Fenian Rising
Encyclopedia
The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion against British
rule in Ireland
, organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood
(IRB).
After the suppression of the Irish People newspaper, disaffection among Irish radical nationalists had continued to smoulder, and during the later part of 1866 IRB leader James Stephens
endeavoured to raise funds in the United States
for a fresh rising planned for the following year. However the rising of 1867 proved to be poorly organised. There was a brief rising in County Kerry
in February, followed by an attempt an nation-wide insurrection, including the taking of Dublin in early March. Due to poor planning and British infiltration, the rebellion never got off the ground. Most of the leaders in Ireland were arrested, but although some of them were sentenced to death, none were executed. There followed a series of attacks in England aimed at freeing Fenian
prisoners, including a bomb in London and an attack on prison van in Manchester, for which three Fenians, subsequently known as the Manchester martyrs
, were executed. A series of raids
into Canada
by US-based supporters also accomplished little.
was founded in Dublin by James Stephens in 1858. After the end of the American Civil War
, they hoped to recruit willing Irish veterans of that war for an insurrection in Ireland, aimed at the foundation of an Irish Republic.
In 1865, the Fenians began preparing for a rebellion. They collected about 6,000 firearms and had as many as 50,000 men willing to fight. In September 1865, the British moved to close down the Fenians' newspaper The Irish People and arrested much of the leadership, including John O'Leary, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa
, Thomas Clarke Luby
and Stephens. Stephens, the leader of the movement, later escaped. In 1866, habeas corpus
was suspended in Ireland and there were hundreds more arrests of Fenian activists.
Stephens' successor as leader, Thomas J. Kelly
tried to launch the insurrection in early 1867, but it proved uncoordinated and fizzled in a series of skirmishes. The plan was for a country-wide campaign of guerrilla warfare
, accompanied by an uprising in Dublin in which Fenian fighters would link up with Irish troops who had mutinied and take the military barracks in the city.
In February 1867 there was an unsuccessful rising in County Kerry. On March 5, other failed risings took place in Cork city, Limerick
and Dublin. The largest of these engagements took place at Tallaght
, when several hundred Fenians, on their way to the meeting point at Tallaght Hill, were attacked by the Irish Constabulary near the police barracks, and were driven off after a firefight. A total of twelve people were killed across the country on the day. When it became apparent that the co-ordinated rising that had been planned was not transpiring, most rebels simply went home.
The rising failed as a result of lack of arms and planning, but also because of the British authorities' effective use of informers. Most of the Fenian leadership had been arrested before the rebellion took place.
However, the rising was not without symbolic significance. The Fenians proclaimed a Provisional Republican government, stating,
. A bold move on the part of the Fenian circles in Lancashire
had been concerted in co-operation with the movement in Ireland. An attack was to be made on Chester
, the arms stored in the castle
were to be seized, the telegraph wires cut, the rolling stock on the railway to be appropriated for transport to Holyhead
, where shipping was to be seized and a descent made on Dublin before the authorities should have time to interfere. This scheme was frustrated by information given to the government by the informer John Joseph Croydon, one of Stephens' most trusted agents.
, where he had gone from Dublin to attend a council of the English
"centres" (organisers), together with a companion, Captain Timothy Deasy
. A plot to rescue these prisoners was hatched by Edward O'Meaher Condon with other Manchester Fenians; on 18 September, while Kelly and Deasy were being conveyed through the city from the courthouse, the prison van was attacked by Fenians armed with revolvers, and in the scuffle Police Sergeant Charles Brett, who was seated inside the van, was shot dead. The three Fenians, who were later executed, were remembered as the "Manchester Martyrs."
, was arrested and imprisoned in Clerkenwell Prison
in London
. While he was awaiting trial a wall of the prison was blown down by gunpowder in order to effect his escape. The explosion caused the death of twelve people, and injured one hundred and twenty others. This act, for which Fenian Michael Barrett
would suffer the death penalty, powerfully influenced William Ewart Gladstone
in deciding that the Anglican Church of Ireland
should be disestablished as a concession to Irish disaffection.
