Irish Republican Brotherhood
Encyclopedia
The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) 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. Its counterpart in the United States of America
was organized by John O'Mahony
and became known as the Fenian Brotherhood
(later Clan na Gael
).The members of both wings of the movement are often referred to as "Fenians". The IRB played an important role in the history of Ireland, as the chief advocate of republicanism
during the campaign for Ireland
's independence from the United Kingdom
, successor to movements such as the United Irishmen of the 1790s and the Young Irelanders of the 1840s.
As part of the New Departure
, in the 1870s and 1880s, IRB members attempted to democratise the Home Rule League
. and its successor, the Irish Parliamentary Party
, as well as taking part in the Land War. The IRB staged the Easter Rising
in 1916, which led to the establishment of the first Dáil Éireann in 1919. The suppression of the Dáil Éireann precipitated the Irish War of Independence
and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty
in 1921, ultimately leading to partial Irish independence
.
In 1798 the United Irishmen, who had been an open political organisation were suppressed and became a secret revolutionary organisation, rose in rebellion
, seeking an end to British rule in Ireland and the establishment of an Irish Republic
. The rebellion was suppressed, but the principles of the United Irishmen were to have a powerful influence on the course of Irish history.
Following the collapse of the rebellion, the British Prime Minister William Pitt
introduced a bill to abolish the Irish parliament and manufactured a Union
between Ireland and Britain. Opposition from the Protestant oligarchy that controlled the parliament was countered by the widespread and open use of bribery. The Act of Union
was passed, and became law on 1 January 1801. The Catholics, who had been excluded from the Irish parliament, were promised emancipation
under the Union. This promise was never kept, and caused a protracted and bitter struggle for civil liberties. It was not until 1829 that the British government reluctantly conceded Catholic emancipation
. Though leading to general emancipation, this process simultaneously disenfranchised the small tenants, known as ‘forty shilling freeholders’
, who were mainly Catholics.
Daniel O’Connell, who had led the emancipation campaign, then attempted the same methods in his campaign, to have the Act of Union
with Britain repealed. Despite the use of petitions and public meetings which attracted vast popular support, the government thought the Union was more important than Irish public opinion.
During the early 1840s, the younger members of the repeal movement
became impatient with O’Connell’s over-cautious policies, and began to question his intentions. Later they were what came to be known as the Young Ireland
movement. In 1842 three of the Young Ireland
leaders, Thomas Davis
, Charles Gavan Duffy
and John Blake Dillon
, launched the Nation newspaper
. In the paper they set out to create a spirit of pride and an identity based on nationality rather than on social status or religion. Following the collapse of the Repeal Association
and with the arrival of famine, the Young Irelanders broke away completely from O’Connell in 1846.
.jpg)
The blight that destroyed the potato harvest between 1845 and 1849 was an unprecedented human tragedy. An entire social class of small farmers and labourers were to be virtually wiped out by hunger, disease and emigration. The laissez –faire economic thinking of the government ensured that help was slow, hesitant and insufficient. Between 1845 and 1851 the population fell by almost two million.
That the people starved while livestock and grain continued to be exported, quite often under military escort, left a legacy of bitterness and resentment among the survivors. The waves of emigration because of the famine and in the years following, also ensured that such feelings were not confined to Ireland, but spread to England
, the United States
, Australia
, and every country where Irish emigrants gathered.
Shocked by the scenes of starvation and greatly influenced by the revolutions then sweeping Europe, the Young Irelanders moved from agitation to armed rebellion in 1848
. The attempted rebellion failed after a small skirmish in Ballingary, Co Tipperary
, coupled with a few minor incidents else where. The reasons for the failure were obvious, the people were totally despondent after three years of famine, having being prompted to rise early resulted in an inadequacy of military preparations, which caused disunity among the leaders.
The government quickly rounded up many of the instigators, those who could, fled across the seas, and their followers dispersed. A last flicker of revolt in 1849, led by among others James Fintan Lalor
, was equally unsuccessful.
John Mitchel
, the most committed advocate of revolution, had been arrested early in 1848 and transported to Australia on the purposefully created charge of Treason-felony
. He was to be joined by other leaders, such as William Smith O'Brien
and Thomas Francis Meagher
who had both been arrested after Ballingary. John Blake Dillon
escaped to France
, as did three of the younger members, James Stephens
, John O'Mahony
and Michael Doheny
.
and John O'Mahony
went to Europe to avoid arrest. In Paris they supported themselves through teaching and translation work and planned the next stage of "the fight to overthrow British rule in Ireland." Stephens in Paris, set himself three tasks, during his seven years of exile. They were, to keep alive, pursue knowledge, and master the technique of conspiracy. At this time Paris particularly, was interwoven with a network of secret political societies. They became members of one the most powerful of these societies and acquired the secrets of some of the ablest and "most profound masters of revolutionary science" which the 19th century had produced, as to the means of inviting and combining people for the purposes of successful revolution.
In 1853, O'Mahony went to America and founded the Emmet Monument Association
. In early 1856, Stephens began making his way back to Ireland, stopping first in London. On arriving in Dublin, Stephens began what he described as his three thousand mile walk through Ireland, meeting some of those who had taken part in the 1848/49 revolutionary movements, including Philip Gray
, Thomas Clarke Luby
and Peter Langan.
In the autumn of 1857, a messenger, Owen Considine arrived from New York with a message for Stephens from members of the Emmet Monument Association, calling on him to get up an organisation in Ireland. Considine also carried a private letter from O’Mahony to Stephens which was a warning as to the condition of the organisation in New York, which was overseen by Luby and Stephens at the time. Both had believed that there was a strong organisation behind the letter, only later to find it was a number of loosely linked groups.
