Among the many treasures of the Irish Collection at the Working Class Movement Library is a foot-high maquette (model) of a proposed monument by Liverpool sculptor, Arthur Dooley, which was commissioned to act as a centenary memorial to William Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O’Brien, collectively known as the Manchester Martyrs.
The maquette is currently on display in the Library hall, to mark the anniversary of their deaths on 23 November 1867.
The sculpture was to consist of three standing steel pillars, with attached Celtic shields, representing the three men, and a five ton block of granite from County Wicklow, to which a metal plaque with the men’s names, and some detail on the event and its significance, was to be attached. Because of opposition both from councillors on the planning committee and from other groups and individuals, all the indications are that the sculpture itself was never made. Our maquette therefore appears to be the only record of the monument which was envisaged in 1967.
A reminder of the history of the Manchester Martyrs: on 18 September 1867 a group of armed Irishmen freed two Fenian prisoners from a prison van on Hyde Road, Manchester. During the raid a policeman, Sergeant Charles Brett, was accidentally shot dead. Three Irishmen, William Allen, Michael Larkin and Michael O’Brien, were convicted for the shooting and hanged in public outside the New Bailey prison, Salford on 23 November 1867.
Few believed that they were guilty, and major demonstrations were held in protest in England, Ireland and the United States. The executions served as a spur to those seeking Irish independence. Frederick Engels was living in Manchester at this time with an Irishwoman, Lizzie Burns. After the execution he noted prophetically that the executions had “accomplished the final act of separation between England and Ireland. The only thing the Fenians still lacked were martyrs. They have been provided with these”.
