added secret drilling to his work of railway construction. Young Ireland and 1848 The only written accounts of Stephens political opinions prior to 1848 are the letters he wrote just after the insurrection and his recollections published in the Irishman newspaper beginning on 4 February 1882, and his “Notes on a 3,000 miles walk through Ireland” published in the Weekly Freeman from 6 October 1883. With John Mitchel transported to Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania, Australia) by a packed jury under the purposely enacted Treason Felony Act, leadership of the Confederation fell to William Smith O'Brien. O'Brien arrived in Kilkenny on 24 July 1848 to call on the people to confront "the perils and the honours of a righteous war." The next day, at a meeting of the Confederate clubs, Stephens was called upon to appear on the platform by his friends where he then delivered his maiden speech; Later Stephens and his father went to a private meeting in the Victoria Hotel, when a Mr. John Grace rushed in to say there was someone with a warrant for the arrest of O'Brien at the Rose Inn. A Mr. Kavanagh who was present at the meeting asked who would come with him to take the detective prisoner, which Stephens agreed to do. This would be the last time Stephens would ever see his father again. Having gone to get some arms, the two men went to the Inn and detained the individual. It later turned out to be Patrick O'Donoghue a member of the Confederate council with a message for O'Brien. Until his identity could be established, it was decided he would be brought to O'Brien with the clear warning that if he was who he said he was he would forgive their zeal, if however he tried to escape he would be shot. While going to Thurles to meet up with O'Brien they came across P.J. Smith a leading member of the Young Irelanders who vouched for O'Donoghue. Smith, who would later successfully plan the escape of Mitchel from Van Diemen's Land, was on his way to Dublin to arrange plans to tear up the railway line in Thurles and the Dublin suburbs and for the Meath clubs to create a diversion. Stephens and O'Donoghue agreed to take charge of the Thurles line, later passing the order on to the local Confederates, who destroyed parts of the Great Southern