The Catalpa Escape Podcast Series – Episode 8

Welcome to Episode 8 of the Catalpa Escape Podcast Series.

In Episode 1, our narrator, Margo O’Byrne, sets the scene for the famous 1876 Catalpa Escape of the ‘Military’ Fenians from just south of Fremantle, Western Australia.

Episode 2 deals with the raising the money through the auspices of Clan na Gael – the Irish Association in America – and how John Devoy became the key plotter of the escape. 

In Episode 3, we find ourselves in New Bedford in key meetings of key men. Devoy, Goff, Reynolds, Hathaway, Richardson – and George Smith Anthony. And Anthony’s wife Emma. A suitable ship needs to be found and purchased for the Fremantle mission. A Captain to sail her and control the mission needs to be found. Enter Anthony. The Catalpa is spotted. Reynolds takes out mortgage on his house to purchase the Catalpa.

In Episode 4, Margo O’Byrne explains how the Clan-Na-Gael rescue committee needed to find a way to realise the funds to pay for the rescue attempt. Richardson and Hathaway move the Catalpa to New Bedford and prepare it for the voyage. Captain Anthony selects a crew. And it’s time, to think about who will be on the ground in Fremantle to coordinate the final moments of the escape of the Fenians. And you get to meet Duggan, Brennan, Breslin and Desmond.

In Episode 5, Margot relates just how the Catalpa voyage progressed on its way to the Azores, then Tenerife, and onward. Who knew just where they were actually heading? Did Captain Anthony have to take Brennan aboard along the way? And just what luck did Captain Anthony have when he crossed a British ship on the Indian Ocean south of Port Elizabeth?

In Episode 6, Margot asks what the Fenians in Fremantle were up to while the Catalpa crew were on the high seas catching whales and then encountering the Ocean Beauty and meeting with Captain Cousins in the Indian Ocean and receiving maps of the coastline of Western Australia, and the two US operatives, Breslin and Desmond, were aboard the speedy mail steamer, Cyphranes bound for Sydney. Were the Freo Fenians aware of any of these events? How many of them were still incarcerated? Were they kept locked up inside the Establishment? 

In this episode, Episode 8, Breslin/Mr Collins and Desmond/Johnson are still in and around Fremantle and Perth. The Catalpa is awaited. In anticipation of her arrival, Breslin helps Foley depart the jurisdiction. He also visits the ‘interior’. And discovers the place from which he decides the Military Fenians should escape the shores of Western Australia forever. His love life is also becoming more complicated. 

And on top of that who should enter the scene but McCarthy/Dixon and Walsh/Hopkins. Who are they and what are they doing in Fremantle? To complicate matters further, the money is running low. And where is the Catalpa? So many questions demanding so many answers!

You can read the original article for Episode 8 here.