the Irish Confederation in the
abortive Irish League, and the consequent dissolution of the Executive
of the Confederation, a Council of Five was elected to direct the
Confederate Clubs until the new organisation was perfected. The five
elected were John Blake Dillon, Thomas Francis Meagher, Richard
O'Gorman, Junior, Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee, and Thomas Devin Reilly. The five
never met. O'Gorman was out of Dublin when the Habeas Corpus Act was
suspended.]

[Footnote 17: The Rev. Thresham Gregg was a notorious and blatant
"anti-Popery" preacher of the period whom the wits of Young Ireland
frequently made the butt of their jests. Apart from his bigoted
sectarian obsession, he was, however, in several respects decidedly
nationalistic, and steadily preached support of home trade and
manufactures to his audiences. There can be no reasonable doubt that he
recognised M'Gee. In this connection it may be stated that the Orangemen
expelled from membership of their body Stephenson Dobbyn, an Orangeman
who acted as a spy for Dublin Castle upon the Young Irelanders--drawing
a clear and proper line between forcibly opposing their fellow
countrymen and acting as spies for England upon them.]

[Footnote 18: Hercules Street in Belfast, now swept away, was chiefly
inhabited by butchers who were almost all Catholics and fervent
O'Connellites. When the Young Irelanders attempted to hold a meeting in
Belfast shortly after O'Connell's death, the butchers made a fierce
attack upon them.]

[Footnote 19: This narrative was written at the beginning of 1850]

[Footnote 20: Law Agent to the Dublin Corporation.]

[Footnote 21: Patrick Joseph Smyth]

[Footnote 22: Sub-editor of the _Nation_; afterwards a clergyman.]

CONTEMPORARIES MENTIONED IN "THE FELON'S TRACK"

ANGLESEY, LORD (1768-1854).--Henry William Paget, who lost a leg at
Waterloo and erected a monument to its memory. Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, 1828-9, 1830-3.

ANTISELL, DR. THOMAS.--A Dublin surgeon and chemist of distinction,
author of various pamphlets and addresses to the Royal Dublin Society on
the geology of Ireland, reafforestation, and the sanitary conditions of
Irish town-life. He supplied a large part of the capital to found the
_Irish Tribune_. After the failure of the insurrection he went to the
United States where he had a distinguished scientific career.

BANTRY, LORD.--(1801-1884) William Hare White, third earl, Lieut-Col, of
the West Cork Artillery. The titl