THERE are Presbyterians and Presbyterians. When Bulmer Hobson was in Philadelphia in 1907 on behalf of Arthur Griffith's Sinn Fein, he was invited to visit the Reverend P J Kane, who was pastor of a Presbyterian church in a suburb of that city.
"I found a frail old man (Hobson was then 24), very quiet and reserved and very courteous. In his youth he had been a Captain in the American army and an active member of the Fenian Brotherhood. As we talked of the Fenian movement, he grew animated, the years seemed to fall away and even the language of the army captain reappeared. Along with Captain Lomasney Mackey and some others, Kane had come to Ireland to give military training to members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, in preparation for the rising of 1867. In the dusk of a winter afternoon, four of them were marching back to Cork city where they lodged after a day, spent instructing some young men in the country. Suddenly, as they marched along, they heard the command: "Halt. Hands up. Surrender." Hidden behind the hedges on both sides of the road were police men covering them with rifles. There was nothing for it but to surrender; soon they were lodged in Cork jail.
"The next day there was an identity parade in the prison yard and Corydon, who was well known as a spy and informer in both Ireland and America, came down the line to see whom he could identify. Kane had met Corydon in America but did not know whether Corydon would recognise him or not. When Corydon came to look at him, Kane, with all the force he could command, hit him between the eyes and knocked him down. `Well, Corydon, you sonofabitch, do you remember me?' Corydon staggered to his feet in a rage and, completely off his guard, shouted back: `No, but I damned soon will.' When the trial came on, Corydon was the principal witness for the Crown, and he had the case against Kane all neatly prepared. Kane's lawyer subpoenaed as many of those as he could who had been present at the identity parade, and they all swore that Corydon had said he did not know Kane but that he damned soon would. The case for the Crown collapsed and a reluctant court discharged Kane, who returned to America and ended his days as a deeply respected Presbyterian minister in Philadelphia."
This from Bulmer Hobson's Ireland, Yesterday and Tomorrow. Anvil books 1968, with much detail about his political and welfare activities in Belfast and Dublin and his economic theories for the island as a whole. Hobson died in 1969 and is buried in the graveyard at Goirtin Bay, Galway.