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Phoenix Park in Dublin is a sprawling green space with huge lawns, tree-lined avenues and colourful flowerbeds.
Wild fallow deer have wandered through this city-centre oasis for centuries, while buzzards, kestrels and owls are often seen swooping through the skies above.
But on May 6 1882, this picture of tranquility was shattered by a brutal double-murder which remains one of the most infamous chapters in Ireland’s bloody history.
Ireland – an island fraught with tension
Ireland in 1882 was an unsettled place. Tenant farmers were furious at restrictive government policies which favoured wealthy landowners, many of whom were English and did not even reside in the Emerald Isle.
Resentment and violence simmered as nationalists tried to free Ireland from British rule.
In the first half of 1882 alone, 14 people had been killed and 1,500 incidents of civil unrest reported.
Following repeated attempts on his life, chief secretary for Ireland William Forster stood down from his role along with his superior, Lord Lieutenant Earl Cowper.
In an attempt to ease tensions, Prime Minister William Gladstone had bypassed both Forster and Cowper in making political concessions to the controversial Irish Land League Party and releasing their firebrand leader Charles Parnell.
Outraged, Forster and Cowper quit.
Lord Frederick Cavendish, the son of the Duke of Devonshire and protege of Gladstone, was sworn in as the new chief secretary for Ireland a matter of days later.
Within hours, he and his deputy, Thomas Burke, would be dead.
The Phoenix Park murders
Cavendish arrived in Ireland on the evening of May 5.
The next day, he travelled on the Dublin, a city he knew well – he had visited his brother when he held the same position that he now occupied.
Still, his decision to walk home through the park on his way home on his own was a shockingly naive one which would cost him his life.
Burke, his deputy, was taking a cab home, but when he spotted his superior walking on his own he decided to accompany him.
For him too it proved to be a fatal mistake.
Eight men in three separate groups were lying in wait. Ignoring the cricket and polo matches which were taking place in the park that evening, the men set upon them with knives.
Ironically, Burke – the less senior of the two men – was the target. He had been in Ireland longer than Cavendish and was a known target. He was also an Irish catholic – something which enraged nationalists as he chose to work for the British.
He was stabbed in the back, neck and chest with a 12-inch knife before having his windpipe severed.
Cavendish leapt to the defence of his colleague, striking one attacker across the chops with his umbrella before branding one of the other assailants ‘a ruffian’.
He was then overpowered, breaking his arm as he fell and suffering numerous cuts to his hands before finally being stabbed in the chest and neck.
Two passing cyclists who witnessed the murders swerved to avoid him as he fell, and heard him cry out ‘ah, you villain!’ before he died.
The murder of Burke was seen as a success to the killers, but the death of Cavendish as well made it a startling PR victory.
The manhunt begins
The killings were met with outrage in Westminster, and a £10,000 reward was immediately offered for anyone who could bring the culprits to justice.
Nobody knew who lay behind the murders until cards with the words ‘Executed by order of the Irish Invincibles’ were delivered to a number of newspaper offices.
The Irish Invincibles were almost unheard of, and police progress proved frustratingly slow.
One name kept coming up in their inquiries though – James Carey.
A successful businessman who was also a ruthless fighter for Irish independence, he was arrested but soon released due to insufficient evidence.
This merely made him more popular, and he garnered public sympathy to win a council seat at local elections in November that year.
But a search of his home uncovered guns and knives, so he was again taken in for questioning.
After being kept alone in a cell and put under intense interrogation, Carey snapped. Legend has it that he was duped by police, who deliberately left the grille of his cell door open while they discussed a fictional confession made by one of the other suspects.
Carey’s wife also begged for him to confess to avoid being hanged, for the sake of her and their children.
He agreed, leading to extraordinary scenes when he was beckoned from the bench of accused men in court to appear for the prosecution – leading to whistles and threats from the other gang members.
His testimony led to five men being sentenced to death and others being give lengthy prison terms.
Outraged by his betrayal, Carey became a wanted man.
The hunt
As part of his confession, Carey, his wife and their seven children were taken to London. Carey shaved off his beard, had his hair cut short and carried a pistol for his personal protection.
The plan was for them to flee to South Africa and start a new life under the new name of Powers.
After reportedly spending a night at Scotland Yard, he travelled to Dartmouth in Devon with his two eldest children while his wife stayed in London.
There he waited, barley leaving the room where he stayed for fear of being recognised.
Even in the quiet Devon town, he feared for his safety and was worried about being recognised – especially given the notoriety of the murders and subsequent trial.
His actions in court had enraged many Irish nationalists, and it was rumoured that a cash reward would be paid to whoever could kill him.
His wife and children in London boarded the steamer Kinfauns Castle, which travelled along the south coast of England before calling in at Dartmouth.
There, Carey boarded. It looked like he had escaped.
A sting in the tail
Freedom was now in sight for Carey as he and his family headed to the Cape to start a new life.
On board, he befriended a Mr Patrick O’Donnell, a Donegal-born bricklayer who had moved to Philadelphia in search of a better life.
Broke, he had returned to Ireland for some time before deciding to seek his fortune a second time abroad, becoming Carey’s drinking partner as they travelled south.
Some days into the voyage, a steward showed O’Donnell a newspaper article on the trial, and commented on the likeness of his new friend Mr Power and the informer Carey.
O’Donnell was enraged, saying: “I will shoot him and let daylight into the scoundrel before we reach the next port.”
Instead, O’Donnell waited until the ship had docked and decided to travel on with the family on another boat – Montrose – as they completed their journey to Natal.
O’Donnell invited Carey to the bar for a drink, where – in plain view – he drew a revolver.
‘Why?’ pleaded Carey.
“You are James Carey, the informer,” he replied.
Realising the ruse was up, Carey leapt to his feet and tried to draw his pistol.
But he was too slow, and O’Donnell shot him three times from close range.
Carey died in his wife’s arms as O’Donnell sat back at the bar, finished his drink and waited to be arrested.
Another Devon link
The who episode had been witnessed by Torquay man James Parrish, who testified at O’Donnell’s trial.
Bizarrely, Parrish would go on to marry Kate Farmer – the former fiancee of killer John ‘Babbacombe’ Lee – years later. She fled five years into the marriage, supposedly with a painter from Plymouth.
Parrish confirmed he had seen everything. Asked why he did not intervene, he curtly responded: “I was afraid of being shot myself.”
Despite claiming to have acted in self-defence, the jury took just two hours to come to a guilty verdict for O’Donnell, who then wrestled with prison guards as he was led away.
“Three cheers for Ireland and the United States, to hell with the Britishers and the British crown,” he yelled. “It is a plot against me.”
O’Donnell was hanged at Newgate prison on Monday, December 17, 1883 – the final execution in a string of killings, trials and intrigues which had all started a year and a half earlier on a balmy summer’s evening in a Dublin park.
