
The word ''Fenian'' () served as an umbrella term for the
Irish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB; ) was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland between 1858 and 1924.McGee, p. 15. Its counterpart in the United States ...
(IRB) and their affiliate in the United States, the
Fenian Brotherhood. They were secret political organisations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries dedicated to the establishment of an independent
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic ( or ) was a Revolutionary republic, revolutionary state that Irish Declaration of Independence, declared its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdict ...
. In 1867, they sought to coordinate
raids into Canada from the United States with a
rising in Ireland. In the
1916 Easter Rising and the 1919–1921
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...
, the IRB led the republican struggle.
Fenianism
Fenianism (), according to O'Mahony, embodied two principles: firstly, that Ireland had a natural right to independence, and secondly, that this right could be won only by an armed revolution. The name originated with the
Fianna
''Fianna'' ( , ; singular ''Fian''; ) were small warrior-hunter bands in Gaelic Ireland during the Iron Age and early Middle Ages. A ''fian'' was made up of freeborn young men, often from the Gaelic nobility of Ireland, "who had left fosterage ...
of
Irish mythology
Irish mythology is the body of myths indigenous to the island of Ireland. It was originally Oral tradition, passed down orally in the Prehistoric Ireland, prehistoric era. In the History of Ireland (795–1169), early medieval era, myths were ...
—groups of legendary warrior-bands associated with
Fionn mac Cumhail. Mythological tales of the Fianna became known as the
Fenian Cycle
The Fenian Cycle (), Fianna Cycle or Finn Cycle () is a body of early Irish literature focusing on the exploits of the mythical hero Fionn mac Cumhaill, Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill and his Kóryos, warrior band the Fianna. Sometimes called the ...
.
In the 1860s, opponents of Irish nationalism within the British
political establishment sometimes used the term "Fenianism" to refer to any form of mobilisation among the Irish or to those who expressed any Irish nationalist sentiments, or questioned the
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy (also known as the Ascendancy) was the sociopolitical and economical domination of Ireland between the 17th and early 20th centuries by a small Anglicanism, Anglican ruling class, whose members consisted of landowners, ...
(such as by advocating for the rights of
tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and ma ...
s). The political establishment often applied the term in this sense—inaccurately—to the unrelated
Tenant Right League
The Tenant Right League was a federation of local societies formed in Ireland in the wake of the Great Famine to check the power of landlords and advance the rights of tenant farmers. An initiative of northern unionists and southern nationali ...
, the
Irish National Land League and the
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nati ...
, who did not advocate explicitly for an independent Irish Republic or for the use of force.
Ireland
James Stephens, one of the "Men of 1848" (a participant in the
1848 revolt), had established himself in Paris, and was in correspondence with
John O'Mahony
John Francis O'Mahony (1815 – 7 February 1877) was an Irish scholar and the founding member of the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States, sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Despite coming from a reasonably wealthy fa ...
in the United States and other advanced nationalists at home and abroad. This would include the ''Phoenix National and Literary Society'', with Jeremiah O'Donovan (afterwards known as
O'Donovan Rossa) among its more prominent members, which had been formed recently at
Skibbereen
Skibbereen (; ) is a town in County Cork, Ireland. It is located in West Cork on the N71 national secondary road. The River Ilen runs through the town; it reaches the sea about 12 kilometres away, at the seaside village of Baltimore. Located ...
.
Along with
Thomas Clarke Luby,
John O'Leary and
Charles Kickham he founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood on 17 March 1858 in Lombard Street,
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
.
The
Fenian Rising
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 in September 1865, disaffection among Irish radical n ...
in 1867 proved to be a "doomed rebellion", poorly organised and with minimal public support. Most of the Irish-American officers who landed at
Cork, in the expectation of commanding an army against the British, were imprisoned; sporadic disturbances around the country were easily suppressed by the police,
army
An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...
and local militias. In the aftermath, Fenian assassination circles were active in Cork and in Dublin and were responsible for shooting two officers of the
Dublin Metropolitan Police
The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was the police force of Dublin in History of Ireland (1801–1923), British-controlled Ireland from 1836 to 1922 and then the Irish Free State until 1925, when it was absorbed into the new state's Garda Sío ...
on duty in October 1867.
In 1882, a breakaway IRB faction calling itself the
Irish National Invincibles assassinated the British
Chief Secretary for Ireland
The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British Dublin Castle administration, administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretar ...