On 23 December Stephens dispatched Joseph Denieffe to America with his reply which was disguised as a business letter, and dated and addressed from Paris. In his reply Stephens outlined his conditions and his requirements from the organisation in America. Stephens demanded uncontrolled power and £100 a month for the first three months. Denieffe returned on 17 March 1858 with the acceptance of Stephens terms and £80. Denieffe also reported that there was no actual organised body of sympathisers in New York but merely a loose knot of associates. This disturbed Stephens but he went ahead regardless and that evening, St. Patrick's Day, the Irish Republican Brotherhood commenced.
The original oath, with its clauses of secrecy was drawn up by Luby under Stephens' direction in Stephens' room in Donnelly’s which was situated behind Lombard Street. Luby then swore Stephens in and he did likewise.
Those present in Langan's, lathe-maker and timber merchant, 16 Lombard Street
for that first meeting apart from Stephens and Luby were Peter Langan, Charles Kickham
, Joseph Denieffe and Garrett O'Shaughnessy. Later it would include members of the Phoenix National and Literary Society, which was formed in 1856 by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa
in Skibbereen
.
Dublin Castle was the government administration in Ireland and was appointed by the British cabinet and was accountable only to the cabinet, not to the House of Commons and not to the Irish people or their political representatives. Irish MPs could speak at Westminster in protest about the actions of the administration, but its privileges were unchallengeable as Irish representation in the House of Commons was only one sixth of the total and far too small.
Fenianism therefore, according to O'Mahony is symbolized by two principles: Firstly, that Ireland had a natural right to independence, and secondly, that that right could be won only by an armed revolution. Because of their belief in republicanism, that is, the “common people are the rightful rulers of their own destiny,” the founding members saw themselves as “furious democrats in theory” and declared their movement to be “wholly and unequivocally democratic.” Being a democrat and egalitarian in the mid 19th century was tantamount to being a revolutionary, and was something to be feared by political establishments.
It was Stephens “firm resolution to establish a democratic republic in Ireland; that is, a republic for the weal of the toiler,” and that this would require a complete social revolution before the people could possibly become republicans.
In propagating republican principles, they felt, the organisation would create this virtual democracy within the country, which would form the basis of an independence movement.
The Fenians soon established themselves in Australia
, South America
, Canada
and, above all, in the United States
, as well as in the large cities of England
, such as London
, Manchester
, Liverpool
and Glasgow
, in Scotland
.
The original I.R.B. oath, as quoted by Thomas Clarke Luby
and John O'Leary, and which is among several versions in James Stephens’s
own papers, ran:
This oath was significantly revised by Stephens in Paris in the summer of 1859. He asked Luby to draw up a new text, omitting the secrecy clause. The omitting of the secrecy clause was outlined in a letter from Stephen's to John O'Mahony
on 6 April 1859 and the reasons for it. ‘Henceforth,’ wrote Luby to O’Leary "we denied that we were technically a secret body. We called ourselves a military organization; with, so to speak, a legionary oath like all soldiers."
The revised oath ran:
In yet a later version it read:
, Munster
, Leinster
and Connacht
, as well as Scotland
, North England
, and South England. The remaining four members were co-opted. The Supreme Council elected three of its members to the executive, which consisted of the President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
The movement was denounced by the British establishment, the press, the Roman Catholic Church
and Irish political elite, as had been all Irish separatist and Republicanism movements.
The Tories, disturbed by the increase in republican propaganda, particularly in America launched a propaganda campaign in the Irish press to discredit the American Fenians. They presented them as enemies of Catholicism quoting negative comments by some American Catholic bishops. As in Irish-America, likewise Ireland and England, the Catholic hierarchy felt the growth of nationalist politics among Irishmen was essentially dangerous. Therefore during the 1860s and succeeding decades, the upper or middle classes who controlled the Irish press were very apprehensive in the growth of democratic politics in Ireland, which represented to them a threat of anarchy and revolution.
It was feared that if Britain was given any reason to renew coercion, Catholic interests in both Ireland and England would be undermined. In addition, the small class of Irish Catholic merchants, lawyers and gentry who had prospered under the Union felt anxious for the same reasons. By 1864, the Tories had coined the phrase ‘Fenianism’ to describe all that was considered potentially bothersome among Irishmen on both sides of the Atlantic.
Fenianism as a term was then used by the British political establishment to depict any form of mobilisation among the lower classes and, sometimes, those who expressed any Irish nationalist
sentiments. They warned people about this threat to turn decent civilised society on its head such as that posed by trade unionism to the existing social order in England. The same term was taken up by members of the Irish Catholic hierarchy, who also began denouncing "Fenianism" in the name of the Catholic religion. One Irish Bishop, David Moriarty
of Kerry
, declared that "when we look down into the fathomless depth of this infamy of the heads of the Fenian conspiracy, we must acknowledge that eternity is not long enough, nor hell hot enough to punish such miscreants."
In mid 1863 Stephens informed his colleagues he wished to start a newspaper, with financial aid from O’Mahony and the Fenian Brotherhood in America. The offices were established at 12 Parliament Street, almost at the gates of Dublin Castle. The first edition of the Irish People appeared on 28 November 1863. The staff of the paper along with Kickham were Luby and Denis Dowling Mulcahy
as the editorial staff. O’Donovan Rossa and James O’Connor
were in charge of the business office, with John Haltigan being the printer. John O'Leary was brought from London to take charge in the role of Editor. Shortly after the establishment of the paper, Stephens departed on an American tour, and to attend to organisational matters.
