Public Response to Clerkenwell Explosion

Title

Public Response to Clerkenwell Explosion

Description

An example of the verses, songs and pictures circulated in London streets after the Clerkenwell explosion.

The excerpt reads:

On the 13th of the month of December,
About four in that same afternoon,
Those villains with a barrel of powder,
The results will be known very soon.
A wretch in the form of a female,
With two men was going by the way,
He set light to the barrel of powder,
All in one moment was fear and dismay.
 
Sixty houses in one mass of ruins,
People they fled from there in fear;
The children ran from the shop doors,
Crying, "Where is my poor mother dear?"
The murderous villain absconded,
But this was their treacherous plan,
To blow-up poor innocent people,
To rescue but one single man.
 
Oh, what a danger to the nation,
To a country that strove to be free,
Every true Irishman will curse them,
It's not Fenianism but treachery.
Mothers cry out for their children,
Fathers seek wives in despair,
Their forms are so mangled and blacken'd,
"Oh where are my children so dear?"

Creator

Islington Central Public Library

Source

Quinlivan, Patrick and Paul Bernard Rose, The Fenians in England 1865 - 1872, pg. 95

Publisher

John Calder Publishers

Format

PNG image; 1012 x 1274 pixels.

Files

Clerkenwell Media Excerpt.png

Citation

Islington Central Public Library, “Public Response to Clerkenwell Explosion,” James Joyce Digital Interpretations, accessed April 19, 2024, https://jamesjoyce.omeka.net/items/show/39.