:::: ''See Cuban Five for Cuban intelligence officers formerly held in Miami prisons.'' The Cuba Five () were a group of Irish

rebels A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; ...

released from

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

s in 1871 on condition of not entering Britain (Ireland was then part of the United Kingdom) until the expiration of their original sentences. They chose to accept

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, travelling on board the ship SS ''Cuba'' from

Liverpool docks The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed Dock (maritime), dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, Merseyside, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Great Float, Birkenhead Docks betwee ...

. The five men were

John Devoy John Devoy (, ; 3 September 1842 – 29 September 1928) was an Irish republican Rebellion, rebel and journalist who owned and edited ''The Gaelic American'', a New York weekly newspaper, from 1903 to 1928. Devoy dedicated over 60 year ...

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (; 4 September 1831 (baptised) – 29 June 1915)Con O'Callaghan Reenascreena Community Online (dead link archived at archive.org, 29 September 2014) was an Irish Fenian leader who was one of the leading members of t ...

, Charles Underwood O'Connell, Henry Mullady and John McClure. On arrival in New York they received a rapturous welcome and attempted to reunite the badly split

Fenian Brotherhood The Fenian Brotherhood () was an Irish republican organisation founded in the United States in 1858 by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. It was a precursor to Clan na Gael, a sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Membe ...

. In this they failed, but Devoy and O'Donovan Rossa were to go on to become probably the most outstanding members of the Fenian movement in the US in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

References

Sources

*Terry Golway, ''Irish Rebel: John Devoy and America's Fight for Ireland's Freedom'', St. Martin's Press, New York, 1998 History of Ireland (1801–1923) Irish exiles Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish revolutionaries Irish-American history Irish expatriates in the United States {{ireland-hist-stub