, the IRB's sister organisation, based in the United States
, especially a faction of it under William R. Roberts
, mobilised up to 1,000 Irish veterans of the American Civil War to launch raids on British army
forts, customs posts and other targets in Canada
in order to bring pressure on Britain
to withdraw from Ireland, between 1866 and 1871.
While the U.S. authorities arrested the men and confiscated their arms afterwards, there is speculation that many in the US government had turned a blind eye to the preparations for the invasion, angered at actions that could be construed as British assistance to the Confederacy
during the American Civil War
. There were five Fenian raids of note. While they had some minor successes against Canadian forces, they were militarily and politically unsuccessful.
, later the founder of the Home Rule League
.
The Fenians themselves re-organised after the failure of the rising. In 1873, the Irish Republican Brotherhood adopted a new constitution, which stated that armed rebellion would not be pursued again until it had mass backing from the people. In 1879, the leaders of the IRB, principally John Devoy, decided on a New Departure
, eschewing, for the time, physical force in favour of adopting the land question and building a broad nationalist movement. The Fenians, therefore, cooperated with the Land League in the land agitation
from the 1870s onwards and in the rise of the Irish Parliamentary Party
.
Not all Fenians agreed with this policy however and several breakaway groups emerged that continued to believe in the use of political violence in pursuit of republican objectives. One was the Irish National Invincibles
who assassinated the two most important British functionaries in Ireland, Frederick Cavendish
and Thomas Henry Burke, respectively Chief and Under Secretaries for Ireland, in Dublin in 1882 (see Phoenix Park Murders
). Two other factions, one sponsored by O'Donovan Rossa, the other by the Irish-American Clan na Gael
, carried out a bombing campaign in Britain between 1880 and 1887.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
rule in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood
Irish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...
(IRB).
After the suppression of the Irish People newspaper, disaffection among Irish radical nationalists had continued to smoulder, and during the later part of 1866 IRB leader James Stephens
James Stephens (Irish nationalist)
James Stephens was an Irish Republican and the founding member of an originally unnamed revolutionary organisation in Dublin on 17 March 1858, later to become known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood , also referred to as the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by contemporaries.-Early...
endeavoured to raise funds in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for a fresh rising planned for the following year. However the rising of 1867 proved to be poorly organised. There was a brief rising in County Kerry
County Kerry
Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...
in February, followed by an attempt an nation-wide insurrection, including the taking of Dublin in early March. Due to poor planning and British infiltration, the rebellion never got off the ground. Most of the leaders in Ireland were arrested, but although some of them were sentenced to death, none were executed. There followed a series of attacks in England aimed at freeing Fenian
Fenian
The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...
prisoners, including a bomb in London and an attack on prison van in Manchester, for which three Fenians, subsequently known as the Manchester martyrs
Manchester Martyrs
The Manchester Martyrs – William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien – were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an organisation dedicated to ending British rule in Ireland. They were executed for the murder of a police officer in Manchester, England, in 1867, during...
, were executed. A series of raids
Fenian raids
Between 1866 and 1871, the Fenian raids of the Fenian Brotherhood who were based in the United States; on British army forts, customs posts and other targets in Canada, were fought to bring pressure on Britain to withdraw from Ireland. They divided many Catholic Irish-Canadians, many of whom were...
into Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
by US-based supporters also accomplished little.
In Ireland
The Irish Republican BrotherhoodIrish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...
was founded in Dublin by James Stephens in 1858. After the end of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, they hoped to recruit willing Irish veterans of that war for an insurrection in Ireland, aimed at the foundation of an Irish Republic.
In 1865, the Fenians began preparing for a rebellion. They collected about 6,000 firearms and had as many as 50,000 men willing to fight. In September 1865, the British moved to close down the Fenians' newspaper The Irish People and arrested much of the leadership, including John O'Leary, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa , was an Irish Fenian leader and prominent member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. His life as an Irish Fenian is well documented but he is perhaps known best in death for the graveside oration given at his funeral by Pádraig Pearse.-Life in Ireland:He was born at...
, Thomas Clarke Luby
Thomas Clarke Luby
Thomas Clarke Luby was an Irish revolutionary, author, journalist and one of the founding members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.-Early life:...
and Stephens. Stephens, the leader of the movement, later escaped. In 1866, habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
was suspended in Ireland and there were hundreds more arrests of Fenian activists.
