On the day following that on which M'Afferty's sentence was pronounced,
the trial of three men, named John Flood, Edward Duffy, and John Cody
was brought to a conclusion. When they were asked what they had to say
why sentence should not be passed on them, Cody denied with all possible
earnestness the charge of being president of an assassination committee,
which had been brought against him. Flood--a young man of remarkably
handsome exterior--declared that the evidence adduced against himself
was untrue in many particulars. He alluded to the Attorney-General's
having spoken of him as "that wretched man, Flood." "My lords," said he,
"if to love my country more than my life makes me a wretched man, then I
am a very wretched man indeed." Edward Duffy, it might be supposed by
anyone looking at his emaciated frame, wasted by consumption, and with
the seal of death plainly set on his brow, would not be able to offer
any remarks to the court; but he roused himself to the effort. The
noble-hearted young fellow had been previously in the clutches of the
government for the same offence. He was arrested with James Stephens and
others at Fairfield House, in November, 1865, but after a brief
imprisonment was released in consideration of the state of his health,
which seemed such as would not leave him many days to live. But, few or
many, Duffy could not do otherwise than devote them to the cause he had
at heart. He was re-arrested at Boyle on the 11th of March, and this
time the government took care they would not quit their hold of him. The
following is the speech which, by a great physical effort, he delivered
from the dock, his dark eyes brightening, and his pallid features
lighting up with the glow of an earnest and lofty enthusiasm while he
spoke:--
"The Attorney-General has made a wanton attack on me, but I leave my
countrymen to judge between us. There is no political act of mine
that I in the least regret. I have laboured earnestly and sincerely
in my country's cause, and I have been actuated throughout by a
strong sense of duty. I believe that a man's duty to his country is
part of his duty to God, for it is He who implants the feeling of
patriotism in the human breast. He, the great searcher of hearts,
knows that I have been actuated by no mean or paltry ambition--that I
have never worked for any selfish end. For the late outbreak I am not
responsible; I did all in my power to prevent it, for I knew that,
circumstanced as we then were, it would be a failure. It has been
stated in the course of those trials that Stephens was for peace.
This is a mistake. It may be well that it should not go
uncontradicted. It is but too well known in Ireland that he sent
numbers of men over here to fight, promising to be with them when the
time would come. The time did come, but not Mr. Stephens. He remained
in France to visit the Paris Exhibition. It may be a very pleasant
sight, but I would not be in his place now. He is a lost man--lost to
honour, lost to country. There are a few things I would wish to say
relative to the evidence given against me at my trial, but I would
ask your lordships to give me permission to say them after sentence.
I have a reason for asking to be allowed to say them after sentence
has been passed."
The Chief Justice--"That is not the usual practice. Not being tried
for life, it is doubtful to me whether you have a right to speak at
all. What you are asked to say is why sentence should not be passed
upon you, and whatever you have to say you must say now."
"Then, if I must say it now I declare it before my God that what
Kelly swore against me on the table is not true. I saw him in
Ennisgroven, but that I ever spoke to him on any political subject I
declare to heaven I never did. I knew him from a child in that little
town, herding with the lowest and vilest. Is it to be supposed I'd
put my liberty into the hands of such a character? I never did it.
The next witness is Corridon. He swore that at the meeting he
referred to I gave him directions to go to Kerry to find O'Connor,
and put himself in communication with him. I declare to my God every
word of that is false. Whether O'Connor was in the country or whether
he had made his escape, I know just as little as your lordships; and
I never heard of the Kerry rising until I saw it in the public
papers. As to my giving the American officers money that night,
before my God, on the verge of my grave, where my sentence will send
me, I say that also is false. As to the writing that the policeman
swore to in that book, and which is not a prayer-book, but the
'Imitation of Christ,' given to me by a lady to whom I served my
time, what was written in that book was written by another young man
in her employment. That is his writing not mine. It is the writing
of a young man in the house, and I never wrote a line of it."