There is little proof and lots of room for interpretation here. It all started with a rumour that when Ned Kelly was captured, a declaration of a Republic was found in his pocket. In the 1920s there was an article in "The Irish Times", a Dublin magazine, claiming that the police had given the document to government officials but they had kept its existance secret in order to keep peace. In the 1960s, historian Ian Jones interviewed the son of a member of the Kelly gang, who spoke about a movement for a Republic. Investigating further, Ian Jones acquired another tid-bit of information from an Australian journalist, who claimed to have seen a copy of the rumoured declaration in a public records office in London. But neither the declaration itself, neither a copy of it never surfaced again. Besides historians and journalists, filmmaker Tony Richardson also engaged a professional researcher during the making of a Ned Kelly movie, but with no result. The office which allegedly hosted the declaration, had no record of it. So, no paper trail.

The rest of the evidence about a Republican movement is also rather vague, which is no surprise due to the high level of secrecy. There were police reports of sightings of parties of armed men in the area, and during the siege at Glenrowan the firing of two rockets was witnessed, which were considered as signals to sympathisers. One witness mentioned a gathering of up to 150 men, all armed. But what was the actual purpose of those armed gatherings? We have no solid evidence.

Again, there are only vague tid-bits which we have to decipher. There is the so called Jerilderie Letter, 56 pages dictated by Kelly to another gang member and sent to a newspaper in an attempt to get it published as a pamphlet. It mentions: "I give fair warning [to my enemies]... do not attempt to reside in Victoria ... neglect this and abide by the consequences, which shall be worse ...” and "it will pay government to give those people who are suffering innocence, justice and liberty. If not, I will be compelled to show some ... stratagem which will open the eyes of ... the Victoria police and inhabitants... also the whole British army.”

Those words could give a new perspective to Kelly's attempt to derail the police train at Glenrowan, which attempt could be interpreted as a deliberate strike against the police and part of the republican agenda. But they could also have nothing to do with the plans to wreck a train of police reinforcements arriving to pursue a criminal gang.

The movements for a Republic were quite a real thing at the time. A "Declaration of Independence" was recently drawn, read in public and cheered, and another one published. A parliamentarian had repeatedly pressed the notion for a Republic through a newspaper. There had been a public meeting attended by some 400 people where a separation league was formed, contemplating a separation of the Western Victoria from the rest of the colony. After more meetings a petition was sent to the House of Lords and the Governor for transmission to the Queen. At the time Kelly was active, the region was already in a state of considerable unrest and the republican cause did have some support. The gang did get a lot of people's sympathies but did Kelly join the republican cause? We are yet to find solid evidence for that.