Stephens' successor as leader, Thomas J. Kelly
Thomas J. Kelly (Irish nationalist)
Thomas J. Kelly was an Irish revolutionary and leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood .frame|-Biography:...
tried to launch the insurrection in early 1867, but it proved uncoordinated and fizzled in a series of skirmishes. The plan was for a country-wide campaign of guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
, accompanied by an uprising in Dublin in which Fenian fighters would link up with Irish troops who had mutinied and take the military barracks in the city.
In February 1867 there was an unsuccessful rising in County Kerry. On March 5, other failed risings took place in Cork city, Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
and Dublin. The largest of these engagements took place at Tallaght
Tallaght
Tallaght is the largest town, and county town, of South Dublin County, Ireland. The village area, dating from at least the 17th century, held one of the earliest settlements known in the southern part of the island, and one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres.Up to the 1960s...
, when several hundred Fenians, on their way to the meeting point at Tallaght Hill, were attacked by the Irish Constabulary near the police barracks, and were driven off after a firefight. A total of twelve people were killed across the country on the day. When it became apparent that the co-ordinated rising that had been planned was not transpiring, most rebels simply went home.
The rising failed as a result of lack of arms and planning, but also because of the British authorities' effective use of informers. Most of the Fenian leadership had been arrested before the rebellion took place.
However, the rising was not without symbolic significance. The Fenians proclaimed a Provisional Republican government, stating,
Chester raid
The revolt's organisers had hoped to benefit from considerable support among Irish nationals, or their descendants, living in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. A bold move on the part of the Fenian circles in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
had been concerted in co-operation with the movement in Ireland. An attack was to be made on Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
, the arms stored in the castle
Chester Castle
Chester Castle is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It is sited at the southwest extremity of the area bounded by the city walls . The castle stands on an eminence overlooking the River Dee. In the castle complex are the remaining parts of the medieval castle together with the...
were to be seized, the telegraph wires cut, the rolling stock on the railway to be appropriated for transport to Holyhead
Holyhead
Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....
, where shipping was to be seized and a descent made on Dublin before the authorities should have time to interfere. This scheme was frustrated by information given to the government by the informer John Joseph Croydon, one of Stephens' most trusted agents.
Manchester Martyrs
On 11 September 1867, Colonel Thomas J. Kelly ("Deputy Central Organizer of the Irish Republic") was arrested in ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, where he had gone from Dublin to attend a council of the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
"centres" (organisers), together with a companion, Captain Timothy Deasy
Timothy Deasy
Timothy Deasy was a Captain in the Irish Republican Brotherhood.He was captured during their abortive uprising in 1867. He was released with a fellow IRB prisoner Colonel Thomas J. Kelly by an attack on a prison van in Manchester. He escaped, but three of his rescuers were executed for their part...
. A plot to rescue these prisoners was hatched by Edward O'Meaher Condon with other Manchester Fenians; on 18 September, while Kelly and Deasy were being conveyed through the city from the courthouse, the prison van was attacked by Fenians armed with revolvers, and in the scuffle Police Sergeant Charles Brett, who was seated inside the van, was shot dead. The three Fenians, who were later executed, were remembered as the "Manchester Martyrs."
Clerkenwell explosion
On the same day of November 1867, Richard Burke, who had been employed by the Fenians to purchase arms in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, was arrested and imprisoned in Clerkenwell Prison
Clerkenwell Prison
Clerkenwell Prison, also known as the Clerkenwell House of Detention or Middlesex House of Detention was a prison in Clerkenwell, London...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. While he was awaiting trial a wall of the prison was blown down by gunpowder in order to effect his escape. The explosion caused the death of twelve people, and injured one hundred and twenty others. This act, for which Fenian Michael Barrett
Michael Barrett (Fenian)
Michael Barrett was born in Drumnagreshial in the Ederney area of County Fermanagh. In his adult years he became a member of the Fenians....
would suffer the death penalty, powerfully influenced William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
in deciding that the Anglican Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
should be disestablished as a concession to Irish disaffection.
In Canada
The Fenian BrotherhoodFenian Brotherhood
The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish republican organization founded in the United States in 1858 by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. It was a precursor to Clan na Gael, a sister organization to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Members were commonly known as "Fenians"...
