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Manchester Martyrs

On 11th September 1867, the police arrested two men for behaving suspiciously in a doorway. The two, Colonel T.J.Kelly and Captain Deasy, were leading figures in the Fenian Rising. A week later, the prison van that carried the two handcuffed from court to Belle Vue Prison was ambushed by a crowd of thirty armed Fenians who had been lying in wait for it. After fatally shooting a police officer, the Fenians escaped with Kelly and Deasy (still handcuffed) never to be recaptured. Three of the ambushers were later executed for the murder of the policeman and went down in Irish Republican history as the "Manchester Martyrs" Link

A plaque SJ8696 : Fenian Ambush 1867 was erected on land by the side of the railway in 1989. The text reads "Fenian Ambush (September 1867) Site of the rescue of two Fenian prisoners. Following the shooting of a policeman three of the rescuers were executed at the last public hanging in the Manchester area (November 1867)."

More information about these events can found at Link