On 15 July 1865 American made plans for a rising in Ireland were discovered when the emissary lost them at Kingstown railway station. They found their way to Dublin Castle and to Superintendent Daniel Ryan head of G Division. Ryan had an informer within the offices of the Irish People named Pierce Nagle, he supplied Ryan with an “action this year” message on its way to the IRB unit in Tipperary. With this information, Ryan raided the offices of the Irish People on Thursday 15 September, followed by the arrests of O’Leary, Luby and O’Donovan Rossa. The last edition of the paper is dated 16 September 1865.
Before leaving, Stephens entrusted to Luby a document containing secret resolutions on the Committee of Organization or Executive of the IRB. Though Luby intimated its existence to O’Leary, he did not inform Kickham as there seemed no necessity. This document would later form the basis of the prosecution against the staff of the Irish People. The document read:
Kickham was caught after a month on the run. Stephens would also be caught, but with the support of Fenian prison warders, John J. Breslin and Daniel Byrne was less than a fortnight in Richmond Bridewell when he vanished and escaped to France
.
assassinated the British Chief Secretary for Ireland
Lord Frederick Cavendish
and his secretary, in an incident known as the Phoenix Park Murders
.
, to monitor IRB activity.
and Bulmer Hobson
founded the Dungannon Clubs. Inspired by the Volunteers of 1782
, the purpose of these clubs was to discourage enlistment into the British Army
, and encourage enlistment into the IRB, with the overall goal of complete independence from Britain in the form of an Irish Republic. They were joined by Sean MacDermott
, and in 1908 he and Hobson relocated to Dublin, where they teamed up with veteran Fenian Tom Clarke
. Clarke had been released from Portland Prison in October 1898 after serving fifteen and a half years, and had recently returned to Ireland after living in the United States. Sent by John Devoy
and the Clan na Gael
to reorganise the IRB, Clarke set about to do just that. In 1909 the young Michael Collins
was introduced to the brotherhood by Sam Maguire
. By 1914 the Supreme Council was largely purged of its older, tired leadership, and was dominated by enthusiastic men such as Hobson, McCullough, Patrick McCartan
, John MacBride
, Sean MacDermott, and Tom Clarke. The latter two were to be the primary instigators of the Easter Rising
in 1916.
, by force if necessary, the IRB were behind the initiative which eventually led to the inauguration of the Irish Volunteers
in November, 1913. Though the Volunteers' stated purpose was not the establishment of a republic, the IRB intended to use the organisation to do just that, recruiting high ranking members into the IRB, notably Joseph Plunkett, Thomas MacDonagh
, and Patrick Pearse
, who was co-opted to the Supreme Council in 1915. These men, together with Clarke, MacDermott, Eamonn Ceannt
and eventually James Connolly
of the Irish Citizen Army
, constituted the Military Committee, the sole planners of the Rising.
, Clan Na Gael
in the United States was associated with the Ghadar Party
. Members of the Clan and of the IRB who supported Indian nationalists, and who played a role in the Hindu German Conspiracy, included John Devoy
, Joseph McGarrity
, Roger Casement
and Éamon de Valera
.
, as its president since the summer of 1919 was Michael Collins
, who was also a leader in the Irish Republican Army
. Collins persuaded the IRB Council to approve the Treaty
with Britain, while its former leader Harry Boland
was bitterly against it.
Anti-Treaty republicans like Ernie O'Malley
, who fought during the civil war
against the Treaty, saw the IRB as being used to undermine the Irish Republic
. Following the end of the civil war in 1924, the Supreme Council, under Collins' protégé Richard Mulcahy
as chairman, voted to dissolve the organisation, deeming that its goals had been achieved.
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...
during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century. Its counterpart in the United States of America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was organized by John O'Mahony
John O'Mahony
John O'Mahony may refer to:*John O'Mahony , founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood *John O'Mahony , Irish Fine Gael politician representing Mayo and twice an All-Ireland winner managing the Galway Football Team*Sean Matgamna , also known as John O'Mahony, Trotskyist theorist*Seán O'Mahony ,...
and became known as the Fenian Brotherhood
Fenian 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"...
(later 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...
).The members of both wings of the movement are often referred to as "Fenians". The IRB played an important role in the history of Ireland, as the chief advocate of republicanism
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
during the campaign for 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...
's independence from the United Kingdom
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....
, successor to movements such as the United Irishmen of the 1790s and the Young Irelanders of the 1840s.
As part of the 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...
, in the 1870s and 1880s, IRB members attempted to democratise 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:...
. and its successor, the Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
, as well as taking part in the Land War. The IRB staged the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
in 1916, which led to the establishment of the first Dáil Éireann in 1919. The suppression of the Dáil Éireann precipitated the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
in 1921, ultimately leading to partial Irish independence
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
.
Background
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...
, seeking an end to British rule in Ireland and the establishment of an Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
. The rebellion was suppressed, but the principles of the United Irishmen were to have a powerful influence on the course of Irish history.
Following the collapse of the rebellion, the British Prime Minister William Pitt
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
introduced a bill to abolish the Irish parliament and manufactured a Union
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
between Ireland and Britain. Opposition from the Protestant oligarchy that controlled the parliament was countered by the widespread and open use of bribery. The Act of Union
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
was passed, and became law on 1 January 1801. The Catholics, who had been excluded from the Irish parliament, were promised emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...
under the Union. This promise was never kept, and caused a protracted and bitter struggle for civil liberties. It was not until 1829 that the British government reluctantly conceded Catholic emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...
. Though leading to general emancipation, this process simultaneously disenfranchised the small tenants, known as ‘forty shilling freeholders’
Forty Shilling Freeholders
Forty shilling freeholders were a group of landowners who had the Parliamentary franchise to vote in county constituencies in various parts of the British Isles. In England it was the only such qualification from 1430 until 1832...
