|
Luke
Dillon
(1850 -1930)
Fenian, Dynamite Campaign participant, Political prisoner
 Luke
Dillon
was
born
in the
town of
Leeds
in
England in
1848.
His
parents
had
earlier
emigrated
to
Leeds
from
Co.
Sligo
in
Ireland to
escape
the
devastation
and
squalor
caused
by the
contrived
Famine
of the
1840’s.
In the
1851
census
Luke
and
his
parents
are
listed
as
living
in
Lower
Cross
Street.
This
was in
a
district
of
Leeds
called
the
Bank
and
was
almost
totally
Irish
at
that
time.
The
poverty
and
squalor
there
in
Luke's
day
was
appalling.
In
fact,
Lower
Cross
Street
is
specifically
mentioned
in
Friedrich
Engels,' The
Condition
of the
Working
Class
in
England
1844.
Notwithstanding
the
hardship
they
endured
in
Leeds,
they
probably would
not
have
survived
if
they
remained
in
Ireland through
1847
(Black
47)
one of
the
worst
years
in
Irish
history
when
hundreds
of
thousands
died
from
starvation.
In
1854
at the
age of
six Luke
emigrated
to the
United States
with his family and settled in
Trenton, New Jersey.
Finding it difficult to secure a decent job, Luke, like so many other young
men of that time, had no other choice than to join the
United States army.
He signed up with company ‘E’ of the
U.S. Infantry Regiment
and was posted to
Montana
and later to
Wyoming.
His military service continued until 1870.
Later
that
same
year
Luke
returned
to the
east
coast
and
settled
in the
Philadelphia
area.
It
was
there
that
he met
James
Gibbons
a
printer
and
William
Carroll
a
physician
who
were
both
active
in
Clan
Na
Gael.
Having
already
been
educated
in the
savagery
of
English
colonial
rule
in
Ireland,
Dillon
was
ready
to
play
his
part
for
Irish
freedom.
He
joined
Clan
Na
Gael
who
at
that
time,
were
replacing
a
faltering
Fenian
Brotherhood.
Dillon
threw
himself
whole-heartedly
into
the
work
and
was
widely
known
and
respected.
As a
result,
he
rose
quickly
to a
leadership
role
in
Clan
Na
Gael.
By
the
late
1880’s,
Clan
Na
Gael
in
Philadelphia
had
made
plans
to
take
the
war
home
to
England.
Dillon
was an
integral
part
of the
planning
which
was a
dynamite
campaign
targeting
high
profile
sites
in
London. In
1884,
Dillon
along
with
Roger
O
Neill
and
another
man
were
successful
in
bombing
the
posh
Carleton
Club
and
the
well
known
police
headquarters
at
Scotland
Yard.
The
following
year
Dillon
and
fellow
patriots
intensified
their
level
of
activity
by
bombing
the
British
House
of
Commons.
Their
next
target
was
London
Bridge;
however,
a
premature
explosion
killed
two of
the
attackers,
whereupon,
Dillon
returned
to
America
with
no one
the
wiser
about
his
involvement.
By the
late
1880’s,
Clan
Na
Gael
were
having
serious
difficulties
with
two
emerging
factions. Devoy,
who
did
not
agree
with
the
London
dynamite
campaign
joined
Dr. P.
H.
Cronin
to
oppose the
O’Sullivan
faction
who
was
responsible
for
organizing
the
dynamite
campaign.
Although
Dillon
participated
in the
campaign
he,
nonetheless, sided
with Devoy
against
the
Chicago
faction
who
had
been
suspected
of
misappropriating
funds.
Dillon
gave
evidence
to a
Trial
Committee
convened
in
Buffalo N.Y
accusing
Sullivan
of
trying
to
bribe
him
with
Clan
money
and
also
of
alerting
the
British
to one
of the
London
bomb
plots.
After
that
he
became
a
marked
man by
O'Sullivan
loyalists.
The
murder
of Dr.
