Booklaunch of John Devoy’s Catalpa Expedition

Please join us for the official launch of John Devoy's Catalpa Expedition

Thursday May 4th, 2006 at 7:00 p.m.

Edited by Philip Fennell and Marie King, with an introduction by Terry Golway
ISBN 0814727484,  272 pages,  Cloth,  Publication date: 2/1/2006

The story of John Devoy's 1876 Catalpa rescue is a tale of heroism, creativity, and the triumph of independent spirit in pursuit of freedom. The daily log on board the whaling ship Catalpa begins with the typical recount of a crew intact and a spirit unfettered, but such quiet words deceive the truth of the audacious enterprise that came to be known as one of the most important rescues in Irish American history. John Devoy's men rescued six Irish political prisoners from the Australian coast, allowing millions of fellow Irishmen and American-Fenians, many of whom secretly financed the dangerous plot, to draw courage from the newly exiled prisoners.

Philip Fennell and Marie King tell the story from John Devoy's own records and the ship's logbooks. John Devoy's Catalpa Expedition includes an introduction by Terry Golway and the personal diaries, letters, and reports from John Devoy and his men.

Philip Fennell is an accountant. Marie King, his wife, is a graduate of New York University and an elementary school teacher. Their first editing collaboration resulted in the publication of an ancestor's recollection Voyage of the Hougoumont and Life at Fremantle: The Life of an Irish Rebel. They live in Pawling, New York. Terry Golway is an editor and writer at The New York Observer and author of Irish Rebel: John Devoy and America's Fight for Ireland.