The History of the Fenian Movement in the United States, 1848-1866, and Its Background in Ireland and America PDF Download

Author: Mary Agnes Cassidy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fenians
Languages : en
Pages : 258

View

Book Description

Author: Patrick Steward
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 1572339799
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335

View

Book Description
Aspirations of social mobility and anti-Catholic discrimination were the lifeblood of subversive opposition to British rule in Ireland during the mid-nineteenth century. Refugees of the Great Famine who congregated in ethnic enclaves in North America and the United Kingdom supported the militant Fenian Brotherhood and its Dublin-based counterpart, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), in hopes of one day returning to an independent homeland. Despite lackluster leadership, the movement was briefly a credible security threat which impacted the history of nations on both sides of the Atlantic. Inspired by the failed Young Ireland insurrection of 1848 and other nationalist movements on the European continent, the Fenian Brotherhood and the IRB (collectively known as the Fenians) surmised that insurrection was the only path to Irish freedom. By 1865, the Fenians had filled their ranks with battle-tested Irish expatriate veterans of the Union and Confederate armies who were anxious to liberate Ireland. Lofty Fenian ambitions were ultimately compromised by several factors including United States government opposition and the resolution of volunteer Canadian militias who repelled multiple Fenian incursions into New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. The Fenian legacy is thus multi-faceted. It was a mildly-threatening source of nationalist pride for discouraged Irish expatriates until the organization fulfilled its pledge to violently attack British soldiers and subjects. It also encouraged the confederation of Canadian provinces under the 1867 Dominion Act. In this book, Patrick Steward and Bryan McGovern present the first holistic, multi-national study of the Fenian movement. While utilizing a vast array of previously untapped primary sources, the authors uncover the socio-economic roots of Irish nationalist behavior at the height of the Victorian Period. Concurrently, they trace the progression of Fenian ideals in the grassroots of Young Ireland to its de facto collapse in 1870s. In doing so, the authors change the perception of the Fenians from fanatics who aimlessly attempted to free their homeland to idealists who believed in their cause and fought with a physical and rhetorical force that was not nonsensical and hopeless as some previous accounts have suggested. PATRICK STEWARD works in the Mayo Clinic Development Office in Rochester, Minnesota. He obtained a Ph.D. in Irish History at University of Missouri under the direction of Kerby Miller. Patrick additionally holds two degrees from Tufts University and he was a strategic intelligence analyst at the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, D.C. early in his professional career. BRYAN MCGOVERN is an associate professor of history at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. He is author of the widely praised 2009 book John Mitchel, Irish Nationalist, Southern Secessionist and has written various articles, chapters, and book reviews on Irish and Irish-American nationalism.

Author: R. V. Comerford
Publisher: Wolfhound Press (IE)
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

View

Book Description
This text provides the context for Fenianism and a perspective on the social and political history of mid-Victorian Ireland. The Fenian movement of the mid-19th century is one of the central elements in the story of Irish nationalism. It was a decisive factor in the land war of the late 1870s, early 1880s, and in the evolution of Parnell's political career. It became a leading theme of the Anglo-Irish literary revival and it has continued to exert its influence on Irish republicanism in the 20th century.

Author: William D'Arcy
Publisher: New York : Russell & Russell
ISBN:
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages : 472

View

Book Description

Author: John Rutherford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fenians
Languages : en
Pages : 328

View

Book Description

Author: Theodore William Moody
Publisher: Learning Links
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 144

View

Book Description

Author: Catholic University of America
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description

