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Date Posted:09:30:42 12/07/02 Sat
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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
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Subject: James Wilson Commemoration, Providence RI - TODAY
Date: 12 07 02
The Irish Freedom Committee will co-host a commemorative event today in
Providence Rhode Island marking the life and death of Fenian James
Wilson, who escaped a British penal camp in Australia aboard the whaler
"Catalpa" in 1876. Likened to a modern-day rescue from the moon, this
fascinating voyage was the subject of a book by author Peter F. Stevens
this year, and will be the subject of a feature length documentary by
producer Mark Day in the near future. Peter F. Stevens and Mark Day
will also be attending today's event.
For more information please see the links below.
The Irish Freedom Committee®
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
************************************************
The Phoenix, Providence RI
Issue Date: December 6 - 12, 2002
An Irish patriot gains new respect in Central Falls
BY CHRISTINA BEVILACQUA
George McLaughlin began work with Northern Irish political prisoners in
the '80s, the era made famous by hunger strikers like Bobby Sands.
McLaughlin, who teaches at Central Falls High School and spends his
summers in Ireland, has woven a life defined by both countries, yet
bounded by neither. He's an exemplar, in short, of our thoroughly modern
moment, wherein international dispatches arrive instantly, making
others' issues immediately our own, and planes depart for everywhere on
the hour, making a Mobius strip of the concept, "Be here now."
Appearances deceive. McLaughlin's itinerary looks modern because we're
myopic, focused on up-to-the-minute machinery, when really it's man's
motivation that propels things. And as McLaughlin himself has recently
discovered, the motivation that characterizes his work as an
Irish-American -- assisting the fight for Irish independence -- is an
old one indeed. It was born in the Irish Famine's aftermath of
resistance to British rule and mass emigration of Irish to the United
States. It was born before Alexander Graham Bell himself; born, then,
when a man's voice could be heard only by those near to him, when to
depend on a communications network meant to trust not wires or fiber
optics, but rather people in proximity.
Recently, via just such a network, McLaughlin and a group of fellow
enthusiasts serendipitously uncovered the tale of a famous Irish
patriot's bafflingly infamous life in Central Falls, just before all
evidence of it might have died with the last men to remember him. And as
is often the case, the tale of discovery is a tale in itself.
About a year ago, McLaughlin was talking with a member of Clan na Gael
(a cultural organization), who mentioned a "Fenian" buried somewhere in
New England (the Fenians were 19th-century Irish revolutionaries). Some
weeks later, in a book of local history he came upon a photo of a
gravestone: James Wilson, Irish Patriot, Died 1921. Could it be?
No mere Fenian, Wilson had been one of the most famous prison escapees
of all time. Arrested for taking part in a revolt while in the British
Army, Wilson had been sentenced to the Australian penal colony,
Fremantle, a place so desolate and remote, says McLaughlin, that today's
equivalent sentence would be life on the moon. Desperate, Wilson wrote a
"letter from the tomb," imploring any recipient to plot an escape. It
was smuggled out to two Fenians in the US, who got a New Bedford whaling
captain to agree to sail his ship, the Catalpa, to rescue Wilson and
five other prisoners, and bring them to the America. The journey was
filled with hair's-breadth escapes; astonishingly, the men were
delivered to safety, their story told and retold.
So how had Wilson disappeared in Central Falls? McLaughlin got help at
the Adams Memorial Library from director Tom Shannahan and administrator
Don Twohig, who share an interest in Central Falls history. They found
Wilson's 1915 address: 52 Cross Street -- less than a block away. More
discoveries followed, including residents who remembered Wilson from
their childhoods, and the roster of researchers grew. Giving the story a
wonderfully American twist, those involved include two Central Falls
High School students, Thecia Faria, a Brazilian immigrant, and Thang
Hyunh, from Vietnam, who explains his fascination with the project thus:
"James Wilson came here looking for freedom and so did I."
This Saturday, December 7, the Search for James Wilson Roundtable is
hosting a commemoration of his life. The event starts at 11 a.m. with
oration and music at his grave in Saint Mary's Cemetery, Pawtucket, and
moves at 12:30 to Adams Memorial Library (205 Central Ave., Central
Falls), where festivities will include a symposium, music, and the
unveiling of an exhibit on Wilson's life.
The organizers hope for a big, celebratory crowd. McLaughlin says, "In
the modern world, we throw away the physical evidence of our lives while
we're still living -- we have nothing to show our children. But we still
have stories -- how this guy got here, the heartache of leaving an old
life, the joy of the start of a new one. This isn't an Irish story; this
country is always about hope, no matter what your politics. This story
embodies that."
For more information, call (401) 727-7440, (401) 273-3935, or write to
don@cflibrary.com or seoirse49@earthlink.net.
************************************************
"The Voyage of the Catalpa" by Peter F. Stevens
ISBN: 0-7867-0974-X
Price: $26.00
Pages: 392
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Date reviewed: 2002/04
http://www.bookviewireland.ie/results.asp?P_Key=850
Bookview Ireland Reviews
-------------------------------
Mark Day Productions
In Development - "The Catalpa"
http://www.day-communications.com/in_development/index.htm
************************************************
For further information on the "The Search for James Wilson"
commemorative event please go to
http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/james_wilson_flier.htm
or to
www.irishfreedomcommiittee - click on "Upcoming Events" and scroll down.
