Fenian movement

Irish-American republican secret society, founded in the USA in 1858 to campaign for Irish-American support for armed rebellion following the death of the Irish nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell and the break-up of Young Ireland. Its name, a reference to the ancient Irish legendary warrior band of the Fianna, became synonymous with underground Irish republicanism in the 19th century. The collapse of the movement began when an attempt to establish an independent Irish republic by an uprising in Ireland in 1867 failed, as did raids into Canada in 1866 and 1870, and England in 1867. In the 1880s the US-based Fenian society Clan-Na-Gael conducted assassinations and bombings through its agents in England and Ireland in an attempt to force Irish home rule.

The Fenian movement was initiated by James O'Mahony, Michael Doheny (1805-1863), and James Stephens. O'Mahony ran operations in the USA and Stephens was in charge of Ireland, where the movement emerged as the Irish Republican Brotherhood after 1867. Fenian ideology revolved around the notion of England as an evil power, a mystic commitment to Ireland, and a belief that an independent Irish republic was morally superior to Britain. A Fenian was more likely to be an artisan than a farmer, and the movement found its greatest support in towns. Although a secret organization, James Stephens published a newspaper, Irish People (1863), which compromised Fenian secrecy. Charles Kickham, its leader writer from 1863, was chairman of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood 1873-82.

Fenianism was opposed by the Catholic Church, but in 1867 the deaths of the Manchester Martyrs, which aroused great popular sympathy, resulted in partial reconciliation as the Catholic Church began to graft to the nationalist movement. The three martyrs, hanged for the murder of a police sergeant during the escape of two Fenian prisoners, were believed to be innocent victims of reprisal.