FENIANS, a name said to be derived from Fionn or Finn, an Irish hero of the 2d century, assumed in recent times by those Irish who formed a brotherhood in their own and other countries, which aimed at terminating English rule in Ireland by force of arms and the establishment of an Irish republic. It first took shape when James Stephens, working on plans prepared by a group of Irish revolutionary exiles at Paris in 1848, organized in 1853, by aid of the Pheenix Society tht Irish Revolu tionary Brotherhood, which was the name as sumed in Ireland. He was officially known as chief organizer and had as assistants one repre sentative from each of the four Irish provinces, with officers under them. The movement spread with great rapidity and was linked up with sympathizers of the Irish race all over the world, including the British colonies. The American society was organized concurrently by John D. O'Mahoney as head centre and its purpose was to supply money and arms for a revolutionary outbreak in Ireland. As a secret society the movement fell under the ban of the Catholic Church.
The close of the American Civil War, when large numbers of trained Irish soldiers who had taken part in the war were released from service, was thought to be a convenient time for taking some decisive steps. Two risings were planned in Ireland, but they were both frustrated by the English government, which had received timely information. The first, in September 1865, was prevented by the seizure of the office of the Irish People, the Fenian journal published at Dublin, in which papers were found which revealed to the government the secrets of the conspiracy and which led to the capture of a number of suspects. The second, in February 1866, was suppressed after the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland.
An invasion of Canada was attempted in the same year. The advocates of Ireland's inde pendence counted upon aid from the veterans of the Civil War, who were incensed at England's attitude toward the United States during the war. In this they were not disappointed; as among the trained men who were under com mand of General Sweeney, himself an ex-officer of the United States army, there were many men not of Irish blood or lineage. The troops under General Sweeney are estimated to have been at least 35,000 in number; but so well was the recruiting done that reserve forces who never went to the frontier numbered about 200,000. General Sweeney's men, in May 1866. were stationed at various points on the frontier from Lake Erie to Lake Champlain; at Saint Albans, Vt., under General Spear; at Rouse's Point, N. Y , under General Reilly; at Malone, N. Y. under Col. Michael C. Murphy and around Buffalo, under Gen. John O'Neill. Large quantities of arms and am mution were sent north, a sufficient amount for 50,000 men; but the United States officials hearing of the expected raid, seized the con signment of arms addressed to suspected Fenians and when the troops arrived on the frontier they were powerless because of lack of arms. An attempt was made to regain them,
but the officers were arrested by the United States government. General O'Neil invaded Canada by way of Fort Erie and two battles followed, in both of which O'Neill was success ful. One known as the (Battle of Ridgeway,' occurred 1 June 1866. Reinforcements not arriving as expected, O'Neill abandoned the place and returned to the American side. He, his staff and men were captured by the United States gunboat Michigan. The whole move ment was crushed at that time by the United States forces under General Meade, who acted under government instructions in accordance with an arrangement between the United States and England. In February 1867 an attempt to seize arms and ammunition in Chester Castle and convey them to Ireland was frustrated; and on 18 September of that year occurred the release by force of prisoners from a prison van which was conveying Kelly, the Fenian chief, and Deasy, his assistant, to Manchester prison. Later one of the walls of Clerkenwell prison, in which Fenian sympathizers were in carcerated, was blown in. In 1870 and 1871 other and unsuccessful attempts were made to gain a foothold in Canada. Various crimes and attempted crimes against the English government and anti-Home Rule leaders were charged against the Fenians; but they were repudiated and denounced by the Fenians themselves, and all attempts to prove them guilty failed. The Fenian move ment was badly led; its chiefs lacked the military skill necessary to accomplish great things ; there were dissensions within the ranks and in the United States a good deal of the British government was kept well informed as to what was going on. As a mili tary movement it failed; but it impressed on English statesmen the truth that force and repression were no remedies for Irish discon tent. It was the blowing in of the wall of Clerkenwell prison that first drew Gladstone's attention to the root cause of Irish disaffection, the ascendency of a Protestant 'minority in a Catholic country, and drew from him the prompt demand for the disestablishment of the Prot estant Episcopal Church in Ireland. Consult for the English point of view, J. Rutherford, The Secret History of the Fenian Conspiracy' (2 vols., London 1877) ; from the Irish stand point, McCarthy, 'Ireland Since the (London 1877) ; Savage, (Fenian Martyrs and Heroes' (Boston 1864) ; A. M. Sullivan, 'New Ireland' (Philadelphia 1878) ; also MacDonald, (Troublous Times in Canada' (Toronto 1910); and the informer Le Caron's narrative, (Twenty-five Years in the Secret (London 1892).