Fenian Rising

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Note: This was originially a subsection of Fenian Brotherhood. However, it has been moved to its own article to be expanded further.

The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland, organized by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, popularly known as Fenians.

After the suppression of the Irish People revolutionary magazine, disaffection among Irish radical nationalists had continued to smolder, and during the latter part of 1866 IRB leader James Stephens endeavoured to raise funds in America for a fresh rising planned for the following year. However the rising of 1867 proved to be a doomed rebellion, poorly organised and with minimal public support. Some insignificant outbreaks in the south and west of Ireland brought the rebellion to an ignominious close. Most of the ringleaders in Ireland were arrested, but although some of them were sentenced to death none was executed. A series of raids into Canada by U.S.-based supporters also accomplished little.

[edit] Actions of English-based sympathizers, and aftermath

The revolt's organizers had hoped to benefit from considerable support among Irish nationals living in England. In concert with the Irish rebellion, a bold move on the part of the Fenian circles in Lancashire had been concerted in co-operation with the movement in Ireland. An attack was to be made on Chester, the arms stored in the castle were to be seized, the telegraph wires cut, the rolling stock on the railway to be appropriated for transport to Holyhead, where shipping was to be seized and a descent made on Dublin before the authorities should have time to interfere. This scheme was frustrated by information given to the government by the informer John Joseph Corydon, one of Stephens's most trusted agents.

On September 11, 1867, Colonel Thomas J. Kelly, "Deputy Central Organizer of the Irish Republic," was arrested in Manchester, where he had gone from Dublin to attend a council of the English "centres" (organisers), together with a companion, Captain Deasy. A plot to rescue these prisoners was hatched by Edward O'Meaher Condon with other Manchester Fenians; on September 18, while Kelly and Deasy were being conveyed through the city from the courthouse, the prison van was attacked by Fenians armed with revolvers, and in the scuffle police-sergeant Brett, who was seated inside the van, was shot dead.

The rescued prisoners, Kelly and Deasy, escaped to the United States, but Condon and four others were arrested and sentenced to death. Condon, who was a United States citizen, was respited at the request of the United States government. His sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, and another of the accused (named Maguire) was granted a pardon. The remaining three men (named Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien) were hanged on November 23 for the murder of Brett. Many considered the sentences unjust for two reasons: firstly, as political offenders they should not have been treated as ordinary murderers; and, secondly, given the undisputed fact that the shot that caused the policeman's death had been fired for the purpose of breaking open the lock of the van, they had no intent to kill and so the crime was at worst that of manslaughter. The three executed Irishmen were remembered among nationalists in Ireland as the "Manchester Martyrs."

In the same month, November 1867, Richard Burke, who had been employed by the Fenians to purchase arms in Birmingham, was arrested and lodged in Clerkenwell Prison in London. While he was awaiting trial a wall of the prison was blown down by gunpowder in order to effect his escape. The explosion caused the death of twelve persons, and the injuring of some hundred and twenty others. This outrage, for which Fenian Michael Barrett would suffer the death penalty, powerfully influenced William Ewart Gladstone in deciding that the Anglican Church of Ireland should be disestablished as a concession to Irish disaffection.

In 1870, Michael Davitt, the IRB principal secretary for Northern England and Scotland, was sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude. By the time he was released on ticket-of-leave, in 1877, the Fenians were nothing like the threat they were before. However, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and other organizations in Ireland and abroad carried on the Fenian tradition, pursuing the aim of Irish independence for years to come.

Of the several hundred arrests, only 105 prisoners were convicted and imprisoned. Of these, 62 were transported as convicts to Western Australia.

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.