John Devoy

John Devoy (Irish: Seán Ó Dubhuí, IPA: [ˈʃaːnˠ oː ˈdˠʊwiː]; 3 September 1842 – 29 September 1928) was an Irish rebel leader and exile. He was the owner and editor of the Gaelic American, a New York weekly newspaper, 1903-1928. Devoy dedicated over 60 years of his life to the cause of Irish freedom. He is one of the few people to have played a role in the rebellion of 1867, the 1916 Rising and the Irish War of Independence (1919 - 1921).

Devoy was born near Kill, County Kildare, the son of farmer and labourer. After the famine, the family moved to Dublin where Devoy's father obtained at job at Watkins' brewery. Devoy attended night school at the Catholic University before joining the Fenians. In 1861 he travelled to France with an introduction from Timothy Daniel Sullivan to John Mitchel. Devoy joined the French Foreign Legion and served in Algeria for a year before returning to Ireland to become a Fenian organiser in Naas, Co Kildare.

In 1865, when many Fenians were arrested, James Stephens, founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), appointed Devoy Chief Organiser of Fenians in the British Army in Ireland. His duty was to enlist Irish soldiers in the British Army into the IRB.

In November 1865 Devoy orchestrated Stephens' escape from Richmond Prison in Dublin.

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