Background

As Ancient and nearly Benevolent positioning of the Friendly Brothers of Saint Patrick, founded in New York in 1767, the Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick for the Relief of Emigrants in Philadelphia in 1771, as well as the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick also formed in New York in 1784.

In the later element of the 1780s, a strong Irish patriot rather than Catholic address began to grow in these organizations together with amongst recently arrived Irish immigrants. The use of Celtic symbolism helped solidify this sense of nationalism and was most noticeably found in the use of the produce "Hibernian." Hibernia is the Latin form for Ireland.

In 1858, the John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny, members of a precursor multinational called the Emmet Monument Association.

In response to the build of the IRB in Dublin, a sister organization was founded in New York City, the Fenian Brotherhood, led by O'Mahony. This arm of Fenian activity in America produced a surge in radicalism among groups of Irish immigrants, many of whom had recently emigrated from Ireland during and after the Great Hunger. In October, 1865, the Fenian Philadelphia Congress met and appointed the Irish Republican Government in the US. But in 1865, in Ireland, the IRB newspaper The Irish People had been raided by the police and the IRB dominance was imprisoned. Another abortive uprising would occur in 1867, but the British remained in control.

After the 1865 crackdown in Ireland, the American organization began to fracture over what to do next. presentation up of veterans of the American Civil War, a Fenian army had been formed. While O'Mahony and his supporters wanted to keep on focused on supporting rebellions in Ireland a competing faction, called the Roberts, or senate wing, wanted this Fenian Army to attack British bases in Canada. The resulting Fenian Raids strained US–British relations. The level of American help for the Fenian cause began to diminish as the Fenians were seen as a threat to stability in the region.

The Irish were still seen as a foreign people within the borders of the American state by anti-Catholic Americans such as members of the ]