Fenians

Fenians, 19th-century nationalist revolutionary movement for the freedom of Ireland from Great Britain and for the establishment of an independent Irish republic. The name Fenians was derived from Fianna, a band of Irish warriors of the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

The movement was composed of two principal divisions. One, a secret society in Ireland, was called the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The other was active in the United States and was known as the Fenian Brotherhood. Branches of the movement were established among people of Irish origin in Britain, in the British dominions, and in many other countries.

The American and Irish divisions were organized concurrently about 1858. The American division was founded and led by John O'Mahony, an expatriate Irish republican revolutionist. The Irish section was initiated and directed by James Stephens.

The American Fenians promised to supply their Irish counterparts with money and arms, and they pledged to organize an armed expedition in support of an expected revolt to be initiated by the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

In 1865, however, British authorities in Ireland, warned of the plot by informers, arrested Stephens and other leaders of the brotherhood, and seized the funds that had been sent from America to finance the revolt. Although Stephens later escaped and fled to the United States, the Fenian movement in Ireland was crippled by this blow.

A faction of American Fenians had meanwhile planned to strike at the British indirectly by invading Canada. Most of the would-be invasion force was dispersed by U.S. authorities, but one group, led by John O'Neill, a former Union army officer, did cross the border near Buffalo, New York, in June 1866. Forced back again by Canadian volunteers, the group surrendered to an American gunboat in the Niagara River. Two other fruitless attempts were made to invade Canada, in 1870 and 1871. Both were aborted by the U.S. government.

The Fenians ceased to exist about 1885, but after 1900 their aims were adopted by Sinn Fein, an Irish nationalist movement, and were partly realized with the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.