East Carolina University English Professor Dr. C. W. Sullivan III, will discuss the life of Denis Cashman, Irish poet and patriot, at Buffalo State College on Oct. 15 at 3:30 p.m. in Butler Library, room 210.

Cashman was an Irishman who was convicted of treason in 1867 for his role in a Fenian uprising trying to free Ireland from English rule. He was sentenced to seven years of penal servitude in Australia and was sent there on a three-and-a-half month voyage aboard the "Hougoumont," the last Irish convict ship. Cashman was pardoned on May 1869 and went to American to become a journalist. He died in 1897.

Sullivan discovered Cashman's 1860s diary among papers donated to the ECU Library and turned it into a narrative about life on an Irish convict ship titled "Fenian Diary: Denis B. Cashman on Board the Hougoumont, 1867 - 1868."

The discussion will include excerpts from Cashman's diary, poetry he wrote aboard the vessel and Sullivan's commentary about his research on Cashman.

The event is part of Buffalo State College's celebration of Arts and Humanities month and is free and open to the public.