He had taken part in many councils of the Fenian
leaders, he was trusted implicitly by his political friends, and much
deference was paid to his opinion. But more than all this, he had taken
the field on the night of the rising, led his men gallantly to the
attack of Ballyknockane police barrack, and, to the-great horror of all
loyal subjects, committed the enormous offence of capturing it. This,
and the similar successes achieved by Lennon at Stepaside and
Glencullen, county Wicklow, were some of the incidents of the attempted
rebellion which most annoyed the government, who well knew the influence
which such events, occurring at the outset of a revolutionary movement,
are apt to exercise on the popular mind. Captain Mackay, therefore, was
badly "wanted" by the authorities after the Fenian rising; there was any
money to be given for information concerning the whereabouts of Captain
Mackay, but it came not. Every loyal-minded policeman in Cork county,
and in all the other Irish counties, and every detective, and every spy,
and every traitor in the pay of the government, kept a sharp look out
for the audacious Captain Mackay, who had compelled the garrison of one
of her Majesty's police barracks to surrender to him, and hand him up
their arms in the quietest and most polite manner imaginable; but they
saw him not, or if they saw, they did not recognise him.
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