Author: John McLean
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 266

View

Book Description
This dissertation examines the Fenians, an Irish militant nationalist organization founded in 1858. The dissertation emphasizes the trans-Atlantic nature of Fenianism, examining the relationship between the Fenian Brotherhood, the United States branch of Fenianism, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), its Irish counterpart. From its inception, the existence of Fenianism was defined by the relationship between these two distinct groups. The IRB depended on funds, weapons, and officers sent to Ireland by the Fenian Brotherhood. Likewise, the Fenian Brotherhood depended on its link to the IRB, a secret society in Ireland intent on bringing about a military revolution and an Irish republic, for its legitimacy in the eyes of Irish-Americans. Starting in 1863, the founder of Fenianism, James Stephens, was able to publish a newspaper from Dublin to spread the Fenian nationalist program to adherents on both sides of the Atlantic.^The message set forth in this newspaper, the Irish People, was unstintingly violent. The editors of the Irish People argued that only after British control of Ireland was thrown off through a military revolution would Ireland reach its true potential. The Irish People portrayed proponents of constitutional nationalism and peaceful reform in Ireland as emasculated dupes of the British establishment. Despite this violent rhetoric, the leaders of Fenianism delayed the promised revolution due to their belief in the futility of a military uprising during a period in which the British army was not engaged by an outside conflict. American Fenians, frustrated by these delays, and believing that their military strength would never be greater than it was in the period immediately following the American Civil War, ousted the original leaders of Fenianism in 1866. In their place were promoted individuals who resolved to go ahead with military attacks on the British, whatever the cost.^The result was the Fenian raids on Canada in 1866 and the Fenian Rising in Ireland in 1867. These events were possible because the United States government did not hinder the Fenian Brotherhood as they armed and trained with the expressed purpose of attacking the British in both Canada and Ireland. Due to the importance of the Irish vote during the Reconstruction period and the unpopularity of the British diplomatic stance during the Civil War, American politicians of both political parties expressed support for the Fenians. Because of the strength of American Fenianism and the unwillingness of the United States Government to hinder their military activities, traditional British policing methods failed to eliminate incidents of Fenian violence in the United Kingdom.^While the activities of the IRB were drastically curbed by the suspension of habeas corpus in Ireland and the arrest and imprisonment of the editors of the Irish People in 1865, the activities of the Fenian Brotherhood in America continued unabated. The Liberal Government elected in December 1868, led by William Gladstone, attempted to address this problem by enacting a program of "justice for Ireland." This consisted of measures designed to pull supporters away from radical, militant Fenianism in both Ireland and the United States. Specifically, disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the reform of the Irish Land Laws were designed to convince moderates in both Ireland and the United States that it was possible to gain concessions from the British government and that it was not necessary to resort to violent Fenianism. The use of remedial legislation to address the problem of Fenian violence was made necessary by the trans-Atlantic nature of the organization.

Author: Steward, Patrick
Publisher: Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International
ISBN:
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages : 798

View

Book Description
This study examines the mid-nineteenth Irish nationalist Fenian movement in a transatlantic context. Irish patriotic expression intensified in the aftermath of the Great Potato Famine as semi-skilled men and women increasingly supported violent efforts to terminate British suzerainty over Ireland. Upon the 1858 establishment of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Dublin and an auxiliary organization called the Fenian Brotherhood in New York, Irish nationalists throughout the Western Hemisphere progressively repudiated the deceased Daniel O'Connell's longstanding effort to licitly reestablish a semi-autonomous Irish Parliament. Demographic analysis of various primary sources reveals that proponents of both organizations (who were commonly known as Fenians) were generally semi-skilled individuals with aspirations of advancing into the middle class. Ardent Irish American Fenian supporters, in particular, were usually natives of southern Ireland who immigrated to the United States at a time of significant anti-Irish sentiment in America but later enlisted in the Union Army to demonstrate their admiration of democratic principles. Although hindered by mismanagement, ecclesiastical opposition, and an increasing collective Irish expatriate desire to assimilate into American society rather than return to their homeland, the Fenian hierarchy ultimately organized three arguably comical invasions of Canada between 1866 and 1871 and an ephemeral insurrection in Ireland on the night of March 5th, 1867. As many prominent Fenians later became political and civic leaders throughout the United States and Ireland, this study demonstrates how widely popular social movements can be manipulated for personal gain. The two principal leaders of the Fenians, James Stephens and John O'Mahony, were tarnished by scandal. Many of their one-time colleagues, however, were eventually served in United States House of Representatives or in other elected capacities. Irish Land League founder Michael Davitt was also a Fenian who participated in a botched attempt to convey British rifles from an arsenal in Chester. As militant Irish nationalists remain active in Ulster, this study thus depicts the type of men and women who have supported military action against the British government in the modern era.

Author: Seamus P. Metress
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

View

Book Description
The American Irish have traditionally participated in Irish national liberation struggles, an involvement stretching back to the 1840s. This work is the most complete survey of sources covering this participation. It will be of immense value to those working in the area of ethnic studies, political science, history, and popular culture. A historical sketch provides an overview of the motivations and the changing nature of Irish-American involvement, critiques earlier models for the origins of this involvement, and creates the chronological framework used by the bibliography. The annotated bibliography lists the available scholarly and popular literature on the subject and includes useful sections devoted to archival sources and general references.