1. Lecture 3: Fenianism

2. The altered social balance in the countryside The development of expatriate nationalism The modernisation of Ulster’s economy & politics The emergence of a disciplined nationalist parliamentary party Themes that dominated Irish life and politics 1848 – c. mid 1870s

3. ‘A whole variety of parties and groups emerged, some campaigning on the issue of the land, and especially tenant right; some concerned to promote the interests of their particular social or religious constituency.’ Boyce, Nineteenth Century Ireland, p136.

4. Politics in post-Famine Ireland 1. Tenant League 2. Catholic Defence Association 3. Protestant Conservatism

5. Irish Tenant League Formed in Dublin in 1850 Campaigned for a redress of agrarian grieveances Operated on an all island basis Formed the Indepdendent Irish Party with the ‘Irish Brigade’

6. National Association Formally instituted in Dublin in December 1864 Facilitated co-operation between Irish Catholics and English radicals Promoted disestablishment

7. Fenianism – origins Developed in the absence of a viable constitutional movement Offered rhetoric, recreation, status and the prospect of patriotic glory

8. Denis Dowling Mulcahy, Thomas Clarke Luby and John O’Leary

9. Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa (1831-1915)

10. The I.R.B. Dedicated to secrecy A conspiratorial pledge bound society Establishment of a democratic Irish republic Committed to insurrection

11. Organised Fenianism was patchy Strongest in Munster and Leinster 1864: 54,000 recruits Appealed mainly to artisans, shop assistants, travelling salesmen, farmers’ sons

12. Fenian prisoner, Hugh McGriskin, 31 May 1865

13. Fenianism: The social aspect A young men’s movement – 87% of Fenians in HCSA files were under 36 years of age Fenianism in mid 1860s was converted to a social purpose Provided young men with a forum for fraternal association & communal self- expression

14. ‘However strongly they may have repudiated allegiance to the queen in their initiation oath, the Fenians we have been looking at here were from the point of view of social history easily recognisable and fairly typical mid-Victorians.’ Comerford, R.V., ‘Patriotism as Pastime’, p250.

15. ‘Ireland’s opportunity will come when England is engaged in a desperate struggle with some great European power or European combination, or when the flame of insurrection has spread through her Indian Empire, and her strength and resources are strained.’ John Devoy, Irish American Fenian

16. The Fenians in 1865 Stephens – 1865 would be a year of decision, a year in which, with American assistance, he would probably lead a rising in Ireland John O’Mahoney sent large sums of money to Ireland from America Irish-American veterans of the Civil War were sent to Ireland to take charge of the rebel army 6,000 firearms and an estimated 50,000 men willing to participate By 1866 the IRB was on the defensive

17. September 1865: Offices of the Irish People raided February 1866: Habeas Corpus suspended in Ireland December 1866: Stephens stands down

18. February 11 1867: 1,000 Fenians turn out to raid the arsenal at Chester February 1867: Minor uprising in Co. Kerry February 10 1867: Executive committee transforms itself into a Provisional Government of Ireland

19. Illustration entitled ‘The Irish Fenian Executive’

20. Fenian bond for twenty dollars, signed by John O’Mahony, 1866

21. A skirmish between troops and Fenians in Co. Tipperary, March 1867

22. The Battle of Tallaght, 5 March 1867

23. ‘The aftermath of the 1867 rising had in some ways a much more fundamental political impact than the military episodes of February and March: the immediate fall-out from the ’67 certainly stimulated a much more intense and sympathetic popular interest than the botched manoeuvres of the rebels.’ Jackson, A, Ireland: 1798-1998, pp102- 3.

24. Fenian attack on a prison van in Manchester, September 1867

25. The ‘Manchester Martyrs’

26. Tipperary election address, 1869

27. Cartoon published by Punch in 1867 after the Clerkenwell explosion

28. Proclamation offering one thousand pounds for the capture of James Stephens, January 1866

29. Courtroom scene, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, 1867