friend of both John Devoy and Ó Donnabháin Rossa. He volunteered for the Dynamite campaign in England and travelled as part of a small unit that comprised of his brother James Lomasney and John Fleming. He was linked to an attack on the Mansion House in London and also several attacks on the Metropolitan railway line, one a few days before his tragic death. On the 13th December he hired a small boat with his brother James and John Fleming and the three of them carried out an unsuccessful bomb attack on London Bridge in the dead of night. The explosives went off prematurely instantly killing all three of the Fenian dynamiters - with their bodies being washed downstream in the fast flowing tide; so vanishing them from mortal existence.
So secret were the group of Fenians connected to Captain Mackey Lomasney, that it took almost three years before definite accounts of his death could be confirmed to his grieving family and friends back home in Detroit. He will always be remembered as a fearless, courageous and true son of Ireland; and a martyr that stood firm to the cause of Irish freedom till his dying hour.