Cronin
by
O'Sullivan's
henchmen,
coupled
with
the
negative
publicity
generated
by the
subsequent
trial
almost
destroyed
the
organization.
O'Sullivan
lost
his
remaining
influence
within
the
organization
as a
result
all
the
negative
publicity,
coupled
with
the
unwanted
scrutiny
of the
organization
and
lingering
doubts
regarding
the
misappropriated
of the
organizations
funds.
It
took
the
organization
ten
years
to
recover
from
all of
the
bad
publicity
and
the
simmering
divisions
within
its
ranks.
However,
by the
end of
the
century, Devoy
with
help
from
Dillon
managed
to
reunite
the
factions
and
refocus
their
efforts
on the
task
at
hand,
the
liberation
of
Ireland.
Throughout
the
1890's
Dillon
continued
to
promote
the
organization,
raise
funds,
and
help
those
on-the-run
from
Ireland
for
their
actions
to
oust
the
British
occupiers.
In
1899
when
the
British
went
to war
to
control
the
gold
mines
in the
Dutch
Boer Republics
of the
Transvaal
and
the
Orange
Free
State
in
South
Africa,
Dillon
saw
this
as an
opportunity
to
strike
another
blow
at
England.
Together
with
two
comrades,
John Walsh and John Nolan,
he set
out
to
disable
the Welland
Canal
locks
located
between
lakes
Erie and Ontario in Canada.
The
rationale
for
disabling
the
locks
was to
prevent
the
Canadians
from
sending
troops
and
material
to
help
the
English
in
their
war
effort.
On
April
21,
1900
an
explosion
caused
some
damage
to the
locks,
but
did not
put
them
out of
operation.
Shortly
after
the
explosion Dillon
and
his
two
comrades
were
arrested
in
nearby
Thorold
and
held
for
trial in
connection
with
the
explosion.
Although
the
evidence
against
Dillon
was
flimsy
the
outcome
of the
trial
was a
forgone
conclusion
due to
the
influence
of the
Orange Order in southern Canada
at the
time.
Interestingly,
Dillon
who
was
convicted
under
the
name
of
Carl Dallman
served
a
longer
sentence
that
the
others.
On
numerous
occasions
during
his
years
in
prison
he
refused
appeals
by
Clan
na
Gael
leaders,
including
Joseph McGarrity,
to
admit
guilt
and
petition
the
Canadian
government
for
clemency.
He
stated
in a
letter
to his
contemporaries
his
steadfast
belief
that
'The
rest
of my
life
would
not be
worth
such a
surrender
of
principle'.
Apparently
he was
assumed
to be
dead
by
many
of his
friends
until
an
article
appeared
in the
New
York
Times
on
July
12th
1914
stating
the
Irish
patriot
Luke
Dillon
had
been
released
from a
Canadian
jail
for
having
been
sentenced
for an
attempt
to
blow
up the
Welland
Canal.
The
article
went
on to
say
that
Dillon
had
notified
McGarrity
of his
release
via
telegram
and
had
asked
for
McGarrity
to
make
arrangements
for a
meeting
in
Atlantic
City
NJ.
At the
time
of his
release
Dillon
was 65
years
of
age.
He
remained
active
in the
organization
and
became
a
reliable
member
of McGarrity’s
inner
circle.
He
lived
to see
his
dream
of
taking
the
fight
to
England
in the
1916
Rising. Luke
remained
true
to
the Irish
Republic
until
his
death
in
1930
at the
age of
81.
He is
buried
at
Holy
Cross
Cemetery along
with
many
others
who
shared
his
dream
of a
free
sovereign
Ireland.
Contributed by
Tomás Ó Coısdealbha
cemetery AND grave
location
Name:
Holy Cross Cemetery PHONE
NO.
(610) 626-2206
ADDRESS:
626 Baily Rd, Yeadon, PA 19050
GRAVE
LOCATION:
Section 28
HEADSTONE
|
