Fenianism was the successor to or continuation of the Young Ireland Movement of 1848 but differently organized and based upon different principles. The Young Ireland Movement was a romantic nationalist movement that sought to create a non-sectarian public opinion in Ireland infused with a sense of cultural nationality and to promote a national literature and to revive the ‘Irish Language’. It was fully involved with the O’Connell repeal movement, but differed with O’Connell’s pragmatic approach.

Fenianism was dedicated to the proposition that Great Britain would never surrender sovereignty to the force of argument and that Ireland’s claim to national independence would be conceded only to the argument of Force. They believed that it was necessary to prepare for a military struggle with Britain. Parliamentary agitation was futile, since Irish members were always outvoted. However, they had no illusions about the strength of Britain, but hoped to choose the moment to strike when Britain was involved in an international situation, e.g. the Crimean War.

The two principal founders of Fenianism were James Stephens (1824-1901) and John O’Mahony (1816-77). Both had participated in the rising of 1848 at Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary, where Stephens is said to have been wounded. They both fled Ireland to Paris where they roomed together. Stephens returned to Ireland about 1856 while O’Mahony went to the United States about 1852.

James Stephens seems to have been the dominant force of the two. He witnessed the failure of Smith O’Brien’s attempt in 1848 and attributed it to the want of a secret oath binding the members of the conspiracy together and insuring obedience to their superior officers. He showed himself to be thoroughly skilled in organizing. He founded a secret society in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day, 1858. In an attempt to maintain the utmost secrecy in the society, Stephens devised an elaborate system whereby he divided the membership into ‘Circles’ commanded by a ‘Centre’. Within each ‘Circle’ the individual members would only know their immediate colleagues and superior, but not the members of other ‘Circles. Stephens was elected Head ‘Centre’ in Ireland and John O’Mahony Head ‘Centre’ in the United States. The methodology was not successful and the society was easily penetrated by informers and police agents. Stephens’ secret society (the Irish Republican Brotherhood or I.R.B.) was known by a number of names, The Society, The Organization, The Brotherhood before becoming the Fenians. The name Fenian initially just applied to the American wing of the I.R.B. but became an umbrella term for militant Irish nationalism. The term Fenian was coined by John O’Mahony, who was also a Celtic scholar and translator of Keating’s History of Ireland (a reference to the Fianna army in the medieval saga of Fionn Mac Cumhail).

Founding a secret society did not just happen, there were significant activities taking place in both Ireland and America prior to 1858 that led to the founding of Fenianism. Stephens had gone to the United States and with O’Mahony and the backing of the fugitives of ‘48’, formed several corps of military volunteers composed of Irishmen. These military corps were for the most part informal and the members were responsible for their own uniforms, arms, drilling and electing their own officers. By 1859 it is estimated that these corps had a strength of 25,000 and by the beginning of the American Civil War their strength was about 50,000 members, with about four to five times that number of non-members, who sympathized with the movement.

In the south of Ireland many sporting events (including hurling matches) effectively masked the swearing in of men to the Fenian Brotherhood. These meetings consisted of large numbers, often as many as 1,000. Drilling was observed and frequently reported to the authorities. In 1858 O’Donovan Rossa, Mortimer Downing and others were detained for what was to be known as the ‘Phoenix Conspiracy’. Although never proven, it was assumed by Dublin Castle that James Stephens was the prime head of that group.

America was important to the continuity of Irish revolutionary nationalism simply because of the large number of Irish exiles who went there to live following the Famine years. There were probably over a million and a half Irish in America. O’Mahony was quite influential in giving impetus and cash to Stephens’ new society. He started publishing the Phoenix newspaper in New York. This paper advocated that it was “the duty of all Irishmen to disconnect themselves from all participation in English activities, to extirpate root and branch from Ireland the English Garrison, English Government, English laws, English land tenure and all adjuncts of English usurpation, to restore the government of the Isle to the Irish people and to this end make immediate and continuous preparation for war”.

Throughout this period of the development of Fenianism, the Catholic Church in Ireland, particularly Archbishop Cullen, fiercely condemned these activities partly on the ground of its secret and oath bound allegiance and partly on its advocacy of revolution from English rule. This condemnation seemed to come to a head in early 1861, when O’Mahony organized a deputation to bring the remains of Terence Bellew McManus (1823-61) from California to Dublin for burial. McManus had been a well-known Young Irelander. The idea was to show respect for McManus, but in effect to show the strength of Fenianism in Ireland. Cullen refused to allow the Cathedral, or any church in the Archdiocese, to be used for the lying in state of McManus’s remains. The remains were deposited in the Mechanics Institute for one week. Upwards to 9,000 persons attended the viewing. The funeral procession took place on 10 December 1861 and consisted of about 8,000 mourners. It should be noted that the Catholic Church was consistently hostile to revolutionary nationalist Irish organizations throughout this period.

But just as the strength of the Fenians in Ireland and the United States had reached significant numbers, other events occurred. Great Britain had not become involved in an international conflict, but the United States became embroiled in civil war and many of the Fenians, who formed the military cadre in America joined the Union and Confederate armies. Fenianism thrived during the next four years of the American Civil War. The rest of the story and a fuller discussion of events belong to the historians and a study of the actual Fenians.

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