Latest / The History of Ireland: Rebellion, Empire, and Independence — Fexingo History / The Fenian Rising 1867: Ireland's Failed Revolution
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked about the Great Famine, the Penal Laws, the Easter Rising — but there's a rebellion that often gets overlooked, even though it directly shaped the nationalist movements that followed. I'm talking about the Fenian Rising of 1867. Luna: The Fenian Rising — I've heard the name, but I don't actually know what happened. Was it as big as 1798 or 1916? Lucas: Not even close in scale. It was actually a military failure — a series of scattered skirmishes that the British put down within days. But its political and cultural impact was enormous. The Fenian movement — properly called the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or IRB — was founded in 1858, both in Dublin and in New York. It was a secret oath-bound society dedicated to armed revolution to establish an Irish republic. Luna: So it predates the Easter Rising by over fifty years. Why did they rise in 1867 specifically? Lucas: Good question. There had been a lull after the Famine — emigration, devastation, political quiet. But by the 1860s, a new generation was emerging. The IRB's leader in Ireland was James Stephens — a charismatic, almost mythic figure who had fought in the 1848 Young Irelander rebellion and then spent years in exile in Paris. He came back with a vision of a secret revolutionary army, funded largely by Irish-Americans who'd emigrated after the Famine. The American Fenian Brotherhood, led by John O'Mahony, raised money and even planned invasions of Canada to pressure Britain. There was a lot of optimism. Luna: But it didn't work out. Lucas: Not at all. By early 1867, the British had informers everywhere. They arrested many of the IRB leaders — Stephens himself was captured in November 1865, though he famously escaped from Richmond Prison in Dublin within a month. But the movement was decapitated. The rising was planned for March 5, 1867, with coordinated attacks across the country. In practice, it was a disaster. Bad weather, poor communication, and a lack of arms meant that only a few thousand men turned out, and they were easily routed. Luna: Where did the fighting actually happen? Lucas: There were skirmishes in County Cork — the Battle of Knockadoon, near Clonmult, where a group of Fenians attacked a coastguard station. In County Kerry, there was a brief engagement at Cahirciveen. In Limerick, at Kilmallock. And in Dublin, there was a planned attack on the military depot at the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park, but it was betrayed. The largest single engagement was at Tallaght, just outside Dublin, where about a thousand Fenians marched but were scattered by a smaller British force using artillery. By the end of March, it was over. Hundreds were arrested, and the leaders were put on trial. Luna: So it was a total failure. But you said it had a huge impact. How? Lucas: That's the fascinating part. The Fenian Rising failed as a military operation, but it succeeded as a political and psychological statement. For one thing, it brought the idea of an Irish republic back from the grave — after the Famine, constitutional nationalism under Daniel O'Connell had been dominant, but now armed resistance was on the table again. And then, in the aftermath, the British made a series of blunders that turned the Fenians into martyrs. Luna: Tell me about that — the martyrs, I mean. Lucas: The most famous are the Manchester Martyrs. In September 1867, a group of Fenians in Manchester ambushed a police van to free two of their leaders, Thomas Kelly and Timothy Deasy. They shot and killed a police sergeant named Charles Brett. Three Fenians — William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien — were later hanged for the murder. They became instantly iconic. Their funeral processions in Dublin, Cork, and other cities drew tens of thousands. Ballads were written about them, and they became a rallying cry for the next generation. Luna: And there was also the Clerkenwell explosion, right? Lucas: Exactly. In December 1867, a Fenian named Michael Barrett — the last man publicly hanged in England — blew up the wall of Clerkenwell Prison in London in an attempt to free a Fenian prisoner. The explosion killed twelve people in the surrounding tenements. It was a disaster for the Fenians — it turned public opinion in England against them — but it also terrified the British government. They realized that Irish republicanism had a reach far beyond Ireland. And it spurred a wave of Fenian bombing campaigns in England through the 1880s. Luna: And there's the Catalpa rescue, which is an incredible story. Lucas: Oh, yes. In 1876, the American Fenians organized a daring rescue of six military Fenian prisoners from the British penal colony in Fremantle, Western Australia. They used a whaling ship called the Catalpa, sailed across the Indian Ocean, and with the help of local Fenian sympathizers, smuggled the prisoners out just ahead of British authorities. It was a huge propaganda victory. It showed that the Fenian network was global and that they could strike back even at the far ends of the British Empire. Luna: So the Fenians paved the way for the Land League and the Home Rule movement? Lucas: Absolutely. Many Fenians — like Michael Davitt — later became leaders of the Land League, which combined agrarian reform with nationalist politics. And the IRB itself never went away. It was the hidden hand behind the Gaelic Revival, the Irish Volunteers, and ultimately the Easter Rising in 1916. In fact, the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic was signed by seven men, all of whom were members of the IRB. So the Fenian spirit — the commitment to armed force and an independent republic — runs directly from 1867 to 1916 and beyond. Luna: It's amazing how a failed rising can have such a lasting legacy. Lucas: It really is. And that's the lesson of the Fenians: sometimes the rebellions that 'fail' in the short term are the ones that change the long game. They kept the dream of an Irish republic alive through some of the darkest decades of the 19th century. When later nationalists looked for inspiration, they looked to the Manchester Martyrs, to the Catalpa rescue, to the Fenian oath. It's a story of defeat, but also of resilience — and that's a story that runs all through Irish history.