[3]) Originally the Phoenix Society met overtly, with elements of a mechanics' institute and drinking club, attracting scores of young men from West Cork and Kerry.
[6] In January 1858 an account of the speeches at its first-anniversary meeting was published in the Dundalk Democrat; it was later republished elsewhere, coming to the attention of James Stephens and John O'Mahony.
[1] There was a wave of concern in late 1858 about alleged "Phoenix Societies", encompassing not only that centred on Skibbereen, but also unnamed proto-IRB groups established elsewhere by Stephens.
[1] In Tralee at the 1859 Kerry Spring Assizes, Daniel O'Sullivan Agreem was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for treason felony despite an exhaustive defence by Thomas O'Hagan.
After the 1859 UK election the three Cork detainees agreed with the new Liberal government to plead guilty on condition that they and Agreem would be released for emigration.