Lord Frederick Cavendish and his Permanent Under-secretary (chief civil servant), in an incident known as the
Phoenix Park Murders
The Phoenix Park Murders were the fatal stabbings of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland, on 6 May 1882. Cavendish was the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland and Burke was the Permane ...
.
United States
The
Fenian Brotherhood, the Irish Republican Brotherhood's US branch, was founded by John O'Mahony and
Michael Doheny, both of whom had been "out" (participating in the
Young Ireland rebellion) in 1848. In the face of
nativist suspicion, it quickly established an independent existence, although it still worked to gain Irish American support for armed rebellion in Ireland. Initially, O'Mahony ran operations in the US, sending funds to Stephens and the IRB in Ireland.
In 1865, O'Mahony's leadership was challenged and the movement was split by a faction led by William B. Roberts, a wealthy New York City dry-goods merchant, more closely allied with the Democratic-Party machine. It was Roberts' faction that sponsored the plan to invade Canada and hold it hostage for the liberation of Ireland.
In 1867 there was a further challenge to O'Mahony from the new IRB exile
David Bell, and his weekly the ''Irish Republic''. In contrast to Roberts, Bell, committed to black suffrage and to Reconstruction, was allied to the Republicans and was calling a "cleansing" of the spirits of the Irish in America: "Let our people fling off the scales of bigotry and declare that all men are entitled to 'life, liberty, and happiness.'"
John Devoy
John Devoy (, ; 3 September 1842 – 29 September 1928) was an Irish republican Rebellion, rebel and journalist who owned and edited ''The Gaelic American'', a New York weekly newspaper, from 1903 to 1928.
Devoy dedicated over 60 year ...
records that, in the course of 1866, various conferences to reunite the various factions were held. Their efforts were to elect
James Stephens as president of a united organisation. Stephens had escaped the round-up of the IRB leadership in Dublin the previous year, but still promised that "The Irish flag—the flag of the Irish Republic—will float in an Irish breeze before New Year's Day, 1867." At the close of 1866, a conference of the refugees of the IRB and many of the American officers who had been in Ireland was held in New York and presided over by Stephens, at which the decision was taken that the fight should be made early in 1867. Some thousands of rifles were afterwards sent to Ireland, but arrived too late to be of any use in the Rising.
File:Manchester Martyrs.jpg, Three Manchester Martyrs
The Manchester Martyrs () were three Irish Republicanism, Irish Republicans – William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien – who were Hanging, hanged in 1867 following their conviction of murder after an attack on a police van i ...
of 1867; at right is Michael O'Brien a former Corporal of Battery E 1st New Jersey Artillery regiment
File:Fenians escape Fremantle.jpg, Fenian convicts escape from Fremantle in the 1876 Catalpa rescue.
Canada

In Canada, ''Fenian'' is used to designate a group of Irish radicals, a.k.a. the American branch of the Fenian Brotherhood in the 1860s. They made several attempts to invade some parts of the British colonies of
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
(i.e.,
Campobello Island) and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
(present-day
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a Region, primary region of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, with approximately 13.5 million people, approximately 36% o ...
and
Missisquoi County), with the raids continuing after these colonies had been
confederated. The ultimate goal of the Fenian raids was to hold Canada hostage and therefore be in a position to blackmail the United Kingdom to give Ireland its independence. Because of the invasion attempts, support or collaboration for the Fenians in Canada became very rare even among the
Irish.
Francis Bernard McNamee, the man who started the Fenian movement in Montreal (and who was later suspected of being a government spy), was a case in point. In public, he proclaimed his loyalty to the queen and called for an Irish militia company to defend Canada against the Fenians. In private, he wrote that the real purpose of an Irish militia company would be to assist the Fenian invasion, adding for good measure that if the government denied his request he would raise the cry of anti-Irish Catholic discrimination and bring more of his aggrieved countrymen into the Fenian Brotherhood.
A suspected Fenian,
Patrick J. Whelan, was hanged in
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
for the assassination of
Irish Canadian politician
Thomas D'Arcy McGee in 1868, who had been a member of the
Irish Confederation in the 1840s.
The danger posed by the Fenian raids was an important element in motivating the British North America colonies to consider a more centralised defence for mutual protection, ultimately realised through
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation () was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Name of Canada#Adoption of Dominion, Dominion of Ca ...
.