, the IRB's sister organisation, based in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, especially a faction of it under William R. Roberts
William R. Roberts
William Randall Roberts was a diplomat, Fenian Society member, and United States Representative from New York . Born in County Cork, Ireland, he immigrated to the United States in July 1849, received a limited schooling, and was a merchant in New York City until 1869, until he retired.In 1865,...
, mobilised up to 1,000 Irish veterans of the American Civil War to launch raids on British army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
forts, customs posts and other targets in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in order to bring pressure on Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
to withdraw from Ireland, between 1866 and 1871.
While the U.S. authorities arrested the men and confiscated their arms afterwards, there is speculation that many in the US government had turned a blind eye to the preparations for the invasion, angered at actions that could be construed as British assistance to the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. There were five Fenian raids of note. While they had some minor successes against Canadian forces, they were militarily and politically unsuccessful.
Aftermath
The rising itself was a total military failure, but it did have some political benefits for the Fenian movement. There were large protests in Ireland against the execution of Fenian prisoners, many of whose death sentences were, as a result, reprieved. In addition, the bravey of the three 'Manchester Martyrs' on their execution provoked an emotional reaction among the Irish public, 17 monuments were erected in their honour and 26 annual commemorations were held well into the 20th century. An Amnesty Association for Fenian prisoners was established by Isaac ButtIsaac Butt
Isaac Butt Q.C. M.P. was an Irish barrister, politician, Member of Parliament , and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organisations, including the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870 and in 1873 the Home...
, later the founder of the Home Rule League
Home Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
.
The Fenians themselves re-organised after the failure of the rising. In 1873, the Irish Republican Brotherhood adopted a new constitution, which stated that armed rebellion would not be pursued again until it had mass backing from the people. In 1879, the leaders of the IRB, principally John Devoy, decided on a New Departure
New Departure (Ireland)
The term New Departure has been used to describe several initiatives in the late 19th century where Irish republicans, who were committed to independence from Britain through use of physical force, attempted to find a common ground for cooperation with groups committed to Irish Home Rule through...
, eschewing, for the time, physical force in favour of adopting the land question and building a broad nationalist movement. The Fenians, therefore, cooperated with the Land League in the land agitation
Land War
The Land War in Irish history was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. The agitation was led by the Irish National Land League and was dedicated to bettering the position of tenant farmers and ultimately to a redistribution of land to tenants from...
from the 1870s onwards and in the rise of the Irish Parliamentary Party
Home Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
.
Not all Fenians agreed with this policy however and several breakaway groups emerged that continued to believe in the use of political violence in pursuit of republican objectives. One was the Irish National Invincibles
Irish National Invincibles
The Irish National Invincibles, usually known as "The Invincibles" were a radical splinter group of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and leading representatives of the Land League movement, both of Ireland and Britain...
who assassinated the two most important British functionaries in Ireland, Frederick Cavendish
Lord Frederick Cavendish
Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish was an English Liberal politician and protégé of the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone...
and Thomas Henry Burke, respectively Chief and Under Secretaries for Ireland, in Dublin in 1882 (see Phoenix Park Murders
Phoenix Park Murders
The Phoenix Park Murders were the fatal stabbings on 6 May 1882 in the Phoenix Park in Dublin of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke. Cavendish was the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Burke was the Permanent Undersecretary, the most senior Irish civil servant...
). Two other factions, one sponsored by O'Donovan Rossa, the other by the Irish-American Clan na Gael
Clan na Gael
The Clan na Gael was an Irish republican organization in the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries, successor to the Fenian Brotherhood and a sister organization to the Irish Republican Brotherhood...
, carried out a bombing campaign in Britain between 1880 and 1887.
See also
- List of Irish rebellions
- Catalpa rescueCatalpa rescueThe Catalpa rescue was the escape, in 1876, of six Irish Fenian prisoners from what was then the British penal colony of Western Australia.-Fenians and plans to escape:...
- Cuba FiveCuba FiveThe Cuba Five were a group of Irish rebels released from British prisons in 1871 on condition of not entering Britain until the expiration of their original sentences. They chose to accept exile in the United States, travelling on board the ship Cuba. The five men were John Devoy, Jeremiah...