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Supplement given with the Weekly Freeman of October 1883

Fenian was a term used since the 1850s for Irish nationalists. The Fenian's (Fenianism) were a secret fraternal organisation dedicated to fomenting armed revolt against the British state in Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. John O'Mahony who was a Celtic scholar, named the organization after the Fianna, the legendary band of Irish warriors led by Fionn mac Cumhaill. It can also specifically refer to members of both the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Fenian Brotherhood (see Historical usage below). The term is still used today, especially in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland, where its original meaning has continued and expanded to include all supporters of Irish nationalism. Irish Nationalists themselves, while honouring the 19th Century Fenian's, commonlly use other desingations for themselves such as "Nationalist" or "Republican".

"Freedom to Ireland", a patriotic lithograph by Currier & Ives, New York, ca 1866

In 1798 the United Irishmen, 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 Catholic’s, who had 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 till 1829 that the British government reluctantly conceded Catholic emancipation in 1829. Though granting emancipation they simultaneously disenfranchised the small tenants, known as ‘forty shilling freeholders’, who were mainly Catholics. ^[1]

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led the emancipation campaign, then attempted the same methods in his campaign, to have the Act of Union with Britain repealed. Through the use of petitions, public meetings which attracted vast popular support were not enough against a government for whom the Union was more important than Irish public opinion.

In the early 1840 the younger members of the repeal movement, became impatient with O’Connell’s over-cautious policies, and began to question his intensions. Later they were what became to 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.^[1]

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.

A cartoon from the 1887 to mark the occasion of Queen Victoria's reign. After eighty seven years since the Act of Union, Ireland was said to be "distracted, disloyal and improverished."

That the people starved while livestock and grain continued to be exported, quite often under military escort, would leave 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 would not be confined to Ireland, but spread to England, the United States, Australia and every country where Irish emigrants gathered.^[1]

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 ware. The reasons for the failure were obvious, the people were total 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 leaders quickly rounded up, 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.^[1]

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. The remnants of the Young Irelanders would then make their way from France to the United States, and would later joined by Meagher and Mitchel, both of whom escaped from Australia, with the aid of their colleagues in America. It was these younger members of Young Ireland who were to provide the leadership for the two republican organisations which would be set up at the end of the 1850s, one in Ireland, the other in America.^[1]

The Republican movement in Ireland became known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), and its American counterpart was named the Fenian Brotherhood. Both bodies were to find their greatest support among the emigrant survivors of the famine. Members of both groups and their sympathisers though not in either organisation would come to be known collectively as ‘Fenian’s by the contemporary media and commentators.^[1]

The term derives from the Irish Na Fianna who in Celtic mythology were a band of warriors formed to protect Ireland, Fionn Mac Cumhaill being the most famous of its warriors.

The Fenian Brotherhood was initially founded in 1858 as the Irish Republican Brotherhood's American branch by John O'Mahony, James Stephens, and Michael Doheny. 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 USA, sending funds to Stephens and the IRB in Ireland, disagreement over O'Mahony's leadership led to the formation of two Fenian Brotherhoods in 1865. The U.S. chapter of the movement was also sometimes referred to as the IRB. After the failed invasion of Canada, it was replaced by Clan na Gael.

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 (1866, 1870, etc.) to invade some parts of southern Canada which was a British dominion at the time. The ultimate goal of the Fenian raids was to hold Canada hostage and therefore be in a position to ask the United Kingdom to give Ireland its independence. Because of the invasion attempts, support and/or collaboration for the Fenians in Canada became very rare even amongst the Irish Catholics.

A suspected Fenian, Patrick Whelan was hanged in Ottawa for the assassination of Irish-Canadian nationalist, Thomas D'Arcy McGee in 1868.

In Northern Ireland, Fenian is used by some as a term for Roman Catholics or Irish nationalists (often inaccurately seen to be synonymous).

In 1984, the Unionist politician and UVF member George Seawright caused outrage at a meeting of the Belfast Education and Library Board by saying that Catholics who objected to the flying of the Union Flag were "just Fenian scum who have been indoctrinated by the Catholic church". "Fenian scum" was also one of the insults shouted at the parents of Catholic schoolgirls by Loyalist protesters in the Holy Cross dispute.^[2]

The term Fenian is used similarly in Scotland. During Scottish football matches it is often aimed by some supporters of other clubs, particularly Rangers, at Celtic F.C. supporters.^[3] Celtic F.C. has its roots in Glasgow's immigrant Catholic Irish population and the club has thus been traditionally associated with Irish nationalism. In a bid to eradicate "discriminatory chanting", Rangers have attempted to encourage the singing of more traditional songs such as Wolverhampton Town.^[4]

Although it is considered to be an insult against Roman Catholics, many maintain^{[citation needed]} that it does not refer to Roman Catholics in general, but to supporters of Irish nationalism or as a pejorative term for Celtic supporters.^[5] Protestant Celtic players such as Jock Stein, Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain, Davie Provan and Paul Lambert have not been spared this name from opposing supporters. Recently, Celtic supporters have been reported as ironically deriding current Roman Catholic Rangers player Chris Burke with the phrase "Who's the fenian in the blue?".^[6]

In Australia Fenian is used as a pejorative term for those members of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) who have Australian Nationalist views similar to those of the Irish Catholic supporters of Irish independence. Michael Atkinson, Attorney General of South Australia, spoke of those members of the ALP who wished to remove the title Queen's Counsel and other references to the crown as 'Fenians and Bolsheviks' in a speech given at the ALP Convention in Adelaide on 15 October 2006. Irish Catholics have been traditional supporters of the ALP and have influenced the party's platform regarding the monarchy.

Fenian is also the name of the horse that won the Belmont Stakes in 1869. His image appears on the trophy awarded to the winner of the Belmont Stakes.

John Keegan 'Leo' Casey (1846 – March 17, 1870), known as the Poet of the Fenians

• Fenian Brotherhood
• Fenian Cycle
• Fenian raids
• Fenian Ram
• Taig

• Fenian Brotherhood
• BBC History article on the Irish Republican Brotherhood
• 1865 newspaper Article describing the Fenians
• History Learning Site > Ireland 1848 to 1922 > The Fenian Movement
• The Fenian Movement in the US including digitized materials about their activities. From the Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 collection, Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} The Fenians, Michael Kenny, The National Museum of Ireland in association with Country House, Dublin, 1994, ISBN 0 946172 42 0
2. ^ http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=9601&pt=
3. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/4918702.stm
4. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/5244022.stm
5. ^ http://www.sundayherald.com/57582
6. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/offtheball/illinformer/?2004/03/29