England

The Fenians in England and the British Empire were a major threat to political stability. In the late 1860s, the IRB control centre was in Lancashire. In 1868, the Supreme Council of the IRB, the provisional government of the Irish Republic, was restructured. The four Irish provinces (Connacht, Leinster, Ulster and Munster), along with Scotland, the north and south of England and London, had representatives on the council. Later four honorary members were co-opted. The Council elected three members to the executive. The President was chairman, the Treasurer managed recruitment and finance, and the Secretary was director of operations. There were IRB Circles in every major city in England.
On 23 November 1867, three Fenians, William Philip Allen, Michael O'Brian, and Michael Larkin, known as the
Manchester Martyrs
The Manchester Martyrs () were three Irish Republicanism, Irish Republicans – William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien – who were Hanging, hanged in 1867 following their conviction of murder after an attack on a police van i ...
, were executed in
Salford
Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...
for their attack on a police van to release Fenians held captive earlier that year.
On 13 December 1867, the Fenians
exploded a bomb in an attempt to free one of their members being held on remand at Clerkenwell Prison in London. The explosion damaged nearby houses, killed 12 people and caused 120 injuries. None of the prisoners escaped. The bombing was later described as the most infamous action carried out by the Fenians in Great Britain in the 19th century. It enraged the public, causing a backlash of hostility in Britain which undermined efforts to establish
home rule
Home rule is the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governan ...
or independence for Ireland. The IRB Supreme Council condemned the bombing.
The Fenians also exploded three bombs on the
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The Undergro ...
in 1883–1885 and were also believed to be responsible for a bomb on 26 April 1897 at
Aldersgate Street station which fatally injured two people.
Australia
In 1868, an Irishman,
Henry James O'Farrell, attempted to assassinate the
Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...
, second son of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
, who was visiting Sydney. O'Farrell claimed to be a Fenian but was probably a lone actor. He was hanged on 21 April 1868. The Duke recovered but the attack was used by politician
Henry Parkes
Sir Henry Parkes, (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was a colonial Australian politician and the longest-serving non-consecutive Premier of New South Wales, premier of the Colony of New South Wales, the present-day state of New South Wales in ...
to wage a sectarian campaign against Catholics and people of Irish origin.
Later in 1868, the ''
Hougoumont
Château d'Hougoumont (possibly originally Goumont or Gomont) is a walled manorial compound, situated at the bottom of an escarpment near the Nivelles road in the Braine-l'Alleud municipality, near Waterloo, Belgium. The site served as one o ...
'', the last convict ship to Australia, arrived in Western Australia carrying 62 Fenian prisoners convicted in England. Over the next decade, most were released and many chose to go to America. By 1876 only six remained in custody, and in that year they were freed in a daring rescue mission organised by the IRB in the United States. The ship ''Catalpa'' was sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Fremantle, Western Australia, a distance of some 12,000 miles, and took the men back to the United States. The
rescue
Rescue comprises responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, removal from danger, liberation from restraint, or the urgent treatment of injury, injuries after an incident. It may be facilitated by a range of tools and equipm ...
caused a worldwide sensation and sparked several ballads.
Contemporary usage
Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, ''Fenian'' is used by some as a derogatory word for Irish Catholics;
in 2012,
British National Party
The British National Party (BNP) is a Far-right politics, far-right, British fascism, fascist list of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and is led by Adam ...
leader
Nick Griffin
Nicholas John Griffin (born 1 March 1959) is a British far-right politician who was chairman of the British National Party (BNP) from 1999 to 2014, and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North West England from 2009 to 2014. Follow ...
was criticised by Unionists and Republicans for
tweeting the term while attending an
Ulster Covenant event at
Stormont,
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
; Griffin referred to
Lambeg drums, saying "the can't match the lambeg, you Fenian bastards".
Scotland

The term ''Fenian'' is used similarly in Scotland. During Scottish
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
matches, it is often aimed in a sectarian manner at supporters of
Celtic F.C.
The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a professional Association football, football club in Glasgow, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Premiership, the top division of Scottish football league system, Scottish ...
Celtic has its roots in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
's immigrant Catholic
Irish population and the club has thus been associated with Irish nationalism, symbolised by the almost universal flying of the Irish Tricolour during matches. Other Scottish clubs that have Irish roots, such as
Hibernian and
Dundee United
Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...
