Mr. O'Leary continued--"That man has charged me--I need not defend
myself or my friends from the charge. I shall merely denounce the
moral assassin. Mr. Justice Keogh the other day spoke of revolutions,
and administered a lecture to Mr. Luby. He spoke of cattle being
driven away, and of houses being burned down, that men would be
killed, and so on. I would like to know if all that does not apply to
war as well as to revolution? One word more, and I shall have done. I
have been found guilty of treason or treason-felony. Treason is a
foul crime. The poet Dante consigned traitors to, I believe, the
ninth circle of hell; but what kind of traitors? Traitors against
king, against country, against friends and benefactors. England is
not my country; I have betrayed no friend, no benefactor. Sidney and
Emmet were legal traitors, Jeffreys was a loyal man, and so was
Norbury. I leave the matter there."
One hour after the utterance of these words John O'Leary, dressed in
convict garb, his hair clipped, and his beard shaved off, was the
occupant of a cell in Mountjoy prison, commencing his long term of
suffering in expiation of the crime of having sought to obtain
self-government for his native land.
* * * * *