| Denis B.
Cashman was born in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford in 1842 and he joined
the Fenian movement in 1858 when he was only sixteen years old. We don't
know if he was living in Waterford city by that time but the
circumstantial evidence points that way. He was married in 1862 and he
and his wife Catherine had three children, all boys, born in Ireland and
named William, Denis and Arthur. Cashman was a solicitor's clerk with
the firm of Dobbyn & Tandy in Colbeck street in Waterford city. The
firm is still in business in Waterford, trading as Dobbyn, Tandy, McCoy
and Collins and it is still in the original building. Cashman worked
hard for the Fenian cause and sometime between 1858 and 1867 he had
risen through the ranks to become the 'Centre' (Head man) of the
Waterford Fenian Circle. His work for the 'cause' had brought him to the
attention of the movement's leaders and he was asked to go to Dublin to
work more closely with James Stephens and the Dublin 'Centres.'
He was arrested on
January 12, 1867, the very day his third child, Arthur, was born in
Dublin. This child and his brother Denis were to die of measles just
over a year after Cashman's arrest. Cashman was arrested under the
Habeas Corpus Suspension act that had become law in February 1866, and
he was charged with distributing rifles. He was brought to trial on
February 19, 1867 where he pleaded guilty, was convicted of felony
treason and sentenced to seven years penal servitude. He was transferred
to Millbank Gaol in London where he and the other Fenian prisoners,
including Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, awaited transportation to Australia.
His wife Catherine approached his former employers, Dobbyn and Tandy,
and they wrote to the authorities vouching for Cashman's character and
asking for clemency to be exercised. Catherine also wrote, on July 13
1867, to the Lord Lieutenant where she pleaded for her husband,
explaining that he was the sole support of her small family, including
her new-born baby. Her plea on behalf of her husband was backed up from
a surprising source; Superintendent Daniel Ryan of the Dublin
Metropolitan Police wrote in his report, of July 31 1867, in favour of
Cashman:
| The
prisoner is a man differing in many ways from the generality of
those apprehended for Fenianism. He is evidently a man of
respectable parents, and one whose education was attended to. He
filled respectable situations in both Waterford and Dublin, and
in the latter city he was clerk to Wm. Smyth, law agent for the
Corporation, who held him in the highest estimation and would
have gone to any amount of security for him at the time of his
apprehension, incredulous that one of such excellent character,
as was Cashman, could have any connection with the Conspiracy.
... It would be a positive Charity to this man and his tender
family to mitigate ... the punishment inflicted on him. |
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