FE'NIAN SOCIETY, a political association of Irish or Irish-Americans, the object of which is the overthrow of the English authority in Ireland, and the establishment of a republic. The etymology of the name has been the subject of some discussion. It is traced to the ancient Irish military organization called Fionna Eirinn, which took its appellation from the celebrated hero of Irish legend, Finn (or Fionn)MacCumbail. The accounts of this renowned body, with which the bardic literature of Ireland abounds, are most curious. It was designed as a national militia, and its origin is ascribed, by Keating, to Sedna II., who was monarch of Ireland about 400 years ii.c. In time of peace it consisted of three bodies, each formed on the model of a Roman legion, and consisting of '3,000 men; but in war, it was capable of being enlarged to any required limit. Candidates for enrollment were required to be of an honorable family, to be irre proachable in morals, and to bind themselves to observe the laws of justice and moral ity; they were required to be of a certain height, and strong, supple, and vigorous of body; each being submitted, before enrollment, to an ordeal, in which his powers of speed, strength, endurance, and courage were tested by trial with his future comrades. The bardic accounts of some of those conditions are extravagant and amusing in the highest degree, but the generally historical character of the institution is unquestion able; and it subsisted until the reign of Carbry, son of Cormac MacArt, by whom the body of Fionna Eirinn was disbanded, and the members having, in consequence, trans ferred their allegiance to'Mocorb, king of Munster, suffered an almost total extermination in the battle of Gavra, 284 A.D., which formed the theme of many a bardic poem from the days of Oisin (known in Gaelic legend as Ossian), son of Finn MacCumhail, down wards.
Adopting the name of this ancient military association, the modern Fenians (or Finians) are a secret association for the purpose of overthrowing the alien ascendency of the Saxon, and of restoring to the ancient Celtic population their legitimate status and influence in their native country. It had its first seat in America, where the Irish population has largely increased since the famine of 1846-47. Many of the emigrants being driven from their homes by arbitrary ejectment, or from inability to pay rent, carried with them a sense of fancied wrong, which prepared them for almost any enter prise which seemed to promise revenge. Others had been sympathizers, if not partici pators in the - of 1848;4.nd almost, alt were deeply imbued with general political and sbeial discOntent. By till these, the prospect of a secret organization for
the establishment of Irish independence was eagerly accepted. The most openly active seat of the organization was in the western states, especially Chicago ; but the move ment was directed from New York, and possessed ramifications in almost every city of the union. It was conducted by a senate, and consisted of " circles," each directed by a center. The duty of the centers was to enrol members, who bound themselves, gener ally by oath, " to be faithful to the Irish republic as at present virtually established;" to instruct and practice them in military exercises; to raise funds for the purposes of the association, especially for the purchase of arms and munitions of war; and to extend the organization by every means at their disposal. Agents were sent into Ireland; and to the chief seats of the Irish population in England; and while the work of secret enroll ment was industriously carried on in Ireland, measures were openly concerted in America, as well for the raising of funds by private contributions, as for the purchase of arms and military stores. Opportunely, too, for the purposes of the enterprise, the termination of the civil war in America set free a large number of military adventurers who had served as privates or as officers in one or other of the American armies, and whose experience of service was turned secretly but most actively to account in the training of the young recruits enrolled in the Fenian conspiracy in Ireland. Newspapers, moreover, both in America and in Ireland, were established or subsidized for the pur poses of the conspiracy; and journals, broadsides, ballads, and other inflammatory pub lications were largely circulated among the peasantry and artisans. Taverns, alehouses, and other places of entertainment were the ordinary places of meeting; and one of the most formidable of the plans of the conspiracy was an organized attempt to seduce the Irish soldiers from their allegiance, and to prepare the way for their deserting to the ranks of Fenianism, when it should have reached the expected degree of maturity. It became apparent, moreover, that in this, unlike almost all similar movements, pains were taken by the organizers to exclude the Catholic clergy, by whom the Fenian con federation had from the first been steadily resisted, from ail knowledge of its character and objects, as well as of the names or number of its members in the several localities; and many of the most active of the leaders were distinguished by the freedom of their religious opinions, and by their unconcealed disregard of clerical authority.