, who were mainly Catholics.
Daniel O’Connell, who had led the emancipation campaign, then attempted the same methods in his campaign, to have the Act of Union
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...
with Britain repealed. Despite the use of petitions and public meetings which attracted vast popular support, the government thought the Union was more important than Irish public opinion.
During the early 1840s, the younger members of the repeal movement
Repeal Association
The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O'Connell to campaign for a repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland....
became impatient with O’Connell’s over-cautious policies, and began to question his intentions. Later they were what came to be known as the Young Ireland
Young Ireland
Young Ireland was a political, cultural and social movement of the mid-19th century. It led changes in Irish nationalism, including an abortive rebellion known as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. Many of the latter's leaders were tried for sedition and sentenced to penal transportation to...
movement. In 1842 three of the Young Ireland
Young Ireland
Young Ireland was a political, cultural and social movement of the mid-19th century. It led changes in Irish nationalism, including an abortive rebellion known as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. Many of the latter's leaders were tried for sedition and sentenced to penal transportation to...
leaders, Thomas Davis
Thomas Osborne Davis (Irish politician)
Thomas Osborne Davis was a revolutionary Irish writer who was the chief organizer and poet of the Young Ireland movement.-Early life:...
, Charles Gavan Duffy
Charles Gavan Duffy
Additional Reading*, Allen & Unwin, 1973.*John Mitchel, A Cause Too Many, Aidan Hegarty, Camlane Press.*Thomas Davis, The Thinker and Teacher, Arthur Griffith, M.H. Gill & Son 1922....
and John Blake Dillon
John Blake Dillon
John Blake Dillon was an Irish writer and Politician who was one of the founding members of the Young Ireland movement....
, launched the Nation newspaper
The Nation (Irish newspaper)
The Nation was an Irish nationalist weekly newspaper, published in the 19th century. The Nation was printed first at 12 Trinity Street, Dublin, on 15 October 1842, until 6 January 1844...
. In the paper they set out to create a spirit of pride and an identity based on nationality rather than on social status or religion. Following the collapse of the Repeal Association
Repeal Association
The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O'Connell to campaign for a repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland....
and with the arrival of famine, the Young Irelanders broke away completely from O’Connell in 1846.
That the people starved while livestock and grain continued to be exported, quite often under military escort, left a legacy of bitterness and resentment among the survivors. The waves of emigration because of the famine and in the years following, also ensured that such feelings were not confined to Ireland, but spread to England
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...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and every country where Irish emigrants gathered.
Shocked by the scenes of starvation and greatly influenced by the revolutions then sweeping Europe, the Young Irelanders moved from agitation to armed rebellion in 1848
Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848
The Young Irelander Rebellion was a failed Irish nationalist uprising led by the Young Ireland movement. It took place on 29 July 1848 in the village of Ballingarry, County Tipperary. After being chased by a force of Young Irelanders and their supporters, an Irish Constabulary unit raided a house...
. The attempted rebellion failed after a small skirmish in Ballingary, Co Tipperary
Tipperary
Tipperary is a town and a civil parish in South Tipperary in Ireland. Its population was 4,415 at the 2006 census. It is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and is in the historical barony of Clanwilliam....
, coupled with a few minor incidents else where. The reasons for the failure were obvious, the people were totally despondent after three years of famine, having being prompted to rise early resulted in an inadequacy of military preparations, which caused disunity among the leaders.
The government quickly rounded up many of the instigators, those who could, fled across the seas, and their followers dispersed. A last flicker of revolt in 1849, led by among others James Fintan Lalor
James Fintan Lalor
James Fintan Lalor was an Irish revolutionary, journalist, and “one of the most powerful writers of his day.” A leading member of the Irish Confederation , he was to play an active part in both the Rebellion in July 1848 and the attempted Rising in September of that same year...
, was equally unsuccessful.
John Mitchel
John Mitchel
John Mitchel was an Irish nationalist activist, solicitor and political journalist. Born in Camnish, near Dungiven, County Londonderry, Ireland he became a leading member of both Young Ireland and the Irish Confederation...
, the most committed advocate of revolution, had been arrested early in 1848 and transported to Australia on the purposefully created charge of Treason-felony
Treason Felony Act 1848
The Treason Felony Act 1848 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Act is still in force. It is a law which protects HM the Queen and the Crown....
. He was to be joined by other leaders, such as William Smith O'Brien
William Smith O'Brien
William Smith O'Brien was an Irish Nationalist and Member of Parliament and leader of the Young Ireland movement. He was convicted of sedition for his part in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, but his sentence of death was commuted to deportation to Van Diemen's Land. In 1854, he was...
and Thomas Francis Meagher
Thomas Francis Meagher
-Young Ireland:Meagher returned to Ireland in 1843, with undecided plans for a career in the Austrian army, a tradition among a number of Irish families. In 1844 he traveled to Dublin with the intention of studying for the bar. He became involved in the Repeal Association, which worked for repeal...
who had both been arrested after Ballingary. John Blake Dillon
John Blake Dillon
John Blake Dillon was an Irish writer and Politician who was one of the founding members of the Young Ireland movement....
escaped to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, as did three of the younger members, 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...
, John O'Mahony
John O'Mahony
John O'Mahony may refer to:*John O'Mahony , founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood *John O'Mahony , Irish Fine Gael politician representing Mayo and twice an All-Ireland winner managing the Galway Football Team*Sean Matgamna , also known as John O'Mahony, Trotskyist theorist*Seán O'Mahony ,...
and Michael Doheny
Michael Doheny
Michael Doheny was an Irish writer and member of the Young Ireland movement.-Early life:The third son of Michael Doheny, of Brookhill, he was born at Brookhill, near Fethard, Co. Tipperary, and married a Miss O'Dwyer of that county...
