PAWTUCKET HOLDS A FENIAN GRAVE

Easter Rising thoughts in Pawtucket

The historical fact that there is a Fenian Grave of  Wilson buried in Saint Mary's Cemetery  was made known to me by an old family friend Al McAloon.  By the time Al told me the story we were colleagues teaching at  Bryant College--now University.  He taught psychology and was a  fervent  disciple of Carl Jung; I taught English lit  and was a fervent disciple of Bernard Shaw. 
Once Al learned that I was born and raised in Pawtucket, he figured out our family connections--his wife was a close neighbor and a distant cousin of my mother Margaret Coleman. My dissertation was about Shaw's connection to Ireland and his attitude towards the National Question as displayed in his great play about Ireland, JOHN BULL'S OTHER ISLAND.

Discovering that I was unaware of the role Pawtucket played in the drama of the rescue of some Fenians imprisoned in Australia, Al took me  Saint Mary's Cemetery to see Wilson's grave with its Celtic  Cross marker and told me the amazing story of how a Fenian  fighter for Irish freedom had been captured and tried and sent to Australia  for imprisonment by the British government  then occupying Ireland.  Al could recall the very day of Wilson's burial vividly because he  was a schoolboy at Saint Mary's School and the nun teaching them brought them outside to watch the great man being buried  right before their eyes.
All Fenian graves are a great source of patriotic devotion for Irish Nationalists. It is considered a blessing and honor to have the  graves of these patriots in  a community.
Padraic Pearse, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising,  is  remembered for  his funeral oration that set Irish hearts on fire with renewed  zeal  to fight for Irish freedom.  Pearse was speaking at the graveside interment of another Fenian O Donovan Rossa, and he concluded his remarks with these  words that have sent  pride running through the veins of  every Irish person worldwide and should rouse fear in every British Imperialist :

They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! - they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.

How amazing to think during this Easter season that Pawtucket  is  privileged to hold one of these graves . Be aware that the spirit of  rising against oppression that marks the ME TOO Movement and  the BLACK LIVES MATTER and the  Parkland students ENOUGH IS ENOUGH-- again shows the constant  motion of human history towards  justice.  And this Easter as with every Easter -- still we rise with the Risen One  who came to SHOW us that  the sacrifice of a person in the struggle for freedom does not end the struggle, it sanctifies it.