Philip Gray was born in Dublin, Ireland;[1] a former mechanic, clerk and part-time medical student, he along with Thomas Clarke Luby, according to Owen McGee, constituted the remnants of the Irish revolutionary conspiracy started in 1849.
[7] Gray underwent many hardships while eluding capture by both the police and military in County Waterford for four months in the autumn and early winter of 1848.
He returned in 1849 and was again an active agent in organising another out-break in the autumn of that year in the company of James Fintan Lalor, having established a secret military society.
[11] The attack on the police barracks at Cappoquin took place that September, and was to signal the end of that Insurrectionary movement.
[3] Gray returned to Dublin, and secured a clerkship at an office in Smithfield, and afterwards held a position in the office of The Tribune, which was established by John Edward Pigot, the son of David Richard Pigot, the Roman Catholic Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer[12] Rev.
It is true they talk of their country very plausibly, and in the most high flown terms; but behind all this there is no clear and comprehensive idea of the universal Irish nation, taking in the entire population.
[3] Philip Gray died in Dublin on 28 February 1857, in his 36th year, and was laid to rest in the family burial ground at Kilglass, County Meath.