.
Founding of the IRB
After the collapse of the 1848 rebellion James StephensJames 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...
and John O'Mahony
John O'Mahony
John O'Mahony may refer to:*John O'Mahony , founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood *John O'Mahony , Irish Fine Gael politician representing Mayo and twice an All-Ireland winner managing the Galway Football Team*Sean Matgamna , also known as John O'Mahony, Trotskyist theorist*Seán O'Mahony ,...
went to Europe to avoid arrest. In Paris they supported themselves through teaching and translation work and planned the next stage of "the fight to overthrow British rule in Ireland." Stephens in Paris, set himself three tasks, during his seven years of exile. They were, to keep alive, pursue knowledge, and master the technique of conspiracy. At this time Paris particularly, was interwoven with a network of secret political societies. They became members of one the most powerful of these societies and acquired the secrets of some of the ablest and "most profound masters of revolutionary science" which the 19th century had produced, as to the means of inviting and combining people for the purposes of successful revolution.
In 1853, O'Mahony went to America and founded the Emmet Monument Association
Emmet Monument Association
The Emmet Monument Association was a mid-nineteenth century secret military organization with the special purpose of training men to attack England and free Ireland. It was established in the mid 1850s, by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny refugees from the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848...
. In early 1856, Stephens began making his way back to Ireland, stopping first in London. On arriving in Dublin, Stephens began what he described as his three thousand mile walk through Ireland, meeting some of those who had taken part in the 1848/49 revolutionary movements, including Philip Gray
Philip Gray
Philip Gray was an Irish republican, revolutionary and a member of the Irish Confederation. He took part in the Risings of 1848 and 1849 along with James Fintan Lalor and both James Stephens and John O'Mahony, who would go on to establish the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Ireland and the Fenian...
, 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 Peter Langan.
In the autumn of 1857, a messenger, Owen Considine arrived from New York with a message for Stephens from members of the Emmet Monument Association, calling on him to get up an organisation in Ireland. Considine also carried a private letter from O’Mahony to Stephens which was a warning as to the condition of the organisation in New York, which was overseen by Luby and Stephens at the time. Both had believed that there was a strong organisation behind the letter, only later to find it was a number of loosely linked groups.
The original oath, with its clauses of secrecy was drawn up by Luby under Stephens' direction in Stephens' room in Donnelly’s which was situated behind Lombard Street. Luby then swore Stephens in and he did likewise.
Those present in Langan's, lathe-maker and timber merchant, 16 Lombard Street
Lombard Street
There are several famous Lombard Streets:* Lombard Street , famed for its twists and turns* Lombard Street, London, leading from the Bank of England to Gracechurch Street...
for that first meeting apart from Stephens and Luby were Peter Langan, Charles Kickham
Charles Kickham
Charles Joseph Kickham was an Irish revolutionary, novelist, poet, journalist and one of the most prominent members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.-Early life:...
, Joseph Denieffe and Garrett O'Shaughnessy. Later it would include members of the Phoenix National and Literary Society, which was formed in 1856 by 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...
in Skibbereen
Skibbereen
Skibbereen , is a town in County Cork, Ireland. It is the most southerly town in Ireland. It is located on the N71 national secondary road.The name "Skibbereen" means "little boat harbour." The River Ilen which runs through the town reaches the sea at Baltimore.-History:Prior to 1600 most of the...
.
Organisational structure
The IRB was organised into circles, a “circle” was analogous to a regiment, that the “centre” or A, who might be considered equivalent to a colonel, who chose nine B’s, or captains, who in their turn chose nine C’s, or sergeants, who in their turn chose nine D’s, who constituted the rank and file. In theory an A should only be known to the B’s; a B, to his C’s: and a C, to his D’s; but this rule was often violated.Objectives
Fenianism therefore, according to O'Mahony is symbolized by two principles: Firstly, that Ireland had a natural right to independence, and secondly, that that right could be won only by an armed revolution. Because of their belief in republicanism, that is, the “common people are the rightful rulers of their own destiny,” the founding members saw themselves as “furious democrats in theory” and declared their movement to be “wholly and unequivocally democratic.” Being a democrat and egalitarian in the mid 19th century was tantamount to being a revolutionary, and was something to be feared by political establishments.
It was Stephens “firm resolution to establish a democratic republic in Ireland; that is, a republic for the weal of the toiler,” and that this would require a complete social revolution before the people could possibly become republicans.
In propagating republican principles, they felt, the organisation would create this virtual democracy within the country, which would form the basis of an independence movement.
The Fenians soon established themselves in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, 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...
and, above all, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as well as in the large cities of England
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...
, such as 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...
, Manchester
Manchester
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...
, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oath
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 John O'Leary, and which is among several versions in James Stephens’s
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...
own papers, ran:
This oath was significantly revised by Stephens in Paris in the summer of 1859. He asked Luby to draw up a new text, omitting the secrecy clause. The omitting of the secrecy clause was outlined in a letter from Stephen's to John O'Mahony
John O'Mahony
John O'Mahony may refer to:*John O'Mahony , founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood *John O'Mahony , Irish Fine Gael politician representing Mayo and twice an All-Ireland winner managing the Galway Football Team*Sean Matgamna , also known as John O'Mahony, Trotskyist theorist*Seán O'Mahony ,...
on 6 April 1859 and the reasons for it. ‘Henceforth,’ wrote Luby to O’Leary "we denied that we were technically a secret body. We called ourselves a military organization; with, so to speak, a legionary oath like all soldiers."
