James Carey

Who was James Carey?

James Carey was a Fenian and informer most notable for his involvement in the Phoenix Park murders.

Carey was son of Francis Carey, a bricklayer, who came from Celbridge, in Kildare, to Dublin, where his son was born in James Street in 1845. He also was a bricklayer, and for 18 years continued in the employment of Michael Meade, builder, Dublin. He then started business on his own account as a builder at Denzille Street, Dublin. In this venture he was successful; he became the leading spokesman of his trade and obtained several large building contracts.

During all this period Carey was engaged in a nationalist conspiracy, but to outward appearance he was one of the rising men of Dublin. Every one believed in his piety and public spirit; there was hardly a society of the popular or religious kind of which he did not become a member, and at one time he was spoken of as a possible lord mayor. In 1882 he was elected a town councilor of Dublin, not on political grounds, but, as he himself said, solely for the good of the working men of the city.

About 1861 he had joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and soon after became treasurer. In 1881 he broke with the IRB and formed a new group which assumed the title of the Invincibles, and established their headquarters in Dublin. Carey took an oath as one of the leaders. The object of the Invincibles was to remove all "tyrants" from the country, and several attempts, but without success, were made to assassinate Earl Cowper and W. E. Forster.