A new PBS documentary on the Catalpa rescue voyage, one of the most daring Irish rescues ever attempted, will be broadcast this week on PBS. Secrets of the Dead: Irish Escape tells the dramatic story of a group of 19th century Irish patriots and the lengths they went to for liberty.  CAHIR O’DOHERTY talks to the show’s executive producer Jared Lipworth about how this relatively little known but profoundly important Irish rescue story actually changed world history.

“What a death is staring us in the face,” wrote Wilson, “the death of a felon in a British dungeon, and a grave amongst Britain’s ruffians. I am not ashamed to speak the truth, that it is a disgrace to have us in prison today.

“A little money judiciously expended would release every man that is now in West Australia. Think that we have been nearly nine years in this living tomb since our first arrest, and that it is impossible for mind or body to withstand the continual strain that is upon us. One or the other must give way.”

To underline this message Wilson added, “Remember this is a voice from the tomb. For is this not a living tomb? In the tomb it is only a man’s body that is good for worms, but in this living tomb the canker worm of care enters the very soul.”

Wilson’s powerful words moved Devoy, and he immediately resolved to help him. As a journalist for The New York Herald and an active member in Clan na Gael, Devoy was singularly well placed to take action on Wilson’s behalf.

At the very time Devoy received the secret letter the fight for Irish independence had reached a low point. But in reading Wilson’s entreaty, Devoy realized that here was an unfettered cry from the heart, a cry that had the power to move all who heard it.

It was also, Devoy realized, a bracingly political speech which had the power to boost morale and to bring the fight for Irish independence back into focus.

In Ireland in the early 1860s James Wilson had joined the 5th Dragoon (British Army) Guards. But in secret he also became a Fenian, taking an oath to be obedient to his leaders, and to do his utmost to secure a democratic independent Irish Republic.

To that end he deserted with conspirator Martin Hogan in November 1865 after they had secretly enrolled many other Irish soldiers in the organization. But then, as so often in Irish history, local informers gave away the details of renewed Fenian activities to the British forces and Wilson was quickly arrested.

He was court-martialed in Dublin on February 10, 1866, where he was found guilty of mutinous conduct and received a sentence of death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment in Fremantle prison.

Joe Lee, professor of Irish Studies at New York University, puts it succinctly: “At that time to be sent to an Australian penal colony was the equivalent of being sent to the Moon. You were being banished to the other side of the planet, a world away from the life you had led and the people you had known.”

It was, in a real sense, a kind of death in life. Wilson was placed on board the Hougomont bound for Fremantle with the other Fenian prisoners. When they arrived in Australia, on the advice of the Catholic chaplain, civilian Fenians were allowed to work together away from the other convicts, but a special contempt for British military deserters like Wilson was expressed by dispersing them among convicts, much to their disgust.

Years passed and by 1869 more than half the Fenian convicts were granted royal pardons, but not a single ex-British soldier was among them. The Duke of Cambridge, it was rumored, had prevented Prime Minister Gladstone from showing them a shred of clemency.

It soon became obvious to Wilson and the others who remained that they would never receive a pardon. The only choice was to serve out their terms, or escape.

For Wilson the choice was clear. He wrote his secret letter requesting help immediately.

Although it would take a year coming, help arrived in the shape of the Catalpa, an American whaling ship hired by Devoy from secret donations made by Irish independence organizations across the United States. Amazingly, informers did not foil the daring rescue plan and the ship reached Australia without mishap.

Fremantle was – and still is – an imposing prison. Situated in a hostile terrain, there was very little opportunity for escape because on one side there was hundreds of miles of inhospitable (and deadly) desert, and a shark-infested ocean on the other. The British guards weren’t worried about people running away, assuming escape would be an impossibility.

For Jared Lipworth, the executive producer of Secrets of the Dead: Irish Escape, deciding to green-light this documentary was an easy choice. “An Australian production company originally pitched this program to me. It was such a fantastic story that really nobody knew about and so we thought it would be a great fit for our American audience,” Lipworth told the Irish Voice.

The theme of Secrets of the Dead series on PBS is to use modern investigative techniques to re-analyze mysteries from the past. Often that includes scientific investigation using DNA and other forensic tools to try to reveal what really happened, occasionally challenging the accepted wisdom.

“This case did reveal something about the course of world history so we decided it fit within the series,” says Lipworth. “The Catalpa rescue really had a profound impact on the fight for Irish independence, because it inspired the Irish and the Irish Diaspora.

“We were able to illustrate how this story changed the course of history. John Devoy, the mastermind behind this daring escape plan did go on to become involved with the fight for Irish independence which was won 50 years later and which he lived to see himself.”

The production was filmed in Australia, the U.S. and Ireland in a huge co-production between three international companies. Throughout the documentary Irish and Australian actors portray Devoy, Wilson and a host of other key Irish players in the drama.

The centerpiece is a full-scale reenactment of the rescue mission, which commenced on Easter Monday 1876 when the Catalpa and a full crew arrived in Western Australia, taking pains to remain within international waters.

The rescuers rowed to shore to collect the six waiting Irish convicts who had left their posts while working outside the secured area. Their Irish rescuers were waiting with wagons and weapons. But like all good rescue dramas, complications cloud their flight. When the freed prisoners began to row back to the Catalpa a sudden unexpected storm meant they could not reach the ship for another day, by which time the alarm had been raised and British police ships launched.

The British commandeered a gunboat called the Georgette, which they pulled alongside the Catalpa requesting that the prisoners be handed over. Captain Anthony, the ship’s celebrated American captain, defiantly refused this request and raised the American flag, warning his pursuers that the Catalpa was in international waters and could not be boarded.

If they fired on the Catalpa they would be firing on the U.S. This parry enraged the Georgette’s British captain, who conceded reluctantly.

Eventually the Georgette was forced to give up the chase, although all on board were convinced they had seen the missing men. Shortly after, as John Devoy predicted, the Catalpa rescue bolstered Irish morale across the globe and spurred the fight for Irish independence, which was finally won in 1922.

Devoy lived long enough to see that lifelong ambition realized and, half a century after being exiled himself, he returned to the country he had fought so hard to free.

(Secrets of the Dead: Irish Escape will be broadcast Wednesday, May 16 on PBS Channel 13 in New York at 8 p.m. Check pbs.org for other airings.)