The revised oath ran:
In yet a later version it read:
Supreme Council
The IRB was re-organised at a convention in Manchester in July 1867. An 11 man Supreme Council was elected to Govern the movement. They would eventually be representatives from the seven districts in which the organization was organised: the Irish provinces of UlsterUlster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
, Munster
Munster
Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...
, Leinster
Leinster
Leinster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the east of Ireland. It comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Mide, Osraige and Leinster. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the historic fifths of Leinster and Mide gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale, which straddled...
and Connacht
Connacht
Connacht , formerly anglicised as Connaught, is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for...
, as well as Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, North England
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...
, and South England. The remaining four members were co-opted. The Supreme Council elected three of its members to the executive, which consisted of the President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
Establishment reaction
Roman Catholicism in Ireland
The Catholic Church in Ireland is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Christian Church with full communion with the Pope, currently Benedict XVI...
and Irish political elite, as had been all Irish separatist and Republicanism movements.
The Tories, disturbed by the increase in republican propaganda, particularly in America launched a propaganda campaign in the Irish press to discredit the American Fenians. They presented them as enemies of Catholicism quoting negative comments by some American Catholic bishops. As in Irish-America, likewise Ireland and England, the Catholic hierarchy felt the growth of nationalist politics among Irishmen was essentially dangerous. Therefore during the 1860s and succeeding decades, the upper or middle classes who controlled the Irish press were very apprehensive in the growth of democratic politics in Ireland, which represented to them a threat of anarchy and revolution.
It was feared that if Britain was given any reason to renew coercion, Catholic interests in both Ireland and England would be undermined. In addition, the small class of Irish Catholic merchants, lawyers and gentry who had prospered under the Union felt anxious for the same reasons. By 1864, the Tories had coined the phrase ‘Fenianism’ to describe all that was considered potentially bothersome among Irishmen on both sides of the Atlantic.
Fenianism as a term was then used by the British political establishment to depict any form of mobilisation among the lower classes and, sometimes, those who expressed any Irish nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
sentiments. They warned people about this threat to turn decent civilised society on its head such as that posed by trade unionism to the existing social order in England. The same term was taken up by members of the Irish Catholic hierarchy, who also began denouncing "Fenianism" in the name of the Catholic religion. One Irish Bishop, David Moriarty
David Moriarty
David Moriarty was an Irish Roman Catholic bishop and pulpit orator.-Biography:Moriarty was born in Ardfert, in County Kerry, in 1812. He received his early education in a classical school of his native Diocese of Kerry and Aghadoe, and later was sent to Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France...
of Kerry
Roman Catholic Diocese of Kerry
The Diocese of Kerry is a Roman Catholic diocese in south-western Ireland. It is one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel and is subject to the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly...
, declared that "when we look down into the fathomless depth of this infamy of the heads of the Fenian conspiracy, we must acknowledge that eternity is not long enough, nor hell hot enough to punish such miscreants."
Irish People
Denis Dowling Mulcahy
Denis Dowling Mulcahy was a leading member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a medical doctor.He was born in Redmondstown, County Tipperary, Ireland and later lived at Powerstown, near Clonmel....
as the editorial staff. O’Donovan Rossa and James O’Connor
James O'Connor (Irish politician)
James O'Connor was an Irish journalist and nationalist politician who sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as a Member of Parliament from 1892 to 1910, first for the anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation and then for the re-united Irish Parliamentary Party .He was born in the...
were in charge of the business office, with John Haltigan being the printer. John O'Leary was brought from London to take charge in the role of Editor. Shortly after the establishment of the paper, Stephens departed on an American tour, and to attend to organisational matters.
On 15 July 1865 American made plans for a rising in Ireland were discovered when the emissary lost them at Kingstown railway station. They found their way to Dublin Castle and to Superintendent Daniel Ryan head of G Division. Ryan had an informer within the offices of the Irish People named Pierce Nagle, he supplied Ryan with an “action this year” message on its way to the IRB unit in Tipperary. With this information, Ryan raided the offices of the Irish People on Thursday 15 September, followed by the arrests of O’Leary, Luby and O’Donovan Rossa. The last edition of the paper is dated 16 September 1865.
Arrests and escapes
Kickham was caught after a month on the run. Stephens would also be caught, but with the support of Fenian prison warders, John J. Breslin and Daniel Byrne was less than a fortnight in Richmond Bridewell when he vanished and escaped to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Irish National Invincibles
In 1882, a breakaway IRB faction calling itself the Irish National InvinciblesIrish 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...
assassinated the British Chief Secretary for Ireland
Chief Secretary for Ireland
The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...
Lord Frederick Cavendish
Lord Frederick Cavendish
Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish was an English Liberal politician and protégé of the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone...
and his secretary, in an incident known as the 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...
.
Special Irish Branch
In March 1883 the London Metropolitan Police's Special Irish Branch was formed, initially as a small section of the Criminal Investigation DepartmentCriminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
, to monitor IRB activity.
Twentieth century
By the start of the 20th century, the IRB was a stagnating organisation, concerned more with Dublin municipal politics than the establishment of a republic according to F. S. L. Lyons. A younger generation of Ulster republicans aimed to change this, and in 1905 Denis McCulloughDenis McCullough
Denis McCullough was a prominent Irish nationalist political activist in the early 20th century.-Early career - IRB activist:Born in Belfast, Ireland McCullough was a separatist nationalist from an early age...
and Bulmer Hobson
Bulmer Hobson
John Bulmer Hobson was a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood before the Easter Rising in 1916...
founded the Dungannon Clubs. Inspired by the Volunteers of 1782
Irish Volunteers (18th century)
The Irish Volunteers were a militia in late 18th century Ireland. The Volunteers were founded in Belfast in 1778 to defend Ireland from the threat of foreign invasion when regular British soldiers were withdrawn from Ireland to fight across the globe during the American War of Independence...
