The last man publicly executed in England was a member of the Fenians, found guilty of blowing up the wall of Clerkenwell House of Detention in London in 1867 in an attempt to free Irish Republican Brotherhood member Richard O'Sullivan Burke. The explosion went wrong and killed twelve bystanders. It was one of the first bombings on English soil, and according to some theories the term "Mick Barrett" became a term for Irish nationalists, later shortened to the derogatory "Mick", although there are other possible sources for the term. Three days after Barrett was hanged, public executions were banned and henceforth took place behind the walls of Newgate Prison. Barrett was buried beneath the Birdcage Walk within the prison; when it was razed in 1902, he and the other bodies were moved to a mass grave, where a plaque in his memory was placed in March 2002.
From: Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed., by Scott Wilson
The last man publicly executed in England was a member of the Fenians, found guilty of blowing up the wall of Clerkenwell House of Detention in London in 1867 in an attempt to free Irish Republican Brotherhood member Richard O'Sullivan Burke. The explosion went wrong and killed twelve bystanders. It was one of the first bombings on English soil, and according to some theories the term "Mick Barrett" became a term for Irish nationalists, later shortened to the derogatory "Mick", although there are other possible sources for the term. Three days after Barrett was hanged, public executions were banned and henceforth took place behind the walls of Newgate Prison. Barrett was buried beneath the Birdcage Walk within the prison; when it was razed in 1902, he and the other bodies were moved to a mass grave, where a plaque in his memory was placed in March 2002.
From: Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed., by Scott Wilson
Advertisement
Advertisement
