John Devoy
Revolution has usually been a young man’s game. John Devoy was definitely an exception to this rule; — a man who lived to a very old age, through times which would have thrown a saint into despair, the fire in his revolutionary soul never flickering. Few outside of the very well read among Irish history enthusiasts know much of the accomplishments of this tireless worker for Irish independence. As such a memorial committee has been set up to erect a monument to John Devoy in his home town of Naas, Co. Kildare. John Devoy was considered by many including Padraic Pearse to be the most determined and greatest of the Fenians.
Peter Quinn, Irish American author, historian and Corporate Editorial Director of Time Warner in New York describes John Devoy as follows:
“Devoy was a rebel with a cause and in honouring him, the Irish people will be affirming their tiew with the immense Irish Diaspora across the world and with the struggle for human dignity and freedom, wherever it is being waged. The anti-imperialist cause he spent a lifetime serving -the right of every nation and every people to determine it’s own future- has never been more important and urgent. Certainly, few if any figures in the history of America and Ireland more fully embody the ties between our two people (if not always their governments) on our shared ambition to open the path of democratic progress for all, than John Devoy.”