In April 1883, local newspapers lamented the fact that Brooklyn, then a separate city from New York, was quickly developing a global reputation. Brooklyn’s new-found fame was not for its new bridge, then under construction: it had become renowned for harbouring dynamiters and militant Fenians who, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, were ‘bringing disgrace upon … Read more
Land League posters were emblazoned with bold headings straight from Lalor and Davis: ‘The Land for the People’ and ‘Ireland for the Irish’. At the bottom of most was stated ‘God Save Ireland’. Many of the posters contained revolutionary slogans and rhetoric evoking Tone and French Revolution republicanism denouncing tyranny and slavery. In the remotest … Read more
In June 1880 the Freeman’s Journal published a letter by John Devoy defending his support for the Irish National Land League. Devoy railed against nationalists who might claim that he had betrayed his principles by supporting a partnership with parliamentarians and advocacy of a cause that deviated from the cherished aim of Fenianism, the overthrow … Read more
By the mid-1860s the Fenian movement had experienced both extraordinary growth and frustrating schism. Within a few years of its founding in 1858 it had cells throughout Ireland and the Irish diaspora, with Lancashire a notable stronghold in Britain. But its founder, James Stephens, while a consummate and energetic organiser, was also a congenital conspirator … Read more
The struggle between the Catholic Church and the Fenians, as this evolved in the mid-nineteenth century, had its origins in the wider context of the church’s horror of revolution and revolutionary movements. The locus classicus for this antipathy was the experience of the French Revolution and its aftermath. Equally, the spectre of revolution haunted Europe … Read more