James Fitzharris nicknamed Skin-the-Goat (4 October 1833 – 7 September 1910) was a member of the Invincibles, a

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

-based Irish revolutionary group.

Biography

Born at Sliabh Bhuí,

Ferns The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...

, where his father was an employee at the Sinnott estate, he later became an Irish republican. When working as a cab driver, he earned his nickname when he found a goat eating the horse hair in his horses' collar. Fitzharris killed and skinned the goat on the spot, using the hide to cover his knees when he drove his cab. Ultimately, he served as

getaway driver A crime scene getaway is the act of departing from the location where one has committed a crime. It is an act that the offender(s) may or may not have planned in detail, resulting in a variety of outcomes. A :crime scene is the "location of a c ...

during the assassination of Permanent Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke and

Lord Frederick Cavendish Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish (30 November 1836 – 6 May 1882) was an English Liberal politician and ''protégé'' of the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone. Cavendish was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in May 1882 but was ...

Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park () is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since ...

. He was later tried, declaring on the dock that ‘Nobody from Sliabh Bhuí ever turned informer’, and found not guilty of the murders but in a retrial in May 1883, was convicted of conspiracy and accessory to murder and sentenced to

penal servitude Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included inv ...

for life. He was released from prison in 1899 and visited 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 ...

until he was deported back to Ireland in 1900. He is mentioned in the Irish

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

, " Monto (Take Her Up to Monto)", written by George Desmond Hodnett and popularised by

The Dubliners The Dubliners () were an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in pers ...

. He is also mentioned in James Joyce's '' Ulysses'' (pp. 133-134, 1934 ed.). FitzHarris died on 7 September 1910, in the South Dublin Union workhouse where he had been living in penury. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. He married twice, first, in 1865, Catherine Costello, with whom he had three children: Andrew, Margaret and Mary, and second, in 1899, Elizabeth Breslin. In 1901 the Fitzharrises were entered in the Census of Ireland at 2 Upper Erne Street.Census of Ireland: James and Elizabeth Fitzharris http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/South_Dock/Upper_Erne_Street/1350179/

References

External links

The Invincibles and the Phoenix Park killings
theirishstory.com 1843 births 1910 deaths 1882 crimes in the United Kingdom 18th-century Irish people 19th-century Irish people Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish rebels People deported from the United States People from County Wexford Place of death missing {{Ireland-hist-stub