Thousands roamed the streets, while Dublin Castle and the military feared a confrontation. They planned how to spirit Mitchel off to sea, once he had been convicted. A delegation had gone to Paris, seeking military assistance, while the first green-white-and orange flag of Ireland was presented to the French authorities, and a profusion of the colours broke out all over the country.

A new offence of treason felony was instituted, with a `humiliating` sentence of transportation to a penal colony, and the seizure of all possessions for the Crown. Such a punishment would `diminish the reputation of John Mitchel, rather than making him a martyr by hanging, or long years in the Tower of London.`

Swiftly, the young Newry lawyer was tried, convicted and rushed away under military guard to a waiting ship, `The Scourge.` Dublin Castle had issued a certificate that, due to ill-health, the famous prisoner should not be treated as a `convict.`

The ship�s first lieutenant, in full costume with cocked hat and sword, had come to collect Mitchel with a boat full of Marines. Once on board, he was presented to the captain, who invited him below, showing the quarters that he would occupy. As the captain was obliged to consider him a prisoner, a Marine would be on sentry duty at the companion ladder.

Some week�s after they had sailed, John Mitchel learned that his old friend and brother-in-law, John Martin, - who had taken on his role in the Young Irelanders, and was publishing the `Irish Felon,` - had also been convicted of treason felony, and sentenced to ten years� transportation to the same destination.

Writing in the `Jail Journal�, Mitchel declared: �John Martin found guilty of treason felony by a jury of Castle Protestants, and being sent to Van Dieman�s Land! I am very glad, because he is simply the best, worthiest and high-minded man that I have ever known, with many acquaintances, well aware of his worth.

�One could not wish British law in Ireland a more damaging action than to be compelled to send such men to the hulks. Imagine John Martin a convict, dragged away from the green shades and fertile pleasant places of Loughorne, and made one of a felons� ships-crew.

And John Mitchel asked: �Who and what is John Martin? A political adventurer, seeking to embroil the State; a needy speculator, speculating on a general plunder; a vain young man, courting praise and publicity; or a revolutionary, whose mission is to overthrow all that is established, and bring all things sacred into contempt?

�Great God! You know that the person most opposite to all those things is John Martin, the `Irish Felon�. By temperament and habit, he is retiring and contented, one who has lived for others and not for himself. His pleasures are rural and domestic, - and what he most scorns is publicity and newspaper notoriety.

�All he possesses is land in fee-simple, which social chaos would whirl away for him. Instead of being an enemy of property, law and order, he venerates Law, and cannot bear to live where anarchy reigns. He would prefer to bear with unjust institutions, rather than disquiet himself and others in a struggle to abolish them.�

But John Mitchel stressed that Martin �loathes the fraudulent sham of Law. He respects property while it subsists; but knows that when many people perish of want, there is only robbery and murder. This nation must reconstruct society and re-organise law and order. If we must go through the agony of anarchy, before we can enjoy true law and order, let us do so at once,� stated the `Jail Journal.`

Though John Martin was convicted and sentenced some months after Mitchel, he and other Young Irelanders arrived in Van Dieman�s Land (now Tasmania) well before the Newry lawyer. The ship with Mitchel on board had to wait in Bermuda for several months, and was turned away from the Cape of Good Hope, since the inhabitants did not want `convicts` in their country.

En route, John Mitchel, who had suffered severe attacks of asthma and sea-sickness, was due to switch ships at Bermuda, but it was two months later before the `Neptune� arrived.

Finally, after two years at sea, Mitchel stepped ashore on the convict colony. One year later, Jenny and her family set sail on a journey, which lasted many months. Like her husband, she described Hobart harbour as �one of the loveliest sights in the world. It may not be Carlingford Lough or the Mountains of Mourne, but it will do for the time being. Despite prime ministers, judges and juries, along with 12,000 miles of ocean, we are a family once again.

�Despite his image of a revolutionary on the edge of society, John needed the family circle to sustain him. By his own fireside, and Jenny by candlelight, he did not go casually to evenings with friends. And Jenny was happier than she thought she would ever be again, - for she could measure it by the troubled times. And there was born `the sweetest and loveliest child that ever the heart could desire.`

But John Mitchel wanted a summons to political action once more in Ireland. And the Directory in Dublin proposed that he should operate from New York, where he could publish another `United Irishman.` So began a complicated escape plan, involving shelter, feeding, rowing in boats, disguise, and false names, leading eventually to California, where a tremendous reception awaited the Newry hero. On then to New York and the launch of `the Citizen.`

But the Civil War erupted, with Mitchel�s controversial role on the Confederate side. Later came his rehabilitation, and election as MP at Westminster, being disallowed as he was `an escaped convict.` Just after he had won a second contest came the death of the Presbyterian patriot, whose name lives on in the frontier city, to which he brought fame and glory.

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