, do not tend to have the term applied to them, however. The term is now firmly rooted within the
Old Firm
The Old Firm is a collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply embedded i ...
rivalry between Celtic and
Rangers. Use of the term as a religious slur carried criminal penalties in some contexts under the
, before its repeal in January 2018.
The use of ''Fenian'' as a term of abuse has also been documented when Celtic play outside Scotland. In 2013,
AFC Ajax
Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or commonly Ajax, is a Dutch professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. ...
was fined €25,000 by
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
when its supporters displayed a banner reading "Fenian Bastards" at a match between the sides at the
Amsterdam Arena
The Johan Cruyff Arena ( ; officially stylised as Johan Cruijff ArenA) is the main stadium of the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam and the home stadium of association football, football club AFC Ajax, Ajax since its opening. Built from 1993 to ...
on 6 November that year. The term was also used in an anti-Irish banner unfurled by
Lazio
Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...
supporters at a
Champions League match against Celtic on 28 November 2023.
Australia
In Australia, ''Fenian'' is used as a pejorative term for those members of the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
(ALP) who have
Australian Republican views similar to those who support
Irish unification. In a speech given at the ALP Convention in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
on 15 October 2006,
Michael Atkinson,
Attorney-General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
of South Australia, spoke of those members of the ALP who wished to remove the title
Queen's Counsel
A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...
and other references to the crown as "Fenians and
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
s". Atkinson made a further mention of Fenianism when the title of Queen's Counsel was abolished. The title of Queen's Counsel was re-instated by the South Australian government in 2019.
See also
*
Taig
Footnotes
References
* Comerford, R.V. ''The Fenians in Context: Irish Politics & Society 1848–82'', Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1985.
*
Cronin, Seán. ''The McGarrity Papers'', Anvil Books, Ireland, 1972
* Green, E. R. R. "The Fenians" ''History Today'' (Oct. 1958) 8#10 pp 698–705.
* Kee, Robert. ''The Bold Fenian Men'', Quartet Books (London 1976),
* Kelly, M. J. ''The Fenian Ideal and Irish Nationalism, 1882–1916'', Boydell and Brewer, 2006,
* Kenny, Michael. ''The Fenians'', The National Museum of Ireland in association with Country House, Dublin, 1994,
* McGee, Owen. ''The IRB: The Irish Republican Brotherhood from The Land League to Sinn Féin'', Four Courts Press, 2005,
*
Ó Broin, Leon. ''Fenian Fever: An Anglo-American Dilemma'', Chatto & Windus, London, 1971, .
* O'Hegarty, P. S. ''A History of Ireland Under the Union'', Methuen & Co. (London 1952).
* Quinlavin, Patrick, and Paul Rose, ''The Fenians in England'' (London, 1982).
* Ramón, Marta. ''A Provisional Dictator: James Stephens and the Fenian Movement'', University College Dublin Press (2007),
*
Ryan, Desmond. ''The Fenian Chief: A Biography of James Stephens'', Hely Thom LTD, Dublin, 1967
* Ryan, Mark F. ''Fenian Memories'', Edited by T.F. O'Sullivan, M. H. Gill & Son, LTD, Dublin, 1945
* Snay, Mitchell. ''Fenians, Freedmen, and Southern Whites: Race and Nationality in the Era of Reconstruction'' (2010)
* Stanford, Jane. ''That Irishman: The Life and Times of John O'Connor Power'', The History Press Ireland, Dublin 2011,
* Steward, Patrick, and Bryan McGowan. ''The Fenians: Irish Rebellion in the North Atlantic World, 1858–1876.'' Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2013.
* A journal of Francis Thompson's research into Fenianism and the Celtic Renaissance.
*
* Ui Fhlannagain, Fionnuala. ''Finini Mheiricea agus an Ghaeilge'', Binn Éadair, Baile Átha Cliath (Howth, Dublin), Ireland: Coiscéim, 2008,
* Whelehan, Niall. ''The Dynamiters: Irish Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867–1900'' (Cambridge, 2012).
Further reading
*
External links
Fenians.orgFenian BrotherhoodBBC History article on the Irish Republican Brotherhood*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070111224748/http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/organizations-fenians.html The Fenian Movement in the USincluding digitised materials about their activities. From the ''Immigration to the United States, 1789–1930'' collection, Harvard University Library Open Collections Program
{{Authority control
Anti-Catholic slurs
Pejorative terms for European people
Fenian Raids
Irish Republican Brotherhood
Paramilitary organisations based in Ireland
Anti-Irish sentiment