, the purpose of these clubs was to discourage enlistment into the 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...
, and encourage enlistment into the IRB, with the overall goal of complete independence from Britain in the form of an Irish Republic. They were joined by Sean MacDermott
Sean MacDermott
Seán Mac Diarmada was one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland.-Early life:...
, and in 1908 he and Hobson relocated to Dublin, where they teamed up with veteran Fenian Tom Clarke
Tom Clarke (Irish republican)
Thomas James "Tom" Clarke was an Irish revolutionary leader and arguably the person most responsible for the 1916 Easter Rising. A proponent of violent revolution for most of his life, he spent 15 years in prison...
. Clarke had been released from Portland Prison in October 1898 after serving fifteen and a half years, and had recently returned to Ireland after living in the United States. Sent by John Devoy
John Devoy
John Devoy was an Irish rebel leader and exile.-Early life:Devoy was born near Kill, County Kildare. In 1861 he travelled to France with an introduction from T. D. Sullivan to John Mitchel...
and the 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...
to reorganise the IRB, Clarke set about to do just that. In 1909 the young Michael Collins
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
was introduced to the brotherhood by Sam Maguire
Sam Maguire
Samuel Maguire , an Irish republican and Gaelic footballer, is chiefly remembered as the eponym of the Sam Maguire Cup, given to the All-Ireland Senior Champions of Gaelic football.-Early life:...
. By 1914 the Supreme Council was largely purged of its older, tired leadership, and was dominated by enthusiastic men such as Hobson, McCullough, Patrick McCartan
Patrick McCartan
Patrick McCartan was an Irish republican and politician. He was born in Eskerbuoy, near Carrickmore, County Tyrone to Bernard McCartan and Bridget Rafferty. He emigrated to the USA as a young man and became a member of Clan na Gael in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and edited the journal Irish Freedom...
, John MacBride
John MacBride
Major John MacBride was an Irish republican executed for participation in the 1916 Easter Rising.-Early life:...
, Sean MacDermott, and Tom Clarke. The latter two were to be the primary instigators of the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
in 1916.
Easter Rising
Following the establishment of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, whose purpose was to resist Home RuleHome rule
Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....
, by force if necessary, the IRB were behind the initiative which eventually led to the inauguration of the Irish Volunteers
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...
in November, 1913. Though the Volunteers' stated purpose was not the establishment of a republic, the IRB intended to use the organisation to do just that, recruiting high ranking members into the IRB, notably Joseph Plunkett, Thomas MacDonagh
Thomas MacDonagh
Thomas MacDonagh was an Irish nationalist, poet, playwright, and a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising.-Early life:MacDonagh was born in Cloughjordan, County Tipperary...
, and Patrick Pearse
Patrick Pearse
Patrick Henry Pearse was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916...
, who was co-opted to the Supreme Council in 1915. These men, together with Clarke, MacDermott, Eamonn Ceannt
Éamonn Ceannt
Éamonn Ceannt , born Edward Thomas Kent, was an Irish republican, mostly known for his role in the Easter Rising of 1916.-Background:...
and eventually James Connolly
James Connolly
James Connolly was an Irish republican and socialist leader. He was born in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to Irish immigrant parents and spoke with a Scottish accent throughout his life. He left school for working life at the age of 11, but became one of the leading Marxist theorists of...
of the Irish Citizen Army
Irish Citizen Army
The Irish Citizen Army , or ICA, was a small group of trained trade union volunteers established in Dublin for the defence of worker’s demonstrations from the police. It was formed by James Larkin and Jack White. Other prominent members included James Connolly, Seán O'Casey, Constance Markievicz,...
, constituted the Military Committee, the sole planners of the Rising.
Hindu-German Conspiracy
Before and during World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, 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...
in the United States was associated with the Ghadar Party
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
. Members of the Clan and of the IRB who supported Indian nationalists, and who played a role in the Hindu German Conspiracy, included John Devoy
John Devoy
John Devoy was an Irish rebel leader and exile.-Early life:Devoy was born near Kill, County Kildare. In 1861 he travelled to France with an introduction from T. D. Sullivan to John Mitchel...
, Joseph McGarrity
Joseph McGarrity
Joseph McGarrity was born in Carrickmore, County Tyrone, Ireland. He emigrated to the USA in 1892 at the age of 18 and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From 1893 until his death he was a leading member of the Clan na Gael organisation. He also was a successful businessman; however, his...
, Roger Casement
Roger Casement
Roger David Casement —Sir Roger Casement CMG between 1911 and shortly before his execution for treason, when he was stripped of his British honours—was an Irish patriot, poet, revolutionary, and nationalist....
and Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
.
Irish War of Independence
The IRB was greatly influential during the 1919–21 Irish War of IndependenceIrish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
, as its president since the summer of 1919 was Michael Collins
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
, who was also a leader in the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
. Collins persuaded the IRB Council to approve the Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
with Britain, while its former leader Harry Boland
Harry Boland
Harry Boland was an Irish Republican politician and member of the First Dáil.-Early life:Boland was born in Phibsboro, Dublin on 27 April 1887. He was active in GAA circles in early life, and ultimately joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood...
was bitterly against it.
Anti-Treaty republicans like Ernie O'Malley
Ernie O'Malley
Ernie O'Malley was an Irish Republican Army officer during the Irish War of Independence and a commander of the anti-treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War. O'Malley wrote three books, On Another Man's Wound, The Singing Flame, and Raids and Rallies. The first describes his early life and role in...
, who fought during the civil war
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
against the Treaty, saw the IRB as being used to undermine the Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
. Following the end of the civil war in 1924, the Supreme Council, under Collins' protégé Richard Mulcahy
Richard Mulcahy
Richard James Mulcahy was an Irish politician, army general and commander in chief, leader of Fine Gael and Cabinet Minister...
as chairman, voted to dissolve the organisation, deeming that its goals had been achieved.
Presidents (1858-1922)
What follows is a list of known IRB presidents. As no formal records exist for the IRB, accurate dates cannot be provided in all cases.| No. | Name | Assumed position | Left position | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 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... (Chief Organiser of the Irish Republic) | March 17, 1858 | December 1866 | |
| 2 | Thomas J. Kelly Thomas J. Kelly (Irish nationalist) Thomas J. Kelly was an Irish revolutionary and leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood .frame|-Biography:... | August 1866 | 11 September 1867 | |
| 3 | James Francis Xavier O'Brien J. F. X. O'Brien James Francis Xavier O'Brien was an Irish nationalist Fenian revolutionary. He was later elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as a Member of Parliament in the Irish Parliamentary Party.O'Brien was born in Dungarvan, Co... | c. 1869 | c. 1872 | |
| 4 | Charles Kickham Charles Kickham Charles Joseph Kickham was an Irish revolutionary, novelist, poet, journalist and one of the most prominent members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.-Early life:... | 15 January 1873 | 22 August 1882 | |
| 5 | John O'Connor John O'Connor Power John O'Connor Power was an Irish Fenian and a Home Rule League and Irish Parliamentary Party politician and as MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland represented Mayo from June 1874 to 1885... | 1882 | 1891 | |
| 6 | John O'Leary John O'Leary (poet) John O'Leary was an Irish separatist and a leading Fenian. He studied both law and medicine but did not take a degree and for his involvement in the Irish Republican Brotherhood he was imprisoned in England during the nineteenth century.-Early life:Born in the town of Tipperary, County Tipperary,... | 1885 | 16 March 1907 | |
| 7 | Neal O'Boyle | 1907 | 1910 | |
| 8 | John Mulholland | 1910 | 1912 | |
| 9 | Seamus Deakin Seamus Deakin Seamus Deakin was an Irish nationalist and member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, in which he briefly served as its president from 1913 to 1914.-Biography:... | 1913 | 1914 | |
| 10 | Denis McCullough Denis McCullough Denis McCullough was a prominent Irish nationalist political activist in the early 20th century.-Early career - IRB activist:Born in Belfast, Ireland McCullough was a separatist nationalist from an early age... | 1915 | 1916 | |
| 11 | Thomas Ashe Thomas Ashe Thomas Patrick Ashe born in Lispole, County Kerry, Ireland, was a member of the Gaelic League, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a founding member of the Irish Volunteers... | 1916 | 1917 | |
| 12 | Seán McGarry Sean McGarry Seán McGarry was a 20th century Irish nationalist and politician. A longtime senior member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood , he served as its president from May 1917 until November 1918 when he was one of a number of nationalist leaders arrested for his alleged involvement in the so-called... | November 1917 | May 1919 | |
| 13 | Harry Boland Harry Boland Harry Boland was an Irish Republican politician and member of the First Dáil.-Early life:Boland was born in Phibsboro, Dublin on 27 April 1887. He was active in GAA circles in early life, and ultimately joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood... | 1919 | 1920 | |
| 14 | John Ryan | September 1920 | November 1920 | |
| 15 | Michael Collins Michael Collins (Irish leader) Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the... | 1920 | 1922 |
See also
- 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:...
,The escape of six Fenians from Australia. - UCD Archives
Sources
- M J Kelly, The Fenian Ideal and Irish Nationalism, 1882-1916, Boydell, 2006. ISBN 1843834456
- Sean Cronin, The McGarrity Papers, Anvil Books, Ireland, 1972
- Joseph Denieffe, A Personal Narrative of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, The Gael Publishing Co, 1906
- Michael Kenny, The Fenians, The National Museum of Ireland in association with Country House, Dublin, 1994, ISBN 0 946172 42 0
- F. S. L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine, Fontana, 1973
- Owen McGee, The IRB: The Irish Republican Brotherhood from The Land League to Sinn Féin, Four Courts Press, 2005, ISBN 1 85182 972 5
- Leon Ó Broin, Fenian Fever: An Anglo-American Delemma, Chatto & Windus, London, 1971, ISBN 0 7011 1749 4.
- John O'Leary, Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism, Downey & Co, Ltd, London, 1896 (Vol. I & II)
- Jeremiah O'Donovan RossaJeremiah O'Donovan RossaJeremiah 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...
, Rossa's Recollections, 1838 to 1898 Mariner"s Harbor, NY, 1898 - Dr. Mark F. Ryan,Fenian Memories, Edited by T. F. O'Sullivan, M. H. Gill & Son, LTD, Dublin, 1945
- Kathleen Clarke, Revolutionary Woman: My Fight for Ireland's Freedom, O'Brien Press, Dublin, 1997, ISBN 0 86278 245 7
- Christy Campbell, Fenian Fire: The British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria, HarperCollins, London, 2002, ISBN 0 00 710483 9
- An Phoblacht 13 March 2008
- Irish Times
- Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911.
External links
- The Irish Republican Brotherhood, from the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
History site - Irish Nationalism and Anglo-American Naturalization: The Settlement of the Expatriation Question 1865-1872